Final paper of the course requires you to describe the African novelist Chinua Achebe’s theory of the novel as a genre and an art form as elaborated in his essay “An Image of Africa” (which we are reading as a class) and then to discuss how his novel Things Fall Apart, our last major reading requirement of the semester, is a specific exampleof that particular theory of the novel in action: use specific evidence or elements from Things Fall Apartto show how that work is the kind of novel Achebe believes should be written, based, again, on his essay “An Image of Africa.”

Some concrete points and a rough timeline for the paper follow:

1. It needs to be a minimum of five (5) pages, not counting MLA Works Cited page. Intext citations should be more than 7 and have correct page numbers.

2. Minimum of two (2) required sources: “An Image of Africa” and Things Fall Apart. I will provide you with full citation information for “An Image of Africa.” Please note that you are not required or encouraged to do outside research for this paper; however, if you consult and use any source other than the above two, you have to provide full citations.

Answer preview

Description of Achebe’s Theory of a Novel

In his lecture, titled An image of Africa, Chinua Achebe develops his theory of a novel as an art form that is based on good faith (Achebe 784). At the onset of his lecture, Achebe narrates an encounter he had with a white student who looked older than him. From Chinua’s rather short conversation with the unnamed person, Chinua highlights how shocked his companion was to discover that there was a subject known as African literature. The brief engagement highlights how the absence of information on Africa tends to alter people’s…