Comparative Analysis of Chinua Achebe’s Early and Contemporary Literary Works. The Stylistics of Arrow of God and Anthills of Savannah as a Case Study
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study will be to compare the early literary works of Chinua Achebe to his current literary works taking into consideration the stylistic approach(s) he used in both literary works.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
THE CONCEPT OF AFRICAN LITERATURE
African literature refers to literature of and from Africa. As George Joseph notes on the first page of his chapter on African literature in Understanding Contemporary Africa, while the European perception of literature generally refers to written letters, the African concept includes oral literature. As George Joseph continues, while European views of literature often stressed a separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:
“Literature” can also imply an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone, traditionally; Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself: African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build.
PRE-COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE
Oral literature (or orature) may be in prose or verse. The prose is often mythological or historical and can include tales of the trickster character. Storytellers in Africa sometimes use call-and-response techniques to tell their stories. Poetry, often sung, includes: narrative epic, occupational verse, ritual verse, praise poems to rulers and other prominent people. Praise singers, bards sometimes known as “griots”, tell their stories with music. Also recited, often sung, are: love songs, work songs, children’s songs, along with epigrams, proverbs and riddles.
Examples of pre-colonial African literature are numerous. Oral literature of West Africa includes the Epic of Sundiata composed in medieval Mali, The older Epic of Dinga from the old Ghana Empire. In Ethiopia, originally written in Ge’ez script is the Kebra Negast or book of kings. One popular form of traditional African folktale is the “trickster” story, where a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the Ashanti people of Ghana; Ijapa, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central and East African folklore. Other works in written form are abundant, namely in north Africa, the Sahel regions of west Africa and on the Swahili coast.
From Timbuktu alone, there are an estimated 300,000 or more manuscripts tucked away in various libraries and private collections, mostly written in Arabic, but some in the native languages (namely Fula and Songhai). Many were written at the famous University of Timbuktu. The material covers a wide array of topics, including Astronomy, Poetry, Law, History, Faith, Politics, and Philosophy among others. Swahili literature similarly, draws inspiration from Islamic teachings but developed under indigenous circumstances. One of the most renowned and earliest of Swahili literature being Utendi wa Tambuka or “The Story of Tambuka”. In Islamic times, North Africans such as in Khaldun attained great distinction within Arabic literature. Medieval North Africa boasted Universities such as those of Fez and Cairo, with copious amounts of literature to supplement them.
COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE
The African works best known in the West from the period of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of OIaudah Equiano (1789). In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues. In 1911, Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford (also known as Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) published what is probably the first African novel written in English, Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation [citation needed]. Although the work moves between fiction and political advocacy, its publication and positive reviews in the Western press mark a watershed moment in African literature.
During this period, African plays began to emerge. Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo of South Africa published the first English-language African play, The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongqawuse the Liberator in 1935. In 1962, Ngugi wa Thiong’o of Kenya wrote the first East African drama, The Black Hermit, a cautionary tale about “tribalism” (racism between African tribes). African literature in the late colonial period (between the end of World War I and independence) increasingly showed themes of liberation, independence, and (among Africans in French controlled territories) negritude. One of the leaders of the negritude movement, the poet and eventual President of Senegal, Leopold Sedar Senghor, published the first anthology of French-language poetry written by Africans in 1948, Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de langue francaise (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French Language), featuring a preface by the French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre.
Nor was the African literary clerisy of this time relatively divorced from the issues that it tackled. Many, indeed, suffered deeply and directly: censured for casting aside his artistic responsibilities in order to participate actively in warfare, Christopher Okigbo was killed in battle for Biafra against the Nigerian movement of the 1960s’ civil war; Mongane Wally Serote was detained under South Africa’s Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 between 1969 and 1970, and subsequently released without ever having stood trial; in London in 1970, his countryman Arthur Norje committed suicide; Malawi’s Jack Mapanje was incarcerated with neither charge nor trial because of an off-hand remark: at a University pub; and, in 1995, Ken Saro- Wiwa died by the gallows of the Nigerian junta.
CHAPTER THREE
DATA PRESENTATION AND DATA ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
Chinua Achebe, whose works have been published in some fifty languages, is among the founders of contemporary Nigerian literature. Achebe, an ethnic Igbo, writes in English, but alters it to reflect native Nigerian languages. He does this to develop an appreciation for .African culture for those unfamiliar with it. Although he has also written poetry, short stories, and essays-both literary and political Achebe is best known for his novels, in which he offers a close and balanced examination of contemporary Africa and the historical forces that have shaped it.
BIOGRAPHY OF CHlNUA ACBEBE
Early Life in a Colony pushing for Its Independence, Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930, in the village of Ogidi in eastern Nigeria to Janet Iloegbunam Achebe and Isaiah Okafor Achebe. At the time, Nigeria was a British colony, and Western educational and economic models dominated. Achebe’s father taught religion for the Church Missionary Society.
Chinua Achebe was eight when he began to learn English and fourteen when he went to the Government College at Umuahia in southeastern Nigeria, considered one of the best schools in West Africa. He enrolled in 1948 at University College, Ibadan, Nigeria, intending to study Medicine, but soon switched to English literary studies. Achebe rejected the British name “Albert” and took his indigenous name “Chi-nua” in 1948, a time of growing Nigerian nationalism and increased pressure on Great Britain to grant the colony independence. He contributed stories, essays, and sketches to the University Herald, which were later published in Girls at War and Other Stories (1972).
After graduating, Achebe taught for a year and then began a twelve-year career as a producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1957, he went to London to attend the British Broadcasting Corporation Staff School. One of his teachers there was the British novelist and literary critic Gilbert Phelps, who recommended Things Fall Apart for publication. Achebe was appointed director of the Voice of Nigeria (external broadcasting) by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1961. That same year, on September 10, he married Christie Chinwe Okoli. They have four children.
CHAPTER FOUR
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
SUMMARY
In this project work, the stylistics Analyses of Arrow of God and Anthills of the Savannah is done with a view of highlighting the areas of similarities and differences in the two texts as a result of time gap in which the two texts were written.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Having attempted a comprehensive comparative stylistic analysis of Achebe’s Arrow of God and Anthills of the Savannah, it is apparent that, indeed, Achebe is a literary genius and also an exemplary literary model. In view of this, the following recommendations are made:
- African literary writers should always strive to proclaim, upholds and esteem African culture in their literary works just as Achebe’ bas done in his literary works.
- Where Africans writers has chosen to use English language as a medium of expression, such as a writer should ensure that he/she domesticate the English so that African cultural norms, customs heritage etc that would be discussed in such a literary work should be positively described.
CONCLUSION
My analyses at the various levels have revealed that Achebe’s styles in the two texts are conditioned by the demands of context. The study establishes that while the two text of Achebe are products of the same location (Nigeria and Africa in general), his graphological, lexico-semantic and discourse stylistic choices are skillfully managed to reflect different thematic preoccupations, characters and temporal frames. Each level of the analysis thus aids the interpretation of the texts. At the graphological level, all instances of italicization, capitalization and punctuation are largely used to portray setting and characters. Italicized indigenous words and Nigerianisms, with acronyms, ellipses and dashes, to a large extent, denote spatial, temporal and thematic setting, while italicized pidgin, foreign language and grammatical words delineate characters. At the lexico-semantic and discourse feature levels, Achebe portrays theme through the vocabulary items and allusions selected. These items immediately separate Arrow of God from Anthills of the Savannah in terms of thematic preoccupations.
All the instances of discourse stylistic variety are used to mark characterization. But, there are, expectedly, overlaps of functions between the levels. Sometimes, some of the graphological features, explicitly italicized content words, acronyms, ellipses and dashes portray theme, and lexico-semantic discourse features such as proverbs delineate characters.
REFERENCES
- Achebe, Chinua 1958 Things fall apart. London: Heinemann Educational Books Limited.
- Achebe, Chinua 1965 Arrow of God. London: Heinemann.
- Achebe, Chinua 1988 Anthills of the savannah. London: Heinemann
- Emenyonu, Ernest 1987 ‘The rise of the Igbo novel. Ibadan: Oxford University Press.
- Gakwandi, Shatto Arthur 1977 ‘The novel and contemporary experience in Africa. Ibadan:Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.
- Ngara, Emmanuel 1982 Stylistic criticism and the African novel. Ibadan: Heinemann.
- Ojinmah, Umelo 1991 Chinua Achebe: New perspectives. Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
- Owolabi, Kola. 1995 Language in Nigeria: Essays in honour of Ayo Bamgbose. Ibadan: Group Publishers.
- Oyeleye, Lekan. 1995 “Translation and the African writer in English. A sample study of Achebe’s TFA and NLAE”, in: Kola Owolabi (ed.), 364-379. Sandig, Barbara – Margaret Selting
- Van Dijk, Tenu (ed.) 1997 Discourse studies.” A multidisciplinary introduction. Vol. I. London: Thousand Oaks; New Delhi: Sage.
