LITR / CRCL 5734:
Colonial & Postcolonial Literature
Student Text-Dialogue Presentation 2008
Thursday, 14 February: Conclude discussion of Things Fall Apart (through p. 209; complete); Kirsten Holst Petersen, "Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature" (handout);
· Dialogue between Things Fall Apart & Petersen, "Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature":
leader: Tanya Stanley
Dialogue between Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Kirsten Holst Petersen’s “First Things First: Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature”
After reading Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s article "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" which exposes the racism within Conrad’s novel, we read Things Fall Apart and Petersen’s article “First Things First: Problems of a Feminist Approach to African Literature” which exposes the unequal status between men and women within Achebe’s novel.
Does the novelist formulate a social problem within the text, such as racism or sexism, or does the critic impose social conflicts within the reader?
1b. Historicism: To counter challenges to global knowledge and planetary identity by enhancing knowledge and identifying persistent oppositional themes or identities in cross-cultural dialogues:
· modernity vs. tradition.
· first world vs. third world
· national or ethnic “purity” vs. “hybridity”
In Things Fall Apart, Mr. Brown represents the post-colonial man—the man of modernity—while Okonkwo represents the colonial man—the man of tradition. Achebe represents Mr. Brown as the man who “saw things as black and white. And black was evil” (184). The narrator further describes Okonkwo’s traditional standing again in chapter twenty-three (192) as Okonkwo discovers his clansmen’s amends towards himself and towards his past behavior. “It was like the good old days again, when a warrior was a warrior” (192).
According to Petersen,
…An important impetus [drive] behind the wave of African writing which started in the ‘60s was the desire to show both the outside world and African youth that the African past was orderly, dignified and complex and altogether a worthy heritage. This was obviously opting for fighting cultural imperialism, and in the course of that the women’s issue was not only ignored—a fate which would have allowed it to surface when the time was ripe—it was conscripted [recruited] in the service of dignifying the past and restoring African self-confidence (Petersen 253).
· The traditional world and the focus of “African self-confidence” overlooked the modern society’s view regarding the treatment of women. We witness a struggle between modernity vs. tradition; however, in the dialogue between Petersen and Achebe, Petersen seems to launch the notion that writers in the sixties desired to reveal the traditional side of Africa instead of the assumed role of discussing equality among the sexes, or the modern side of criticism. Achebe reveals the traditional roles and unmasks the evilness of modernity. Petersen unmasks the short-sidedness of modernity due to the exclusion of equality between the sexes.
Should you protect Okonkwo against modernity, or protect the colonizers against tradition?
(Secondary Objectives)
3. To observe representations or repressions of gender in the traditionally male-dominant fields of cross-cultural contact and literature
An example of the repression of gender—the female gender—appears in Things Fall Apart when the protagonist beats his wife and is punished for beating her during the week of peace, but he is not punished solely on the basis of beating his wife. Turn to Things Fall Apart (30) and look at the last full paragraph. We learn that “it was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week.” Ezeani explains to Okonkwo that doing any kind of ill towards anyone is prohibited during the Week of Peace. Nowhere does the narrator or the members of the clan speak ill about Okonkwo beating his wife.
Petersen’s “sense of humor has always stopped short at the pleasant little joke about Okonkwo being punished, not for beating his wife, but for beating her during the week of peace (Achebe 1958). The obvious inequality of the sexes seems to be the subject of mild amusement for Achebe” (254). Petersen reveals the notion that the authors of African literature describe women as happy beaten—but nonetheless happy—women.
The African past was…made the object of a quest, and the picture of women’s place and role in these societies had to support this quest and was consequently lent more dignity and described in more positive terms than reality warranted. Achebe’s much praised objectivity with regard to the merits and flaws of traditional Ibo society becomes less than praiseworthy seen in this light; his traditional women are happy, harmonious members of the community, even when they are repeatedly beaten and barred from any say in the communal decision-making process and constantly reviled in sayings and proverbs. It would appear that in traditional wisdom behaving like a woman is to behave like an inferior being (Petersen 253).
If we look at Things Fall Apart, we do not see any bitterness between Okonkwo’s wives after his lashings or temper flares. No matter what Okonkwo does to his wives, they remain solid in their devotion towards him. The women do not view their husbands’ physical abuse as a negative action. On page 48, Ekwefi and Chielo exchange words before the wrestling match. Chielo asks Ekwefi if Okonkwo had beaten her and after the confirmation, Chielo says Ekwefi’s “chi is very much awake…” (48). The physical abuse is disregarded and we become to rely on Ekwefi’s chi as being awake, and not that beating one’s wife is horrific.
· We can wholly disregard the notion of the ill treatment of women and the repression of gender by taking the easy route of saying the repression of the female gender was normal for the Ibo culture. Or, we can look back at Petersen’s article and try to discover why in the 1960s, authors focused on a necessity to showcase the African culture as a dignified and worthy heritage and not focus on the ill treatment of women in colonial literature.
· Why do you suppose the authors in the 1960s desired to focus on dignity and worthiness as a show of face and not on the issue of equality among the sexes?
· Should you protect Okonkwo’s wives—or all the women of the Ibo society for that matter—against tradition?
