scholarly journals Negotiation of Cultural Identities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 2780-2782

The Nigerian literature illuminates on the experiences of migration which makes a person oscillate between two different places. The novel describes the formative process of Ifelmu and Obinze who fall in love in Nigeria and migrate to the west ,and they ultimately reunite in Nigeria after fifteen long years .The article explores the negotiation of cultural identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel the Americanah (2013). The Protagonist and other minor characters questions identity, sense of belonging and they try being as positive models through a negative stereotypical society. The characters undergo a redemptive process through migration as they encounter problem with Race, Language and Hair which culturally connects them to the roots. The article attempts to showcase how culture gets fragmented in the global world where the notion of identity becomes an ever changing factor. As the characters undergo changes because of the convoluted identity they struggle to thrive in their hardships. The article also attempts to focus on how negative attitudes and approaches reminds them of their past and develops a positive attitude enabling them to create an identity for themselves in a diasporic society

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alia Afiyati ◽  
Divya Widyastuti ◽  
Yoga Pratama

In a literary work, two characters can be narrated as the attention center that contains the cultural identity from certain generation. Meanwhile, a symbol actually can cause an interaction within characters. This research discusses about cultural identity and symbolic interactionism reflected in a novel. There is a novel entitled “Recipe for a Perfect Wife” by Karma Brown that tells about two female characters that are represented as a housewife from different generation. This research uses descriptive qualitative as the research methodology and content  analysis as the method in analyzing the object of the research, a novel entitled “Recipe for a Perfect Wife”. This research also uses the intrinsic approach to analyze the characterization, plot, and setting. This research reveals two kinds of a housewife. They are a housewife and working woman, and a full-housewife. This research finds five cultural identities in the past and present time that is related with a housewife reflected by two female characters in the novel by using cultural identity theory by Stuart Hall. This research also reveals the symbol and memory even three concepts of symbolic interactionism that is mind, self, and society based on symbolic interactionism theory by George Herbert Mead.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 1200
Author(s):  
Fazel Asadi Amjad ◽  
Ghamereddin Badirdast

The impact of colonial educational system or colonial cultural discourse on the cultural identity of the colonized is a prominent theme of postcolonial studies. According to Said Orientalism as a discourse recognizes an "ontological and epistemological" distinction between the East and the West. Consequently, for Said anyone who thinks, works and acts based on the existence of such a distinction is an orientalist. This paper argues that V. S. Naipaul’s Half a life illustrates the workings of this imaginary distinction that European cultural discourse finds between the Orient and the Occident on the formation of the cultural identity of the colonized people as they become subject to colonial cultural discourse. In Half a Life we observe Willie, the anti-hero of the novel, gradually losing his faith in the ingredients of his own cultural identity replacing them with the material served in the menu of colonial educational system to adopt himself with the requirements of being a colonial individual living on scholarship in the metropolitan London.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. e51791
Author(s):  
Michele Eduarda Brasil de Sá

 The novel Kafka on the Shore is one of the most enigmatic works of contemporary writer Haruki Murakami. Since its very release, critics and scholars have been sharing their impressions and interpretations on various aspects of the book, one of them being the abundant references to Western elements (myths, songs, writers, icons and so forth). The present paper is the final draft of the postdoctoral research ‘Murakami on the shore: the dialogue with the West in the construction of the novel’, developed from July 2015 to June 2016. It aims at rethinking (as well as questioning) the way the study of the relation between Japan and the West can be addressed in the novel. The research, conducted as a bibliographical investigation, used key concepts like cultural identity (Hall, 2006) and border-blurring (Auestad, 2008). It defies the tendency of studying cosmopolitan authors like Haruki Murakami from the perspective of East-West duality, and defends that such analysis ought to consider East and West as complementary, almost inextricable, not regarding them as opposite or impermeable, and never as a limitation to the author himself.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-98
Author(s):  
William Quarmine

This article discusses the predictors of Ghanaian cocoa producers’ intention to continue adopting a recommended cocoa beanfermentation technology in the future. The analyses is carried out within the framework of the theory of planned behaviour.Three hundred and twenty-one cocoa producers were interviewed. Consistent with literature, attitudes, subjective norms andpast behaviour were significant predictors of fermentation intentions. Positive attitude relate to beliefs about ease of use oftechnologies and existence of non-financial rewards. Negative attitudes relate to lack of direct financial rewards. PurchasingClerks, Chief Farmers and society at large were found to be the salient social referents who shape producers’ fermentationintentions. Recommendations included improving implementation of current producer incentive regimes, promoting trust betweenproducers and purchasing clerks and strengthening producer association to increase the sphere of influence of the Chief Farmers.


Author(s):  
Б. Ниясалиева ◽  
Н. Алтыкеева

Аннотация. Ч.Айтматов “Кылым карытар бир күн” романында ачыктап бере албаган бийлик маселеси кийинки демократиянын учурунда романдын уландысы катары берилген “Чынгызхандын ак булуту “ аттуу чыгармасында таама көрсөтүлдү. Аталган чыгарма сталиндик бийликти сынга алуу менен бийликтин курмандыктары болгон күнөөсүз адамдардын оор тагдырын чагылдырат. Сталиндин образын ачуу максатында элдик легендага кайрылып, Чынгызхандын образы аркылуу Сталиндин образын чагылдырган. Чыгармадагы Тансыкбаевдин образы мансапка манчыркап, адам тагдыры менен ойногон наадан адамдардын образын ачууда колдонулган. Абуталип, Эрдене, Догуланг – булар бийликтин курмандыктары. Алар алдыда өлүм күтүп турса да, өз көз караштарынан тайышпады, өлүмгө тике кароо менен жеңиш дайыма алар тарапта экендигин аныктай алышты. Ырас, Тансыкбаев да өз максатына жете алган жок, Чынгызхан болсо батышты багынтам деген тилегине жетпеди, ал эбегейсиз күчүн жоготту, мындан ары анын жолу болбоду. Түйүндүү сөздөр: образ, демократия, каарман, легенда, идея, көркөм ой жүгүртүү. Аннотация. Проблема правительства, которую Ч.Айтматов не смог раскрыть в романе “И дольше века длится день, ярко показаны в произведении “Белое облако Чингизхана” созданное во время демократии как продолжение названного произведения. В данном произведений критикуется и отражается тяжелая судьба безвинного народа, которые стали жертвами сталинского режима. Писатель обратился к народной легенде для раскрытия образа Сталина, через образ Чингизхана. В произведений образ Тансыкбаева применятся для раскрытия образов людей, которые ради собственного нажива использовали судьбы народа. Абуталип, Эрдене, Догуланг – они жертвы правительства. Несмотря ни на что, они не отреклись от своих убеждений, стояли на смерть ради справедливости. В статье говорится о не достижении своей цели Тансыкбаева, о не покорении Чингизханом Запада, о том, что Чингизхан потерял всю свою силу и удача его покидает. Ключевые слова: власть, образ, демократия, герой, легенда, идея, художественное размышление.. Annotation. The problem of the government, which Ch. Aitmatov could not reveal in the novel “And the day lasts more than a century”is clearly shown in the works “White cloud of Genghis Khan” created during the democracy as a continuation of the title work. In this work criticized and reflected the heavy fate of innocent people who were the victims of the Stalinist regime. The writer appealed to the folk legend to reveal the image of Genghis Khan the writer conveys the image of Stalin. In the work (composition) the image of Tansykbaev will be used to reveal the images of people who used the people’s destinies for their own profit . Abutalip, Erdene, Doulan-they are the victims of government. No matter what, they didn’t renounce their beliefs, stood to death for justice . The article says about not achieving the goal of Tansykbaeva, about not conguering the West by Genghis Khan and that Genghis Khan lost all his strength and good luck leaves him. Key words: power, image, democracy, hero, legend, idea, artistic reflection.


Author(s):  
Robert Louis Stevenson ◽  
Ian Duncan

Your bed shall be the moorcock’s, and your life shall be like the hunted deer’s, and ye shall sleep with your hand upon your weapons.’ Tricked out of his inheritance, shanghaied, shipwrecked off the west coast of Scotland, David Balfour finds himself fleeing for his life in the dangerous company of Jacobite outlaw and suspected assassin Alan Breck Stewart. Their unlikely friendship is put to the test as they dodge government troops across the Scottish Highlands. Set in the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion, Kidnapped transforms the Romantic historical novel into the modern thriller. Its heart-stopping scenes of cross-country pursuit, distilled to a pure intensity in Stevenson’s prose, have become a staple of adventure stories from John Buchan to Alfred Hitchcock and Ian Fleming. Kidnapped remains as exhilarating today as when it was first published in 1886. This new edition is based on the 1895 text, incorporating Stevenson’s last thoughts about the novel before his death. It includes Stevenson’s ‘Note to Kidnapped’, reprinted for the first time since 1922.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-90
Author(s):  
Lilian J. Shin ◽  
Seth M. Margolis ◽  
Lisa C. Walsh ◽  
Sylvia Y. C. L. Kwok ◽  
Xiaodong Yue ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent theory suggests that members of interdependent (collectivist) cultures prioritize in-group happiness, whereas members of independent (individualist) cultures prioritize personal happiness (Uchida et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5(3), 223–239 Uchida et al., 2004). Thus, the well-being of friends and family may contribute more to the emotional experience of individuals with collectivist rather than individualist identities. We tested this hypothesis by asking participants to recall a kind act they had done to benefit either close others (e.g., family members) or distant others (e.g., strangers). Study 1 primed collectivist and individualist cultural identities by asking bicultural undergraduates (N = 357) from Hong Kong to recall kindnesses towards close versus distant others in both English and Chinese, while Study 2 compared university students in the USA (n = 106) and Hong Kong (n = 93). In Study 1, after being primed with the Chinese language (but not after being primed with English), participants reported significantly improved affect valence after recalling kind acts towards friends and family than after recalling kind acts towards strangers. Extending this result, in Study 2, respondents from Hong Kong (but not the USA) who recalled kind acts towards friends and family showed higher positive affect than those who recalled kind acts towards strangers. These findings suggest that people with collectivist cultural identities may have relatively more positive and less negative emotional experiences when they focus on prosocial interactions with close rather than weak ties.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon John-Stewart

Abstract Universal human rights and particular cultural identities, which are relativistic by nature, seem to stand in conflict with each other. It is commonly suggested that the relativistic natures of cultural identities undermine universal human rights and that human rights might compromise particular cultural identities in a globalised world. This article examines this supposed clash and suggests that it is possible to frame a human rights approach in such a way that it becomes the starting point and constraining framework for all non-deficient cultural identities. In other words, it is possible to depict human rights in a culturally sensitive way so that universal human rights can meet the demands of a moderate version of meta-ethical relativism which acknowledges a small universal core of objectively true or false moral statements and avers that, beyond that small core, all other moral statements are neither objectively true nor false.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Awuzie

This article contends that, in the same way as some postcolonial literature, the latter third generation Nigerian literature is a product of the writer’s experience. When the writer does not reproduce his sociopolitical experience, he reshapes his expectations into literature. The writer manipulates his experience into creative activity that fulfils his innate desire – this is the same desire which he is ordinarily unable to achieve in reality. This article argues further that even though the literature is a product of the writer’s experience, it is harmless and beneficent. Using Camillus Ukah’s Sweet Things as a representative text of the fiction produced by a latter third generation Nigerian literature writer, emphasis is made on the way in which Camillus Ukah has recreated his experience. It concludes that through the novel, Ukah expresses his bitterness towards a certain matrimonial experience that is of his particular concern.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document