Achebe, Chinua (Vol. 1) | Achebe, Chinua 1930–
Achebe, Chinua 1930–
Achebe is Nigeria's best known novelist, and one of the finest writers of Black fiction. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)
Achebe's style is apparently quite near that of good standard English prose, and yet there is a varient in the density and balance of his writing style which displays a marked originality. On the surface the obvious stylistic trick is the use of the many proverbs in which the Ibo language abounds—Achebe's mother-tongue. Yet this is to see only the most ostentatious stylistic feature and the diction created for the speakers is characterized individually and highly appropriate. It is a good direct English yet it has somehow been colored to reflect the African verbal style; sometimes ponderous, sometimes flippant.
John Povey, "The English Language of the Contemporary African Novel," in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, Vol. XI, No. 3, 1969, pp....
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