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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the study

There were immense changes in the 20^th century, which affected all nations’ social and economic levels. These changes opened up the boundaries of a world that was, until then, a binary one and before that, imperialist. This process induced the fragmentation and spreading of cultures, followed by multiculturalism. In this context, it is important to recognize the decolonization of the East and the Americas as a decisive moment, from a geopolitical perspective, since it represents a drastic change on a worldwide scale. In the first half of the century, over 80% of the globe was composed of colonies and ex-colonies

(Loomba xiii). Hence, the independence of more than half of the world’s population from the dominion of European empires, and the diaspora from these former colonies, demanded an increasing study of colonial times and their consequences in a postcolonial period. Since then, a series of analysis and studies devoted to the new global scenery began to emerge and create what is now called postcolonialism.

Postcolonial theory attempts to revise historical representations of former colonies in order to understand their present situation and possibly develop their own cultural identity. Edward Said’s Orientalism, published in 1978, is considered the literary work which properly inaugurates postcolonial criticism (Barry 186). In his book, Said refers to a specific way of establishing the place that the East occupies in European Western experience, whereby the East appears as adjacent to Europe “and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the other” (Orientalism 1). Orientalism expresses and represents an opposition in cultural and ideological terms in a form of discourse, based on institutions, vocabulary, scholarship, imagery, doctrines, bureaucracies and European colonial styles imposed on colonies (Said Orientalism 2). Undoubtedly, Western literature had to become more comprehensive.

The language and discourse of the European West started to be used by writers outside the Western tradition as they developed fictional discourses as an answer to the centuries of slander spread by classic literature. Although supposedly well intended and well informed, European writers constructed and imposed the ethnic images of the East, which begins in prejudice and, later, helps to perpetuate it. In this sense, the literary production of former colonies possesses the capacity to respond to imperialism by bringing other visions and replacing metaphors of their own history. Moreover, postcolonial cultures appropriate the classic Western literary forms and use them according to their own specifications. It allows them to propose a more dignified version of the narratives that represent their culture, which once had no institutional or intellectual legitimacy and was often ignored by academia.

In her latest novel, Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie expands the range of representation of African subjects through the complexity of her main characters and the cultural tensions they must confront at home and abroad. The novel focuses on the lives of Ifemelu and Obinze, two Igbo Nigerians who meet in high school, move abroad in search of more opportunities, and come back to their homeland – and to each other – as more experienced individuals with a better understanding of themselves and of the world. The fact that Adichie starts and ends her story in Nigeria works as a powerful symbol of boldness and independence in postcolonial literature. Adichie is both geographically and worldly precise when exploring social relations and identity in the United States and England, Furthermore, she explores the influence and diversity of the English language in former colonies, as opposed to the danger the of disappearance of native languages.

The different events occurring in Americanah change significantly the lives of the protagonists and might as well change the mind of its readers by promoting a wider vision of the world of these characters, as well as through a comprehensive narrative focus and discussions of matters such as politics, culture and religion, among others. From Adichie’s work, arises a new experience in literature of the English language and the renewal of the African literary canon, with the inclusion of contemporary discourses. Novels, such as Americanah, might direct English literary culture to a more inclusive interaction between former empires and new democracies.

 

1.2       Statement of the problem

The quest for identity comes in different ways such as race, immigration, eurocentrism, feminism, racism, language and so on. However, many people in the world today have been able to create different identity for themselves such as the type of clothes they put on, the type of people they associate with, the class of cars they drive, etc. Language is the signature of an individual in the society; it is very important to note that every writer or novelist is poised to create a particular impression in the minds of one’s readers; since novels tell more about the novelist perceptions about a particular thing. It is in this realization that this study is out to investigate how Americanah have created about Adichie, and to find out, of what relevance is the use of language as a quest for identity in Americanah to Literature.

 

1.3       Aims and objective of the Study

The aim of this study is to examine the quest for Identity in postcolonial novels, Chimamanda Adechi’s Americanah. The following are the specific objectives of the study:

1. To examine the evolution of postcolonial literature and place Americanah in its contemporary context.
2. To discuss the issues inherent to postcolonial and multicultural societies presented in the novel.
3. To examine the ways in which the choice of a Nigerian female protagonist deepens the discussion about female empowerment and social equality.

1.4       Research questions

1. What is the evolution of postcolonial literature and place Americanah in its contemporary context?
2. What are the issues inherent to postcolonial and multicultural societies presented in the novel?
3. What are the ways in which the choice of a Nigerian female protagonist deepens the discussion about female empowerment and social equality?

 

 

1.5      Significance of the Study

The researcher is very optimistic that the findings of this study will be of paramount importance to students, teachers, and the reading public of the relevance of language in creating quest for identity about the different writers and the societies they depict. It will as well add to more literatures on language and identity that may be explored in future.

If language is spoken by two different persons within the same writing community, then, there are always different ways they use the language to create identity. Therefore, this study is designed to identify post-colonial novels quest for identities for Adichie, as well, find out their implications to the development of the African literature at large.

 

1.6      Scope and Limitation of Study

Due to the time frame of this programme and other constraints, the researcher wants to limit this work to the use of language by Adichie to achieve identity in Americanah.

 

1.6       About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie already has a strong presence in contemporary African literature and her works are well known and praised in Western literary circles. In addition, her words have been sampled by pop music artists and she is celebrated for her speeches in TED conferences, making her ideas also reach non-readers.

Born in Nigeria, Adichie published her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, at age 25. She won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for a first novel and, three years later, her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun, about the Biafran War, won the Orange Prize. The international success and favourable criticism of her books places Adichie among great authors of the Nigerian tradition, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. Undoubtedly, this happens because she offers a valuable vision of the world. She represents a side of history, which is rarely heard, yet is most powerful. Her last novel, Americanah, explicitly raises issues related to the negotiation of identities. The author uses the story of Ifemelu to expose the coexistence of differences and, at the same time, a lack of belief in a consensus between them. Her main characters are part of academic and politicized environments and engage in constant bourgeois intellectual debates about race, ethnicity and culture in Nigeria, the United States and England.

Adichie has experienced a different African reality than the one existing in the Western imagination. Born in 1977 of a middle class family, she spent her early years at the university campus in the city of Nsukka in Nigeria, where her mother worked as an administrator and her father as a teacher. Later, she moved to the United States as a university student. Indeed, Adichie’s life and work represent the diversity of a continent marked by a single story. She recounts that, from an early age, she used to read British and American stories. Consequently, the texts she produced as a child were filled with characters with blond hair, who played in the snow, ate apples, and were happy to see the sun appear. Western literature had created a world in her imagination stronger than her own, a place where most people have dark skin, eat mangoes, and there is no surprise at the sunshine. When Adichie first read African novels, she realized that people of dark complexion and a hair texture, which cannot be turned into ponytails, could also be literary characters. African authors, she says, saved her from the dangers of a single story (Adichie “African ‘Authenticity’” 43-44).

At the age of nineteen, while living as a student in the United States, her American roommate was shocked to realize that Adichie spoke English proficiently and wanted to know where she learnt it. Her roommate was surprised to know that English is Nigeria’s official language. Then she asks Adichie to play some ‘tribal music’, but is disappointed to see Adichie’s Mariah Carey CDs (Adichie The Danger of a Single Story). With these anecdotes, Adichie reveals how a single story also affects the way the world perceives her.