Chinua Achebe

This book provides a detailed examination of the writings of Chinua Achebe, Africa’s best-known and most widely-read author, shortlisted for the 1987 Booker Prize. Dr Innes studies his writings, lectures and activities chronologically, in the context of Nigerian culture and politics and their interaction with Western cultures and powers. Her analysis goes beyond that of previously published studies, to examine Achebe’s short stories, essays and poetry, and his most recent publications, Anthills of the Savannah (1987) and Hopes and Impediments (1988). Particular emphasis is placed on Achebe’s departure from European literary models to create a new kind of fiction which seeks to challenge the preconceptions of African and Western audiences alike, and which is of considerable literary and political significance. This study will be invaluable to readers of Achebe and to students and teachers of African literature and politics, and modern fiction.

Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Chronology; Introduction; 1. Origins; 2. ‘A less superficial picture’: things fall apart; 3. ‘The best lack all conviction’: no longer at ease; 4. Religion and power in Africa: arrow of god; 5. Courting the voters: a man of the people; 6. The novelist as critic: politics and criticism, 1960–1988; 7. Marginal lives: Girls at war and other stories; 8. Poetry and war: beware soul brother and other poems; 9. The critic as novelist: anthills of the Savannah; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.