Essays Help (Achebe, Chinua Nigerian continued).
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More controversially, Achebe has defended the use of English and other European languages in the production of African fiction against those critics who suggest that authentic African experience can only be represented in an African language. On the one hand, this is because for Achebe, English — being "a language spoken by Africans on African soil" (Morning) — is an African language. As he suggests in "The African Writer and the English Language" ( 1964), English (as well as French and Arabic) also makes it possible for there to be national literatures in Africa which cut across the enormous linguistic differences present within each nation (essays help). Although he feels that the English language can express his experiences as an African, it is important to recognize that "it will have to be a new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit its African surroundings" (Morning) — a point which critics of Achebe’s stance have often failed to understand.
One of Achebe’s most famous and important essays – an essay (essays help) which he has described as his "standard-bearer" (Hopes) — is "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness" (1975). While admitting that Conrad is "undoubtedly one of the great stylists of modern fiction," Achebe draws attention to the fact that he is nevertheless "a thoroughgoing racist." In Achebe’s opinion, Western critics have praised Conrad’s novella while never addressing the racism at its core; Conrad depicts Africa as incomprehensible, frenzied, dark, grotesque, and dangerous, and Africans as ugly, inarticulate, inhuman, and savage. Achebe criticizes this failure, and effectively deals with a range of rejoinders which might be used to "save" Conrad from being labeled a racist (essays help). For example, while it may be possible to see these attitudes as those of Conrad’s character Marlow, Achebe claims that Conrad "neglects to hint, clearly and adequately, at an alternative form of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters." While it is now common for literary critics to approach fictional works through a consideration of issues such as race, Achebe’s criticism of Conrad is an early and influential example of the shift of literary criticism toward a more explicit treatment of the broader politics of fiction.
It is Addison’s immersion both in the world of academic learning and in the work of the politicized civil service which gives particular experiential weight to his essays. But, although written at a time of bitter partisan controversy in politics and religion, the essays endeavor to be nonpartisan in expression. Their success, in this respect, is indicative of Addison’s major historical role in establishing the parameters and discourse of a generally acceptable "polite" culture in the 18th century (essays help).
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