Chinua Achebe is Africa's most prominent writer, and Things Fall Apart (1958) is the most renowned and widely-read African novel in the global literary canon. The essays collected in this casebook explore the work's artistic, multicultural, and global significance from a variety of critical perspectives.

Introduction 1: Chinua Achebe: The African Writer and the English Language 2: Clement Okafor: Igbo Cosmology and the Parameters of Individual Accomplishment in Things Fall Apart 3: Damian U. Opata: Eternal Sacred Order versus Conventional Wisdom: A Consideration of Moral Culpability in the Killing of Ikemefuna in Things Fall Apart 4: Harold Scheub: "When a Man Fails Alone": A Man and his chi in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart 5: Neil ten Kortenaar: How the Center is Made to Hold in Things Fall Apart 6: Clayton G. MacKenzie: The Metamorphosis of Piety in Things Fall Apart 7: Rhonda Cobham: Problems of Gender and History in the Teaching of Things Fall Apart 8: Biodun Jeyifo: Okonkwo and His Mother: Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse 9: Bu-Buakei Jabbi: Fire and Transition in Things Fall Apart 10: Ato Quayson: Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart with an evaluation of Criticism Relating To It 11: Charles H. Rowell: An interview with Chinua Achebe Suggested Reading 1: The African Writer and the English Language: Chinua Achebe 2: Clement Okafor: Igbo Cosmology and the Parameters of Individual Accomplishment in Things Fall Apart 3: Damian U. Opata: Eternal Sacred Order versus Conventional Wisdom: A Consideration of Moral Culpability in the Killing of Ikemefuna in Things Fall Apart 4: Harold Scheub: When a Man Fails Alone: A Man and his Chi in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart 5: Neil ten Kortenaar: How the Center is Made to Hold in Things Fall Apart 6: Clayton G. MacKenzie: The Metamorphosis of Piety in Things Fall Apart 7: Rhonda Cobham: Problems of Gender and History in the Teaching of Things Fall Apart 8: Biodun Jeyifo: Okonkwo and His Mother: Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse 9: Bu-Buakei Jabbi: Fire and Transition in Things Fall Apart 10: Ato Quayson: Realism, Criticism, and the Disguises of Both: A Reading of Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart with an Evaluation of Criticism Relating To It 11: Charles H. Rowell: An interview with Chinua Achebe Suggested Reading

"Okpewho has been particularly successful in the careful selection of these essays which make the novel as relevant as it ever has been. What is most satisfying is not only the high quality of most of the essays, but also their overall arrangement so that they seem to be in dialogue with one another. This creates a logical thread throughout the book, and it makes for an engaging read."--African Studies Quarterly "Okpewho has been particularly successful in the careful selection of these essays which make the novel as relevant as it ever has been. What is most satisfying is not only the high quality of most of the essays, but also their overall arrangement so that they seem to be in dialogue with one another. This creates a logical thread throughout the book, and it makes for an engaging read."--African Studies Quarterly