The Issues of Culture and Identity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Malek Haddad’s Le Quai aux Fleurs ne Répond plus (1961)

Abstract

This dissertation bases on postcolonial literature of various African states which were formerly subject to European rule. Our work deals with the issues of culture and identity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Malek Haddad’s Le Quai aux Fleurs ne Répond Plus (1961). Both Achebe and Haddad are African post colonial writers who portray the state of disorder and confusion in African societies during and after independence. Relying on the Fanonian theory of post colonialism combined with the concept of culture and identity developed in Franz Fanon’s books Black Skin White Mask (1952), The wretched of The Earth (1961) and also Homi Bhabha’s concept of culture taken from his book The Location of Culture (1994), we have tried to pick out some affinities between the two literary texts. Both novels have a lot in common, despite they are written by writers of different cultural backgrounds. The two authors deal with same issues in their works. This paper gives us a view about the effects of colonization in the countries which have been submitted to it particularly Nigeria and Algeria. Our work divides into two chapters. The first one analyzes the issue of culture in both novels and shows how the meeting of two or more cultures can create a new mixed culture. The second one shows that the two writers have used characters that portray different identities and adopt a new cultural identity. The goal of the two writers is to show that the adoption of a new culture and language is just a means of expression. Our study reached the conclusion that Achebe and Haddad deal with the state of disorder and confusion from which many Africans suffered during and after colonization.