LIT 4385 Spring 2025 - Okonkwo

This course focuses on the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977-). It introduces students to the life and work of a multiple-award-winning Nigerian and African writer often dubbed Chinua Achebe’s literary daughter. Since taking the literary world by storm, as we say, with her debut novel Purple Hibiscus (2003), Adichie has emerged as one of the most recognized names and sought-after speakers, humanists, and public intellectuals in recent history. From her TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” now viewed by millions, her riveting novel Americanah, and her feminist manifesto Dear Ijeawale to her sampling by Beyonce, her provocative remarks about gender, and more recently her meditation Notes on Grief, penned upon the death of her father, the Adichie canon has grown exponentially. Her work has been translated into dozens of languages. And in addition to invited, public conversations with world leaders, she has received honorary doctorates from prestigious institutions around the world. In this course, we will read Adichie’s works: her novels, a selection of her short stories and essays, supplementing them with scholarship on her oeuvre and in-class viewing of some of her public intellectual activity. Aside from the course’s goals of deepening students’ appreciation of African literature and Adichie’s standing as a major writer, it is also my hope that the course will strengthen students’ research, analytical, and public speaking skills.