The semantics of solidarity and brotherhood in Chinua Achebe's "No longer at ease"

Mercedes Bengoechea Bartolomé; Gema Soledad Castillo García

doi:10.18172/jes.55

Authors

Mercedes Bengoechea Bartolomé University of Alcalá
Gema Soledad Castillo García University of Alcalá

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.55

Abstract

We intent to shed new light on the role of Pidgin, one of the languages used by Achebe's characters in No Longer at Ease. We suggest that, contrary to what some literary critics have interpreted, Pidgin, far from being the language of triviality or of the uneducated alone, represents in Achebe's work an honourable rite of passage from rural life into urban development in a multilingual post-colonial nation, and a bridge between conflicting worlds, Africa and Europe, tradition and innovation. Furthermore, a close consideration of the semantics of solidarity in the novel reveals the importance of the roles played by two languages, Ibo, and, more outstandingly, Pidgin, as vehicles of fellowship and brotherhood. This is revealed by examining the use of three of the linguistic varieties present in No Longer at Ease: Ibo, conversational English, and Pidgin. Our analysis discloses a transfer of legitimacy from English to a communally owned Pidgin.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Achebe, C. 1960. No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann.

Achebe, C. 1966. A Man of the People. London: Heinemann.

Achebe, C. 1988. “What has literature got to do with it? (Achebe’s Nigerian National Merit Award Lecture of August 1986)”. Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays 1965-1987. London: Heinemann.

Bisong, J. 1995. “Language choice and cultural imperialism”. ELT Journal 49 (2): 122-32.

Bokamba, E. G. 1991. “West Africa” in English Around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Ed. J. Cheshire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 493-507.

Brann, C.M.B. 1988. “West Africa” in Sociolinguistics Soziolinguistik. Eds. U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, and K.J. Mattheier. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1414-29.

Calvet, L-J. 1974. Linguistique et colonialisme. Paris: Payot.

Cary, J. 1975 (1939). Mister Johnson. London: Longman.

Carroll, D. 1980 (1970). Chinua Achebe. London: Heinemann, 2nd revised edition.

Carroll, D. 1990 (1980). Chinua Achebe:Novelist, Poet, Critic. London: Macmillan, 2nd edition.

Ekwensi, C. 1961. Jagua Nana. London: Heinemann.

Gérard, A. S. 1991. “Preface” to Chantal Zabus, The African Palimpsest: Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Griffiths, G. 1979. “Language and Action in the Novels of Chinua Achebe” in Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Eds. C. Innes and B. Lindfors. London: Heinemann. 67-85.

Jones, E. 1964. “Language and Theme in Things Fall Apart”. A Review of English Literature 4: 37.

Jones, E. 1965. “Achebe’s Third Novel”. JCL 1:176-8.

Mangut, J. 1982. Have Mercy. London: Macmillan.

Riddy, F. 1979. “Language as a Theme in No Longer at Ease” in Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Eds. C. L. Iness and B. Lindfors. London: Heinemann. 150-59.

Ravenscroft, A. 1969. Chinua Achebe. London: Longman.

Rotimi, O. 1977. Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schmied, J. 1991. English in Africa. London: Longman.

Shnukal, A. and Marchese, L. 1983. “Creolization of Nigerian Pidgin English: A progress report”. English World-Wide 4: 17-26.

Skinner, J. 1998. The Stepmother Tongue: An Introduction to New Anglophone Fiction. London: Macmillan.

Wilson, R. 1979. “Eliot and Achebe: An analysis of some formal and philosophical qualities of No longer at Ease” in Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Eds. C. L. Iness and B. Lindfors. London: Heinemann. 160-68.

Yankson, K. E. 1990. Chinua Achebe’s Novels: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Obosi (Nigeria): Pacific Publishers.

Zabus, C. 1991. The African Palimpsest: Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel. Amsterdam: Rodopi.