Hopes & Impediments - Hardcover

Achebe, Chinua

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385247303 ISBN 13: 9780385247306

Publisher: Doubleday, 1989

Synopsis

Achebe, Chinua, Hopes And Impediments, Selected Essays

About this title

About the Author:

Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) was born in Nigeria. Widely considered to be the father of modern African literature, he is best known for his masterful African Trilogy, consisting of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, and No Longer at Ease. The trilogy tells the story of a single Nigerian community over three generations from first colonial contact to urban migration and the breakdown of traditional cultures. He is also the author of Anthills of the Savannah, A Man of the People, Girls at War and Other Stories, Home and Exile, Hopes and Impediments, Collected Poems, The Education of a British-Protected Child, Chike and the River, and There Was a Country. He was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and, for more than fifteen years, was the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. Achebe was the recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement. In 2007, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement.

From Publishers Weekly:

Achebe's powerful critique of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a racist mirror of Eurocentric attitudes leads off this challenging collection of essays on art, literature and social issues. The famed Nigerian novelist ( Things Fall Apart ) views literature as a medium that can help Africa regain a belief in itself to replace a posture of self-abasement instilled by its traumatic historical encounter with the West. Tributes to novelists Amos Tutuola and Kofi Awoonor, as well as discerning appraisals of writers such as V. S. Naipaul and James Baldwin, reflect his belief in the power of fiction to give us a "handle on reality." Overall, these concise essays deliver a forceful commentary on Afro-American life and letters. Summing up Nigeria's recent sociopolitical history as "a snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory," Achebe calls active participation in the political process a prerequisite for his country's, and Africa's, regeneration.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0385247303
• ISBN 13: 9780385247306
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 186