Abstract

Language and Style in the Novels of Chinua Achebe

Neena Gandhi
(Department of Writing Studies, American University of Sharjah, U.A.E)

    The African writer’s position regarding the use of the English language is a complex one. The paper Language and Style in the Novels of Chinua Achebe discusses this complex linguistic consciousness in five novels of Chinua Achebe (1930 - ), Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Of these, two of Achebe’s novels deal with the colonial period in Nigeria while the other three novels have postcolonial Nigeria as their subject.
    An interpretation of the language used by various characters in the light of Bakhtin’s polyphony of voices elucidates interesting aspects about language, culture and ideology in these novels. The varying uses of Standard English, pidgin and vernacular reflect social and historical conflict. My paper explores the features that determine the use of a language—the speaker, the variety of the language/dialect and the context in which it is used. It analyses the social and political demarcation between those who speak Standard English and those who speak pidgin. The paper also discusses hybridized pidgin in the context of Bakhtin’s “Dialogized heteroglossia”
    To understand these complexities, I have analyzed shifting power centers as reflected in the interplay of these languages. The exploration of these power centers shows Achebe’s awareness of the “heteroglossic” nature of language and his understanding that in the interplay of historical forces each language jostles with the other to retain its position.