ILLUMINATIONS ON CHINUA ACHEBE: The Art of Resistance

Description

This book of essays, co-edited by M?cere G?thae M?go and Herbert Ruffin II, is the latest critical volume of essays on the late Achebe, celebrating him as an iconic literature and orature genius. The essays also reflect upon ways in which Achebe’s writings and teachings, viewed as examples of “the art of resistance,” have impacted Africa, the so-called “Third World”/Global South, as well as the world at large more than fifty years since the publication of the much decorated Arrow of God.  However, although Arrow of God is the highlight of celebration at the novel’s fiftieth anniversary since publication, there is a deliberate effort to “illuminate” it within the larger contexts of not just the whole body of Achebe’s writing and especially the trilogy; but his legacy in general. Equally significant is the fact that the contributors are not limited to specialists in orature, literature, literary criticism and creative writing. Rather, the “illuminations” emanate from a rainbow of intellectual heritages representing the arts, the humanities and the social sciences a testimony to the fact that Achebe, the novelist, has indeed been a teacher to many as his essay “The Novelist as Teacher” so compellingly establishes in advocating the imperative of linking art to the totality of lived reality. The book provides fresh perspectives and indeed, innovative theoretical formulations that offer insightful original critical commentaries on Achebe and his works, illuminating him under new light. Some of the essays in the collection are provocative and even controversial, making the book a fascinating read.

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