Chinua Achebe

This program analyzes the impact Chinua Achebe and his writings have had on world literature, as well as his influence as an editor and a spokesman for a generation of African writers. Dr. Achebe, professors Abiola Irele and Gerald Graff, and Charles Larson, editor of the anthology Under African Skies, discuss the characterization, social implications, and levels of interpretation of Things Fall Apart. Vital concepts indigenous to the Ibos of southeastern Nigeria such as oral culture, reincarnation, and negotiation? concepts essential to a deep understanding of the novel? are also presented.