Breaking Gods
An African Postcolonial Gothic Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9250411 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lily Mabura (corresponding author), Lily G N Mabura |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 203-222 |
| Publication date | 2008-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Research in African Literatures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044 |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2979/ral.2008.39.1.203 |
| OpenAlex | W2079928324 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 4 |
This article examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) through an "African Postcolonial Gothic" lens. It begins by tracing the historiography and manifestations of Gothic attributes in precolonial and colonial Africa as exemplified in novels such as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1959), Mongo Beti's Poor Christ of Bomba (1971), and Bessie Head's A Question of Power (1974). It then discusses Half of a Yellow Sun, which explores postindependence ethnic strife in Nigeria, particularly the Biafra War, and situates it as the historical precedent of the contemporary haunted setting in Purple Hibiscus. Adichie, I argue, participates in an ongoing reinvention and complication of Gothic topography in African literature. She teases out the peculiarities of the genre on the continent; dissects fraught African psyches; and engages in a Gothic-like reclamation of her Igbo heritage, including Igbo-Ukwu art, language, and religion
African studies · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Hibiscus · Historiography · Igbo · Literature · Orality · Power (physics) · Sociology · Anthropology · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
Adichie in Dialogue with Achebe
Frailties of the Flesh
Gender and Representing the Unrepresentable
Attitudes to Language in Literary Sources
Aspects of Gothic Tradition in the Literary Imagination of Nnedi Okorafor
Inclusive Artistic and Literary Narratives in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
Beyond postcolonial Gothic in African literature
Omelora
Sisters and spirits
Rethinking female sexuality in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
| Citations per year | 0.56 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2023 (16) |
| Highly cited | No |