Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

Chinua Achebe's remarkable novel "Things Fall Apart" (1958) is probably the best known African novel and has become one of the world's most influential literary masterpieces. This guide to the text sets "Things Fall Apart" in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure.

This is the ideal guide to the text, setting Things Fall Apart in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, offering analyses of its themes, style and structure, providing exemplary close readings, presenting an up-to-date account of its critical reception and examining its afterlife in literature, film and popular culture. It includes points for discussion, suggestions for further study and an annotated guide to relevant reading.

1. Contexts: Achebe, Among Pre-Independence African Writers, Contemporary Writing and His Other Work
2. Language, Style and Form
3. Reading Things Fall Apart: The Communal World, The Embattled Zones of Conquest, and the Decline of Tradition
4. Critical Reception, Interpretation and Afterlife (adaptation and influence)
5. Guide to Further Reading
6. Bibliography.