Kindred Spirits: Chinua Achebe and Toni Morrison

Winner—2022 College Language Association Book Prize Finalist—2024 African Literature Association's Best Scholarly Book Award Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe—author of Things Fall Apart, one of the towering works of twentieth-century fiction—is considered the father of modern African literature. The equally revered Toni Morrison, author of masterworks such as Beloved and one of only four Americans to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in the past half-century, acknowledged African literature’s and Achebe’s influence on her own work. Until now, however, there has been no book that focuses on and critically explores the rich connections between these two writers. In Kindred Spirits, Christopher Okonkwo offers the first comparative study of Morrison and Achebe. Surveying both writers’ oeuvres, Okonkwo examines significant relations between Achebe’s and Morrison’s personal backgrounds, career histories, artistic visions, and life philosophies, finding in them striking parallels. He then pairs a trilogy of novels by each author: Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God and Morrison’s Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise. Okonkwo closely analyzes these two sequences—through what he theorizes as "villagism"—as century-spanning village literature that looks to the local to reveal the universal.
ASIN: 081394712X
VSKU: BVV.081394712X.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Okonkwo Ph.D, Professor Christopher N.
Binding: Paperback
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact including the dust cover, if applicable . Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.