Books like Reading Chinua Achebe by Simon Gikandi

Chinua Achebe’s 1958 classic follows Okonkwo, an Igbo wrestling champion, as he navigates pre‑colonial traditions and the disruptive arrival of European missionaries in Nigeria’s southeastern region.

In 1921, Iloro Nigeria's chief priest Ezeulu struggles to protect his Igbo traditions as British colonial rule and Christian influence clash, culminating in a tragic confrontation that challenges his authority and faith.

A vivid portrayal of post‑colonial Nigeria, the novel juxtaposes city life and tribal unrest, exploring drought, political power struggles, and the influence of the petroleum industry on modern Africa.

Chinua Achebe’s three essays explore the power of African stories, critique European cultural imperialism, and call for authentic African voices to reclaim their narrative.

"David Attwell defends the literary and political integrity of the South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, arguing that he has absorbed the textual turn of postmodern culture while still addressing his nation's ethical crisis. As a form of "situational metafiction," Coetzee's novels are shown to reconstruct and critique some of the key discourses in the history of colonialism and apartheid from the eighteenth century to the present. While self-conscious about fiction-making, Coetzee's work takes seriously the condition of the society in which it is produced." "Attwell begins by describing the intellectual and political contexts of Coetzee's fiction. He proceeds with a developmental analysis of the corpus of six novels, drawing on Coetzee's other writings in stylistics, literary criticism, translation, political journalism, and popular culture. Attwell's elegantly written analysis deals both with Coetzee's subversion of the dominant culture around him and with his ability to grasp the complexities of giving voice to the anguish of South Africa."--BOOK JACKET.

This collection of essays reflects the intensified worldwide debate in literary theories, especially since 1968, and the growth of postcolonial literatures in English. Together they have prompted significant re-readings of cultural histories in Africa, India, and the Caribbean as well as in America and Europe. Postcolonial Literatures scrutinises the work of four writers, Achebe, Ngugi, Desai and Walcott, and their attempts to find new languages and new narratives to engage with the complex histories of their 'homelands'.