The Post-Colonial Reality in Chinua Achebe’s Novels

Abstract

Abstract

<p>The primary concern of Chinua Achebe, the recipient of the <em>Man Booker</em> <em>International Prize, 2007</em>, was his society, more precisely, the destiny of his people. As the fundamental feature of his novels was social realism, they served as an authentic record of the changing African world. Achebe, perhaps the most authentic literary voice from Africa, wrote not only to record the African, especially Nigerian, life but to analyse the reality experienced by the native people in different times and situations. In his view, the writer must be accountable to his society. To him it was absurd to think of art as a pure and autonomous entity coming into existence by itself in an aesthetic void. Accordingly, his aim was to make his fiction an instrument of awareness seeking to elevate the social reality to a higher level. In this regard, the paper is an attempt to show Achebe’s endeavour to expose the rampant corruption and evil in Nigeria to exert a decisive and positive influence on his people. His faith in female power as an agent of traditional morality is also highlighted in the paper.</p>