God(s) Fall(s) Apart : Christianity in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

Authors

  • Juan Fernando Galván Reula University of Alcalá
  • Enrique Galván Alvarez

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.123

Abstract

This paper studies the confrontation between Christianity and the Igbo religion in Chinua Achebe’s first novel in the context of colonialist appropriation. An analysis of the techniques used by the Christian missionaries to infiltrate the fictional world of Umuofia is complemented with a discussion of the main characters of the novel in their relation to religion and their roles as facilitators or opponents of the colonization process. Gender issues are also briefly dealt with as Christianity is seen as “effeminate” by the natives and some female Igbo characters

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Achebe, Chinua. 2001 (1958). Things Fall Apart. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Begam, Richard. 1997. “Achebe’s Sense of an Ending: History and Tragedy in Things Fall Apart.” Studies in the Novel 29 (3): 396-411.

Bicknell, Catherine. 1998. “Achebe’s Women: Mothers, Priestesses, and Young Urban Professionals.” Challenging Hierarchies. Issues and Themes in Colonial and Postcolonial African Literature. Eds. Leonard A. Podis and Yakubu Saaka. New York: Peter Lang. 125-36.

Gikandi, Simon. 1991. Reading Chinua Achebe. Language and Ideology in Fiction. London: James Currey.

Hoegberg, David. 1999. “Principle and Practice: The Logic of Cultural Violence in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” College Literature 26 (1): 69-79.

Iyasere, Solomon O. 1974. “Narrative Techniques in Things Fall Apart.” New Letters 40 (3): 73-93.

Iyasere, Solomon O. 1992. “Okonkwo’s Participation in the Killing of His ‘Son’ in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Study of Ignoble Decisiveness.” Cla Journal. A Quarterly Official Publication of the College Language Association 35 (3): 303-15.

JanMohamed, Abdul. 1984. “Sophisticated Primitivism: The Syncretism of Oral and Literate Modes in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Ariel. A Review of International English Literature 15 (4): 19-39.

Jeyifo, Biodun. 1993. “Okonkwo and His Mother: Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse.” Callaloo 16 (4): 847-58. Special Issue on “Post-Colonial Discourse” guest edited by Tejumola Olaniyan.

Ker, David I. 1997. The African Novel and the Modernist Tradition. New York: Peter Lang.

Killam, G. D. 1969. The Novels of Chinua Achebe. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation.

Kortenaar, Neil Ten. 1995. “How the Centre is Made to Hold in Things Fall Apart.” Postcolonial Literatures. Achebe, Ngugi, Desai, Walcott. Eds. Michael Parker and Roger Starkey. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 31-51.

MacKenzie, Clayton G. 1996. “The Metamorphosis of Piety in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Research in African Literatures 27 (2): 128-38.

McDaniel, Richard Bryan. 1976. “The Python Episodes in Achebe’s Novels.” The International Fiction Review 3 (2): 100-06.

Nnaemeka, Obioma. 1998. “Gender Relations and Critical Mediation: From Things Fall Apart to Anthills of the Savannah.” Challenging Hierarchies. Issues and Themes in Colonial and Postcolonial African Literature. Eds. Leonard A. Podis and Yakubu Saaka. New York: Peter Lang. 137-60.

Nnoromele, Patrick C. 2000. “The Plight of a Hero in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” College Literature 27 (2): 146-56.

Nwabueze, Emeka. 2000. “Theoretical Construction and Constructive Theorizing on the Execution of Ikemefuna in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Study in Critical Dualism.” Research in African Literatures 31 (2): 163-73.

Okoye, Emmanuel Meziemadu. 1987. The Traditional Religion and its Encounter with Christianity in Achebe’s Novels. New York: Peter Lang.

Opara, Chioma. 1998. “From Stereotype to Individuality: Womanhood in Chinua Achebe’s Novels.” Challenging Hierarchies. Issues and Themes in Colonial and Postcolonial African Literature. Eds. Leonard A. Podis and Yakubu Saaka. New York: Peter Lang. 113-23.

Opata, Damian. 1987. “Eternal Sacred Order versus Conventional Wisdom: A Consideration of Moral Culpability in the Killing of Ikemefuna in Things Fall Apart.” Research in African Literatures 18 (1): 71-79.

Osei-Nyame, Kwadwo. 1999. “Chinua Achebe Writing Culture: Representations of Gender and Tradition in Things Fall Apart.” Research in African Literatures 30 (2): 148-64.

Peters, Jonathan A. 1978. A Dance of Masks. Senghor, Achebe, Soyinka. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press.

Quayson, Ato. 1994. “Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart with an Evaluation of the Criticism Relating to It.” Research in African Literatures 25 (4): 117-36.

Rhoads, Diana Akers. 1993. “Culture in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” African Studies Review 36 (2): 61-72.

Traoré, Ousseynou B. 1997. “Why the Snake-Lizard Killed his Mother. Inscribing and Decentering ‘Nneka’ in Things Fall Apart.” The Politics of (M)Othering. Womanhood, Identity, and Resistance in African Literature. Ed. Obioma Nnaemeka. London: Routledge. 50-68.

Wren, Robert M. 1980. Achebe’s World. The Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, Inc.

Downloads

Published

29-05-2008

How to Cite

Galván Reula, J. F., & Galván Alvarez, E. (2008). God(s) Fall(s) Apart : Christianity in Chinua Achebe’s "Things Fall Apart". Journal of English Studies, 5, 105–117. https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.123