Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Isidore Okpewho is Professor of Africana Studies, English, and Comparative Literature at SUNY at Binghamton.

• Introduction1: Chinua Achebe: The African Writer and the English Language2: Clement Okafor: Igbo Cosmology and the Parameters of Individual Accomplishment in Things Fall Apart3: Damian U. Opata: Eternal Sacred Order versus Conventional Wisdom: A Consideration of Moral Culpability in the Killing of Ikemefuna in Things Fall Apart4: Harold Scheub: "When a Man Fails Alone": A Man and his chi in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart5: Neil ten Kortenaar: How the Center is Made to Hold in Things Fall Apart6: Clayton G. MacKenzie: The Metamorphosis of Piety in Things Fall Apart7: Rhonda Cobham: Problems of Gender and History in the Teaching of Things Fall Apart8: Biodun Jeyifo: Okonkwo and His Mother: Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse9: Bu-Buakei Jabbi: Fire and Transition in Things Fall Apart10: Ato Quayson: Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart with an evaluation of Criticism Relating To It11: Charles H. Rowell: An interview with Chinua AchebeSuggested Reading1: The African Writer and the English Language: Chinua Achebe2: Clement Okafor: Igbo Cosmology and the Parameters of Individual Accomplishment in Things Fall Apart3: Damian U. Opata: Eternal Sacred Order versus Conventional Wisdom: A Consideration of Moral Culpability in the Killing of Ikemefuna in Things Fall Apart4: Harold Scheub: When a Man Fails Alone: A Man and his Chi in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart5: Neil ten Kortenaar: How the Center is Made to Hold in Things Fall Apart6: Clayton G. MacKenzie: The Metamorphosis of Piety in Things Fall Apart7: Rhonda Cobham: Problems of Gender and History in the Teaching of Things Fall Apart8: Biodun Jeyifo: Okonkwo and His Mother: Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse9: Bu-Buakei Jabbi: Fire and Transition in Things Fall Apart10: Ato Quayson: Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart with an Evaluation of Criticism Relating To It11: Charles H. Rowell: An interview with Chinua AchebeSuggested Reading

Okpewho has been particularly successful in the careful selection of these essays which make the novel as relevant as it ever has been. What is most satisfying is not only the high quality of most of the essays, but also their overall arrangement so that they seem to be in dialogue with one another. This creates a logical thread throughout the book, and it makes for an engaging read.