5. Proverbs, Yams and the Rural World

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the use of proverbs in the novel, as well as the figurative language surrounding yams.

Course

In this course, Professor Stephen Morton (University of Southampton) discusses Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. The course begins by introducing the author himself and the publication on the novel, before moving on in the second module to think about narrative techniques in the novel. In the third module, we focus on the historical and geographical setting of the novel in Pre-colonial Nigeria, before moving on in the fourth module to think about the colonial encounter itself – particularly the presentation of the Christian missionaries. In the fifth module, we think about the use of proverbs in the novel, before turning in the sixth and final module to the genre (or genres) of the novel.

Lecturer

Professor Stephen Morton is a Professor of English at the University of Southampton.

He was appointed as a lecturer in Anglophone Literature at Southampton in 2003 after teaching at Tampere, Finland and studying at Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2008.

His research interests include Anglophone literatures from Canada, South Asia and the Caribbean, postcolonial theory, critical theory, poetics and politics, visual culture and globalisation.

He has published books, articles and reviews on postcolonial literature and theory, critical and cultural theory, visual culture, and recent Canadian writing.