Making Meaning of the Colonial Experience: Reading Tings Fall Apart through the Prism of Alfred Schutz’s Phenomenology
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Date
2016
Authors
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Publisher
Janus Head
Abstract
Tis essay ofers a Schutzian reading of Achebe’s Tings Fall Apart,
arguing that the so-called critical ambivalence in Chinua Achebe’s
hermeneutic of the colonial experience makes sense if situated within
his lived experiences in colonial Nigeria. Grounding its interpretation
of Achebe’s meaning-making of the colonial experience in Schutz’s
phenomenology, the essay begins with a close reading of the novel itself,
highlighting signifcant areas of ambivalence. Next, it explicates Schutz’s
(1967) constructs of intersubjectivity and phenomenology of literature.
In the next section in which Achebe’s biography is examined, an attempt
is made to show how a Schutzian reading of Achebe’s social relationships
can help us understand his account of the colonial experience as
represented in his frst novel. Ultimately, the paper concludes by noting
that the ambivalence that charactterizes Tings Fall Apart refects the
author’s realism and investment in both the African and European
cultures he sought to critique.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Colonial Experience, Tings Fall Apart, Phenomenology