More than two million copies of Things Fall Apart have been sold in the United States since it was first published here in 1959. Worldwide, there are eight million copies in print in fifty different languages. This is Chinua Achebe's masterpiece and it is often compared to the great Greek tragedies, and currently sells more than one hundred thousand copies a year in the United States.
A simple story of a "strong man" whose life is dominated by fear and anger, Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.
Chinua Achebe was a novelist, poet, professor at Brown University and critic. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonizers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist".
When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a devoted supporter of Biafran independence and served as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990 after a car accident left him partially disabled.
Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. His style relied heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. He became the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
Achebe died at age 82 following a brief illness.
2007年6月13日,第二届国际布克文学奖评委会主席、哥伦比亚大学教授Elaine Showalter这样评价他:“In Things Fall Apart and his other fiction set in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe inaugurated the modern African novel. He also illuminated the path for writers around the w...
評分 評分瓦解-Things fall apart 这本书不厚,因为是我接触的第一本非洲文学作品,正式读之前仔细看了作者简介,书成于1958年,当时作者28岁,随后钦努阿•阿契贝就拿遍了除了诺奖以外的所有重大奖项。 看到一半的时候,对这本书最深的印象有两点:一是伊博族人说话时无时无刻不引用...
評分迄今为止,除了诺贝尔文学奖以外,钦努阿·阿契贝几乎获得过国际上所有重要的文学奖项。而长篇小说《瓦解》,则为他赢得了布克奖。在国际上,这位尼日利亚的作家倍受瞩目,被称为“现代非洲小说之父”。至于他和诺贝尔文学奖失之交臂,尼日利亚的《每日太阳报》曾经有些自负地...
評分《分崩离析》(Things Fall Apart)是尼日利亚作家齐鲁瓦•阿契比(Chinua Achebe)的力作。讲述了非洲土著欧康寇(Okonkwo)的一生故事。欧康寇生性要强,一心希望出人头地,挣一份足以自傲的家业。自己的父亲好吃懒散,母亲终日忙碌,使他从小就对懒惰深恶痛绝。成年以后,...
把兩種文化之間的碰撞描寫得剛剛好,客觀卻富含感情,不過主人公真是不討喜啊⋯⋯
评分前兩章類似人類學的敘述,展現瞭尼日利亞部落文化和信仰,之後missionary和district commission的進入,不能簡單地解讀為文化或者信仰的衝突,也不能僅僅說是tradition和西方文明或者現代的衝突。Okonkwo像極瞭Aristotle的tragic hero,他的死和結尾也是值得仔細再分析解讀。集會時,Okonkwo選擇刺殺messager是一時興起,還是深思後的結果。他的自殺是處於對於未來的絕望還是齣於保護部族。things fall apart,瓦解的是什麼,這種瓦解本身是否有好壞,還是其本身就是一個不可避免地曆史進程,即使說沒有missionary和殖民勢力的進入。如何堅持對於tradition的保持也是值得思考。
评分so full of magic, so stark, so non judgemental
评分比較喜歡前麵半本
评分另一個旁聽的seminar式課程(字譯English literature outside Major English speaking countries
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