Deciphering Silences, Interpreting (In) visibility, and Explicating Spatio-temporal Manipulation in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah.

In Adichie's first novel, Purple Hibiscus, silence is rendered sufficiently palpable to be differentiated. Kambili is keenly aware of "a different kind of silence, one that lets [her] breathe"; then there is "the other kind" associated with "things" she "cannot name." The author links silence of a m...

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Publicado en:English in Africa Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 25 - 48
Autor principal: Owusu, Kofi
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Institute for the Study of English in Africa Apr2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Deciphering Silences, Interpreting (In) visibility, and Explicating Spatio-temporal Manipulation in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah.
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        au: Owusu, Kofi
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        Americanah (Book : Adichie)
        Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 1977-
        Authors
        Fiction
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          Americanah (Book : Adichie)
          Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 1977-
          Authors
          Fiction
      keyword:
        (in)visibility
        9/11
        globalectics
        non-linear narration
        silences
        time's malleability
      ab: In Adichie's first novel, Purple Hibiscus, silence is rendered sufficiently palpable to be differentiated. Kambili is keenly aware of "a different kind of silence, one that lets [her] breathe"; then there is "the other kind" associated with "things" she "cannot name." The author links silence of a markedly different variety to wilful ignorance and associates the latter with unspeakable atrocities in the next novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, focused on the Nigeria-Biafra War. Taking my cue from the previous novels, in this article I treat silence in the third novel, Americanah, as decipherable; I track the trace absence leaves behind in the novel; and I interpret what the novel renders (in) visible. To account for the manipulation of time (then - now) and space (here there) in Americanah, the article advances Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's globalectic method of reading as a preferred model for Adichie's multi-layered text with a tri-continental setting.
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