A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Title Details

312 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

Imprint: James Currey

A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Edited by Ernest N. Emenyonu

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
A critical examination of the engaging voice and multiple stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on war, feminism, art, ideology, hair, complex human identities and the challenges of multicultural existence.



Easily the leading and most engaging voice of her era and generation, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has bridged gaps and introduced new motifs and narrative styles which have energized contemporary African fiction since her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003). With Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) and The Thing Around Your Neck - Short Stories (2009), she established herself as a preeminent story-teller. Americanah (2013), with ingeniouscraftsmanship addresses the sensitive themes of passionate love, independence, freedom and moral responsibility with extravagant and versatile narrative innovations.

Through her writings, she has made herself relevant topeople of all ages - across racial and linguistic boundaries. Her talks, blogs, musings on social media, essays and commentaries, workshop-mentoring for budding young writers, lecture circuit discourses, all enrich her imaginativecreativity as they expand and define her mission as a writer. "We Should All be Feminists" she proclaimed in an essay, giving feminism a "tweak and twist" and suggesting new outlooks in literary theory.

Her contributionsto African, Diasporic and World literatures deserve serious analyses, commentaries and interpretations, and this Companion to her work critically examines her creative outputs from her art and ideology, from feminism to war, to matters of myth and perception, and the challenges of multicultural existence and complex human identities.
Introduction - Ernest N. Emenyonu
Narrating the Past: Orality, History & the Production of Knowledge in the Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Louisa Uchum Egbunike
Deconstructing Binary Oppositions of Gender in Purple Hibiscus: A Review of Religious/Traditional Superiority & Silence - Janet N. Ndula
Adichie & the West African Voice: A Focus on Women & Power in Purple Hibiscus - Jane Duran
Reconstructing Motherhood: A Mutative Reality in Purple Hibiscus - Iniobong I. Uko
Ritualized Abuse in Purple Hibiscus - Edgar Fred Nabutanyi
Dining Room & Kitchen: Food-Related Spaces & their Interfaces with the Female Body in Purple Hibiscus - Jessica C. Hume
The Paradox of Vulnerability: The Child Voice in Purple Hibiscus - Oluwole Coker
"Fragile Negotiations": Olanna's Melancholia in Half of a Yellow Sun - Pauline Dodgson-Katiyo
The Biafran War & the Evolution of Domestic Space in Half of a Yellow Sun - Janice Spleth
Corruption in Post-Independence Politics: Half of a Yellow Sun as a Reflection of A Man of the People - Chikwendu PK Anyanwu
Contrasting Gender Roles in Male-Crafted Fiction with Half of a Yellow Sun - Carol Ijeoma Njoku
"A Kind of Paradise": Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Claim to Agency, Responsibility & Writing - Silvana Carotenuto
Dislocation, Cultural Memory & Transcultural Identity in Select Short Stories from The Thing Around Your Neck - Maitrayee Misra
Dislocation, Cultural Memory & Transcultural Identity in Select Short Stories from The Thing Around Your Neck - Manish Shrivastava
"Reverse Appropriations" & Transplantation in Americanah - Gichingiri Ndigirigi
Revisiting Double Consciousness & Relocating the Self in Americanah - Rose A. Sackeyfio
Americanah: A Migrant Bildungsroman - Mary Jane Androne
"Hairitage" Matters: Transitioning & the Third Wave Hair Movement in "Hair", "Imitation" & Americanah - Cristina Cruz-Gutiérrez
Appendix: The Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Ernest N. Emenyonu is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012).

"With her rising profile and importance as one of the major world writers, this Companion on Adichie could not have come at a better time." AFRICA BOOK LINK
"A tremendous energy pervades this collection...a portrait of a writer deeply engaged with ideology, actively exploring, critiquing, questioning and challenging dominant narratives through her work. Discussions of race, gender, immigration, class, war (both the Biafran War and the Nigerian war novel) and history predominate, alongside an excellent chapter by Cristina Cruz-Gutierrez on the politics of hair." TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
"A much-needed critical reassessment of [Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's] literary and intellectual production as a whole...Silvana Carotenuto's reflections on Adichie's responsibility as a writer (169-184), or the analysis of 'hair politics' in Americanah by Cristina Cruz-Gutiérrez (245-62) are only some examples of the brilliant critical moves being made in the volume." TRANSNATIONAL LITERATURE
"It powerfully illustrates the creative complexity and bold humanity of Adichie's fiction... A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie represents a vital milestone in the literary scholarship of this most widely-cited and intriguing of 21st-century authors." AFRICA IN WORDS
"Whether you are an ardent Adichie lover or a novice to her world of literature, this book is equipped to be a beacon of light as you devour the words to make sense of the world." AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY

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Title Details

312 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

Imprint: James Currey