Chinua Achebe was a novelist, poet, professor at Brown University and critic. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonizers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist".
When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a devoted supporter of Biafran independence and served as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990 after a car accident left him partially disabled.
Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. His style relied heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. He became the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
Achebe died at age 82 following a brief illness.
More than two million copies of Things Fall Apart have been sold in the United States since it was first published here in 1959. Worldwide, there are eight million copies in print in fifty different languages. This is Chinua Achebe's masterpiece and it is often compared to the great Greek tragedies, and currently sells more than one hundred thousand copies a year in the United States.
A simple story of a "strong man" whose life is dominated by fear and anger, Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.
1 有的天才作家,文字背后,就其个人生活而言,堪称恶棍。最大的恶棍当然是布考斯基,这个酒鬼、流氓,网上很容易能搜索到他抚摸着赤裸女性的阴部狞笑的照片(未打马赛克)。至于卡佛——他只是一个酒鬼,还够不上恶棍的称呼。 本文要说的奈保尔,与老布比起来,自然逊色,但...
評分是什么原因使得一个人觉得这个世界土崩瓦解了,再也回不到从前? 那就是一个人精神世界所信仰的那个神被彻底的摧毁! 奥贡喀沃是个勇敢的战士,他信奉着他的宗族的神,他信奉勇敢、勤劳、荣誉、地位带来的心理的满足。当帝国的代表带来了众神之神—“上帝”来到这个非洲的部落...
評分五年前,我曾经在巴西利亚大学跟一个靠行贿混进访问教师公寓居住的尼日利亚留学生做了一段时间的室友,这是我第一次跟黑非洲兄弟走得这么近。这哥们是尼日利亚三大民族(伊博、豪塞、优鲁巴)中的优鲁巴人,虽是学生,但从不见去上课,终日在看电视和无来由的手舞足蹈中愉...
評分是什么原因使得一个人觉得这个世界土崩瓦解了,再也回不到从前? 那就是一个人精神世界所信仰的那个神被彻底的摧毁! 奥贡喀沃是个勇敢的战士,他信奉着他的宗族的神,他信奉勇敢、勤劳、荣誉、地位带来的心理的满足。当帝国的代表带来了众神之神—“上帝”来到这个非洲的部落...
評分"Okonkwo's suicide represents not only his culture's rejection of him, but his rejection of the changes in his people's culture, as he realizes that the Igbo society that he so valued has been forever altered by the Christian missionaries." 尼日利亞,彆為我哭泣
评分前兩章類似人類學的敘述,展現瞭尼日利亞部落文化和信仰,之後missionary和district commission的進入,不能簡單地解讀為文化或者信仰的衝突,也不能僅僅說是tradition和西方文明或者現代的衝突。Okonkwo像極瞭Aristotle的tragic hero,他的死和結尾也是值得仔細再分析解讀。集會時,Okonkwo選擇刺殺messager是一時興起,還是深思後的結果。他的自殺是處於對於未來的絕望還是齣於保護部族。things fall apart,瓦解的是什麼,這種瓦解本身是否有好壞,還是其本身就是一個不可避免地曆史進程,即使說沒有missionary和殖民勢力的進入。如何堅持對於tradition的保持也是值得思考。
评分Grant Hamilton的Major Contemporary Novels的三本閱讀文本之一。1.前麵緩慢的敘述讓我想到遲子建的《額爾古納河右岸》;2.結尾讓我想到瞭三島由紀夫的尷尬;3.Part One 鋪陳1-13章,Part Two住在娘傢14-19章,重迴部落20-25章。為什麼要那麼頭重腳輕的安排情節?
评分超級戳啊!第一次看必讀書看得感動得不行。會有種過去現在未來其實一直平行前進著的感覺。
评分Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. He is careful to portray the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions of Igbo culture prior to its contact with Europeans. Yet he is just as careful not to stereotype the Europeans.
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