The Prophetic Statement in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Textual Comparison

Abstract

Oedipus the King and Things Fall Apart show fundamental similarities. This essay explores these similarities in an attempt to give more of a formalist interpretation and a somewhat fresh insight into Achebe’s path-breaking novel, anchored on his use of the prophetic statement. In drawing a comparison between the two texts, the paper is not seeking to engage in a “colonialist” or “neo-colonialist” critique. Rather, it employs the formalist approach to read Achebe’s timeless masterpiece beyond its use as an anthropological text in certain quarters of the Western academy in order to situate the novel in the tradition of the best literary writing.

Keywords: Formal critique; prophetic statement; fate; agency; proverbs; character; colonialism; cosmopolitanism