Exploring Achebe’s storytelling style in a literature classroom

Abstract

Chinua Achebe, as an icon of African Literature, has distinguished himself as a teacher par excellence and enjoys world acclaim as “the bestselling  author…. (and) among the most powerful and original writers in English fiction” (Publisher‟s blurb). A simple answer to the „secret of fiction‟ of his success  as a master artist lies in his unique style of storytelling. This paper, therefore, explores two features of his style which pervade his entire fiction,  namely, jurisprudence and pedagogy. The classroom teacher of English Literature or Literature in English will demonstrate his teacher competence by  drawing attention of his learners to the stylistic devices used in a literary text and explains how they enhance literary corpus. The stylistic devices are  consciously or unconsciously woven into a literary work to make thematic statements. The burden of this essay is poor communicative competence of  Nigerian leaners of English, the nation‟s official language. Another problem is the learners‟ poor reading culture, which results in poor storytelling. The paper is not unaware of other features of Achebe‟s style, which he has harnessed to teach his infinite audience. It must be pointed out though that this  essay does not say the final word on the features of Achebe‟s style for examination in this essay. The novels of Achebe that are used for this analysis are  Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease while the paper adopts literary research.