Half Of A Yellow Sun

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • From the award-winning, bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—a haunting story of love and war. • Recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Winner of Winners” award. With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war.

Unlock the more straightforward side of Half of a Yellow Sun with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a gripping novel set against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War in the 1960s, when the Igbo people attempted to secede from Nigeria to found the Republic of Biafra. The novel depicts the ravages of war as seen through the eyes of a handful of mostly Igbo characters, whose personal lives become inextricably intertwined with the fate of their country. Half of a Yellow Sun won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction, and a film adaptation starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton was released in 2014. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most influential Nigerian writers active today, and has published a variety of novels, short stories and nonfiction works. Her debut novel Purple Hibiscus was longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. Find out everything you need to know about Half of a Yellow Sun in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

‘A delicious, important novel’ The Times ‘Alert, alive and gripping’ Independent ‘Some novels tell a great story and others make you change the way you look at the world. Americanah does both’ Guardian

Frontcover -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. Narrating the Past: Orality, History & the Production of Knowledge in the Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- 2. Deconstructing Binary Oppositions of Gender in Purple Hibiscus: A Review of Religious/Traditional Superiority & Silence -- 3. Adichie & the West African Voice: Women & Power in Purple Hibiscus -- 4. Reconstructing Motherhood: A Mutative Reality in Purple Hibiscus -- 5. Ritualized Abuse in Purple Hibiscus -- 6. Dining Room & Kitchen: Food-Related Spaces & their Interfaces with the Female Body in Purple Hibiscus -- 7. The Paradox of Vulnerability: The Child Voice in Purple Hibiscus -- 8. 'Fragile Negotiations': Olanna's Melancholia in Half of a Yellow Sun -- 9. The Biafran War & the Evolution of Domestic Space in Half of a Yellow Sun -- 10. Corruption in Post-Independence Politics: Half of a Yellow Sun as a Reflection of A Man of the People -- 11. Contrasting Gender Roles in Male-Crafted Fiction with Half of a Yellow Sun -- 12. 'A Kind of Paradise': Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Claim to Agency, Responsibility & Writing -- 13. Dislocation, Cultural Memory & Transcultural Identity in Select Stories from The Thing Around Your Neck -- 14. 'Reverse Appropriations' & Transplantation in Americanah -- 15. Revisiting Double Consciousness & Relocating the Self in Americanah -- 16. Adichie's Americanah: A Migrant Bildungsroman -- 17. 'Hairitage' Matters: Transitioning & the Third Wave Hair Movement in 'Hair', 'Imitation' & Americanah -- Appendix: The Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- Index

:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), revolves around the changing lives of its three internally focalized protagonists and their romantic and sexual partners as they live through the Nigerian-Biafran War of 1967-1970. Half of a Yellow Sun contrasts female sexual empowerment with scenes of sexual exploitation and rape, highlighting the realities of sexual exploitation and simultaneously rejecting the notion that women, as sexual beings, are solely victims of sexual abuse. The novel's polyvocal internalized focalization, brings to light the realities of sexual violence, in juxtaposition with the empowerment of sexual intimacy, exposing patriarchal discourse about women and women survivors of rape. Above all, Half of a Yellow Sun magnifies the absence of the narratives of sexual abuse victims in order to conclusively condemn the male-dominated discourse on rape and rape culture, where perpetrators control the narrative, and victims' voices are silenced."--Abstract.

In 1960S Nigeria, A Country Blighted By Civil War, Three Lives Intersect. Ugwu, A Boy From A Poor Village, Works As A Houseboy For A University Lecturer. Olanna, A Young Woman, Has Abandoned Her Life Of Privilege In Lagos To Live With Her Charismatic New Lover, The Professor. The Third Is Richard, A Shy Englishman In Thrall To Olanna'S Enigmatic Twin Sister. When The Shocking Horror Of The War Engulfs Them, Their Loyalties Are Severely Tested As They Are Pulled Apart And Thrown Together In Ways That None Of Them Imagined&

This first comprehensive study of the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970) through the lens of gender explores the valiant and gallant ways women carried out old and new responsibilities in wartime and immediate postwar Nigeria. The book presents women as embodiments of vulnerability and agency, who demonstrated remarkable resilience and initiative, waging war on all fronts in the face of precarious conditions and scarcities, and maximizing opportunities occasioned by the hostilities. Women’s experiences are highlighted through critical analyses of oral interviews, memoirs, life histories, fashion and material culture, international legal conventions, music, as well as governmental and non-governmental sources. The book fills the gap in the war scholarship that has minimized women’s complex experiences fifty years after the hostilities ended. It highlights the cost of the conflict on Nigerian women, their participation in the hostilities, and their contributions to the survival of families, communities and the country. The chapters present counter-narratives to fictional and nonfictional accounts of the war, especially those written by men, which often peripheralize or stereotypically represent women as passive spectators or helpless victims of the conflict; and also highlight and exaggerate women’s moral laxity and sensationalize their marital infidelities.

SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides for challenging works of literature. This 58-page guide for "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 37 chapters, as well as several more in-depth sections of expert-written literary analysis. Featured content includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay topics, and key themes like The Horrors of War and Sectarian Identity Crises.

Provides a comprehensive overview of the best writers and works of the current English-speaking literary world.

This book contributes to a growing corpus of writing on the body, bringing new perspectives to this fascinating and topical subject. Feminist, psychoanalytic and queer readings, among others, have demonstrated the extent of the functions and roles fulfilled by the body, as well as the number of critical perspectives it can serve. However, by and large, African representations of the body have been overlooked. This coherent volume brings together essays on the portrayal of the body in African art, film, literature, photography and theatre. The book includes thematically linked contributions which explore issues of power and representation, and reflects current trends in the study of the body and more broadly within the field of African Studies.

This book analyzes the impact of the Nigeria-Biafra war on the Igbo, the failure of the reconstruction and reconciliation effort in the post-war period, and the politics of exclusion of the memory of the war in public discourse in Nigeria, arguing that the war had lasting consequences for the socio-political developments in the post-war period.

This work examines the work of a group of African women writers who have emerged over the last forty years. While figures such as Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri and Wole Soyinka are likely to be the chief focus of discussions of African writing, female authors have been at the forefront of fictional interrogations of identity formation and history. In the work of authors such as Mariama Bâ (Senegal), Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), and Leila Aboulela (Sudan), there is a clear attempt to subvert the tradition of male writing where the female characters are often relegated to the margins of the culture, and confined to the domestic, private sphere. This body of work has already generated a significant number of critical responses, including readings that draw on gender politics and colonialism, but it is still very much a minor literature, and most mainstream western feminism has not sufficiently processed it. The purpose of this book is three-fold. First, it draws together some of the most important and influential African women writers of the post-war period and looks at their work, separately and together, in terms of a series of themes and issues, including marriage, family, polygamy, religion, childhood, and education. Second, it demonstrates how African literature produced by women writers is explicitly and polemically engaged with urgent political issues that have both local and global resonance: the veil, Islamophobia and a distinctively African brand of feminist critique. Third, it revisits Fredric Jameson’s claim that all third-world texts are “national allegories” and considers these novels by African women in relation to Jameson’s claim, arguing that their work has complicated Jameson’s assumptions.

Half Of A Sun in YellowA haunting love and war tale from Americanah's best-selling author, and We Should All Be Feminists. With effortless grace, renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: the impassioned struggle of Biafra in the late 1960s to create an independent republic in south-east Nigeria. This turbulent decade we are witnessing alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy working for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the beautiful young mistress of the professor who has given up her life in Lagos for a dusty city and the beauty of her lover; and Richard, a timid young Englishman infatuated with the willing twin sister of Olanna, Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is an incredibly evocative novel about the Biafran war's promise, hope, and disappointment.

The Routledge Companion to World Cinema explores and examines a global range of films and filmmakers, their movements and audiences, comparing their cultural, technological and political dynamics, identifying the impulses that constantly reshape the form and function of the cinemas of the world. Each of the forty chapters provides a survey of a topic, explaining why the issue or area is important, and critically discussing the leading views in the area. Designed as a dynamic forum for forty-three world-leading scholars, this companion contains significant expertise and insight and is dedicated to challenging complacent views of hegemonic film cultures and replacing outmoded ideas about production, distribution and reception. It offers both a survey and an investigation into the condition and activity of contemporary filmmaking worldwide, often challenging long-standing categories and weighted—often politically motivated—value judgements, thereby grounding and aligning the reader in an activity of remapping which is designed to prompt rethinking.

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—a dazzling story collection filled with "indelible characters who jump off the page and into your head and heart" (USA Today). In these twelve riveting stories, the award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie's signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.