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Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart

This paper explores the magnum opus of Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, through the lenses of religion by looking at the encounter of Christianity with Traditional African religion as recanted by the author in the novel. However, in going about this, the paper, using the critical and textual analy...

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Main Author: Owoyemi, Musa Yusof
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: British Journal Publishing 2012
Subjects:
B Philosophy (General)
Online Access:http://repo.uum.edu.my/7439/1/H2.pdf
http://repo.uum.edu.my/7439/
http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx
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spelling my.uum.repo.74392013-05-22T08:09:51Z http://repo.uum.edu.my/7439/ Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart Owoyemi, Musa Yusof B Philosophy (General) This paper explores the magnum opus of Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, through the lenses of religion by looking at the encounter of Christianity with Traditional African religion as recanted by the author in the novel. However, in going about this, the paper, using the critical and textual analysis methods, tries to put the question of the religiosity of some of the characters in the play to the scrutiny of the concept of the origin of religion as proposed by Sigmund Freud and Emile Durkheim in their works. The idea is to see if religion in the Ibo Africa community and as recanted by Achebe have their origins in the propositions of these two western scholars. The result, based on the narration of Achebe shows that in terms of Freud, this is far from the truth and it is hard to fully grand his theory in the African religions as posited by Achebe - although one finds some semblance of his submissions in this epic encounter of religions in Achebe's novel and in the society and character of some of the actors, but nonetheless, it does not support his proposition fully as expected. As for Durkheim, to large extent, his propositions conform to the narration of Achebe in the novel and support his theory but it cannot fully explain the religious rigidity of the main character in the novel Okonkwo. On the encounter of the two religions, the paper posits that it was an encounter which destabilizes an otherwise stable and progressive society. British Journal Publishing 2012 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://repo.uum.edu.my/7439/1/H2.pdf Owoyemi, Musa Yusof (2012) Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart. British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 10 (11). pp. 175-187. ISSN 2046-9578 http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx
institution Universiti Utara Malaysia
building UUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Utara Malaysia
content_source UUM Institutionali Repository
url_provider http://repo.uum.edu.my/
language English
topic B Philosophy (General)
spellingShingle B Philosophy (General)
Owoyemi, Musa Yusof
Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart
description This paper explores the magnum opus of Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, through the lenses of religion by looking at the encounter of Christianity with Traditional African religion as recanted by the author in the novel. However, in going about this, the paper, using the critical and textual analysis methods, tries to put the question of the religiosity of some of the characters in the play to the scrutiny of the concept of the origin of religion as proposed by Sigmund Freud and Emile Durkheim in their works. The idea is to see if religion in the Ibo Africa community and as recanted by Achebe have their origins in the propositions of these two western scholars. The result, based on the narration of Achebe shows that in terms of Freud, this is far from the truth and it is hard to fully grand his theory in the African religions as posited by Achebe - although one finds some semblance of his submissions in this epic encounter of religions in Achebe's novel and in the society and character of some of the actors, but nonetheless, it does not support his proposition fully as expected. As for Durkheim, to large extent, his propositions conform to the narration of Achebe in the novel and support his theory but it cannot fully explain the religious rigidity of the main character in the novel Okonkwo. On the encounter of the two religions, the paper posits that it was an encounter which destabilizes an otherwise stable and progressive society.
format Article
author Owoyemi, Musa Yusof
author_facet Owoyemi, Musa Yusof
author_sort Owoyemi, Musa Yusof
title Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart
title_short Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart
title_full Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart
title_fullStr Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart
title_full_unstemmed Achebe, Freud, Durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: A religious exploration of things fall apart
title_sort achebe, freud, durkheim and the encounter of sacred traditions: a religious exploration of things fall apart
publisher British Journal Publishing
publishDate 2012
url http://repo.uum.edu.my/7439/1/H2.pdf
http://repo.uum.edu.my/7439/
http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx
_version_ 1644279539916865536
score 13.211869

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