Books about Chinua Achebe
There are many books on Chinua Achebe - here are just a select few:
Achebe, Chinua ''Named for Victoria, Queen of England'' The Postcolonial
Studies Reader 190-3 Bill Ashcroft, Gareth
Griffiths & Helen Tiffin (eds) London: Routledge, 1995. Excellent
for an insight into Achebe's motivation for writing Things
Fall Apart.
Carroll, David Chinua Achebe: Novelist, Poet, Critic London: Macmillan,
1990. Good starting point for studying the works
of Achebe. Useful insights into Achebe as a postcolonial critic.
Egudu, R.N. ''Achebe and the Igbo Narrative Tradition'' Research in
African Literatures 12 (Spring 1981): 43-54. Very
helpful look at the orature of pre-colonial Nigeria.
Harris, Wilson ''The Frontier on which Heart of Darkness Stands'' Research
in African Literatures 12 (Spring 1981):
86-93. A useful look at another major colonial author writing on Africa.
Good to couple with Kuesgen (Below).
Innes, C.L. Chinua Achebe Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. Well worth
a look, particularly concerning the comparisons
between Achebe and Cary in Chapters one and two.
JanMohamed, Abdul ''Sophisticated Primitivism: the Syncretism of Oral
and Literary Modes in Achebe's Things Fall Apart''
Ariel 15.4 (1984): 19-39.
Kuesgen, Reinhardt ''Conrad and Achebe: Aspects of the novel'' World
Literature Written in English 24 (Summer 1984):
27-33. Short, but a good account of Achebe's linkages with colonial
writing beyond Cary. Useful companion to Wilson Harris
(above).
Lindfors, Bernth, Ian Munro, Richard Priebe and Rienhard Sander (eds).
''Interview with Chinua Achebe'' Interviews with
Five African Writers in Texas Austin: African and Afro-American Research
Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 1972,
5-12. Glimpse at the psyche and motivations of Achebe.
Moore, Gerald ''Chinua Achebe: Nostalgia and Realism'' Seven African
Writers London: Oxford UP, 1962. Excellent study
of Achebe's art. Particularly useful in gaining an understanding of
the pragmatism of The African Trilogy, and its keen portrayal
of pre-colonial African tribal existence.
Moyers, Bill ''Interview with Chinua Achebe'' A World of Ideas ed. Betty
Sue Flowers. New York: Double Day, 1989. Useful
to compare with Linfors (above).
Mugo, Micere Githae Visions of Africa: the Fiction of Chinua Achebe,
Margaret Laurence, Elspeth Huxley and Ngugi
wa Thiong'o 1978. Interesting comparison of Achebe with other major
postcolonial critics. Useful for an understanding that
Achebe's case is not unique.
Nwoga, D. Ibe ''The Igbo World of Achebe's Arrow of God'' Research in
African Literatures. 12.1 (Spring 1981): 14-42.
Excellent study of African existence during the colonial era. Good
for a look at Achebe beyond Things Fall Apart.
Oko, Emilia A. ''The Historical Novel of Africa: A Sociological Approach
to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart'' Conch
6.1-2 (1974): 15-46. A detailed look at Achebe's portrayal of a lost
African past.
Okoye, Emmanuel Mexiemadu The Traditional Religion and its Encounter
with Christianity in Achebe's Novels Bern:
P.Lang, 1987. Extremely useful in relation to the coming of the missionaries,
and the discord they brought into the tribal
existence.
Rutherford, Anna ''Interview with Chinua Achebe'' Kunapipi 9.2 (1987):1-7.
Another very useful interview. Helpful in
establishing Achebe's motivation.
Turkington, Kate Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart London: Edward Arnold,
1977. Good general study of the novel.
Useful introductory aid.
Wren, Robert Achebe's World: The Historical and Cultural Context of
the Novels of Chinua Achebe. Harlow: Longman,
1981. A very useful insight into the world surrounding Achebe's novels.
Good for gaining a broad sounding of a wide variety of
his works.