Name:- Neelamba R Sarvaiya

 

Class:- M.A. Part - 2

 

Semester:- 4th

 

Roll no.:- 19

 

Paper no.:- 14 - The African Literature.

Year:- 2014-2015

“Things Fall Apart as a Historical Fiction”

“Things Fall Apart as a Historical Fiction”

Author : Chinua Achebe

Cover artist : C. W.

Barton

Country : Nigeria

Language : English

Genre : Historical fiction

Publisher : William

Heineman Ltd.

Publication date : 1958

GENERAL INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE NOVEL

Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the

plot takes place in a setting located in the past.

Ambiguous term

What is Historical Fiction?

Historical

•The character of history•Based on or concerned with events in history.

Fiction•literary work whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.•The category of literature comprising works of this kind, including novels, short stories, and plays.

When the novel was published it was a time often called the Nigerian Renaissance because in that period a large number of very strong Nigerian

writers began to create a powerful new literature that drew on the traditional oral literature,

European literature and the changing times in Nigeria and in Africa at large writers as varied as

Ben Okri and whole Soyinka developed in the context of the ideas and energy of the Nigerian

Renaissance, but Achebe is considered one of the earliest and best novelist to have come one of the

top English – speaking novelists of his time anywhere.

Novel as a Historical Novel

"In 1958 much of Africa was still under to colonialist yoke, although few countries had already

achieved independence. set in a time of great change for Africans.

Two painful features in the Novel

The humiliations visited on Africans by colonialism

The corruption and inefficiency of what

replaced colonial rule

Things fall   Apart in particular focuses on the early experience of colonialism as it occurred in Nigeria in the late 1800's, from the first days of contact with the British to widespread British administration.

Achebe is interested British administration. Achebe is interested in showing Igbo society in the period of transition when rooted, traditional values are put in conflict with an alien and more powerful culture that will tear them apart.

Achebe paints a vivid picture of Ibo society both before and after the arrival of white men, and avoids the temptation to idealize either culture. In this context, he believe that the novelist must 'have a social commitment. "The writer cannot be excused from the task of reduction and regeneration that must be done. I for one would not wish to be excused. I would be quite satisfied if my novels did no more that just teach my readers that their past – with all its imperfection – was not one long night of savagery from which the Europeans actly of God's half belived them."

THANK You.