Join us on google meet!
This book group was started to provide the Caldwell University community a place to discuss great reads relevant to current events and issues. The group is a partnership between The Office of Student Advocacy and Prevention Awareness and Jennings Library and is open to students, faculty and staff.
Join us on Friday, March 26 at 11 am meet.google.com/jjg-ixfu-yzf and again on Friday, April 23 at 11 am meet.google.com/fzf-xnpr-poh to discuss Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
To read Americanah the ebook online, click the below link, then read online.
For more information, contact Adbul Staten astaten@caldwell.edu or Victoria Swanson viswanson@caldwell.edu.
What We're Reading Now
-
Americanah by ISBN: 9780307962126Publication Date: 2013From the award-winning, bestselling author of We Should All Be Feminists and Half of a Yellow Sun—the story of two Nigerians making their way in the U.S. and the UK, raising universal questions of race, belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for identity and a home. Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
Discussion Questions
Ifemelu gets her hair done in a salon in Trenton in the beginning of the book. Talk about the intersection of race, class and immigration status in this scene in the book.
How would you describe Aunty Uju as a character, as a woman, as a mother?
How does the family of Kim & her sister Laura and the husband Don & children (and the babysitting job) affect Ifemelu’s life?
The tennis coach. Discuss.
Ifemelu has depression. She writes a blog post “On the Subject of Non-American Blacks Suffering from Illnesses Whose Names They Refuse to Know.” Is it possible for mental illness to be cultural?
Adichie writes about the layers of racism for example on P205 Ifemelu’s blog post “Sometimes in America, Race is Class”. What other examples of racism does Ifemelu experience?
Adichie writes about “American blacks” issues with skin tone and black hair for example on P264. “They say the days of the paper bag test (look this up) are gone and let’s move forward”. Are ‘those days’ gone?
Ifemelu starts wearing her natural hair. Discuss.
Let’s talk about Obinze’s experience in London, his struggle to get work, the racism he experiences.
Let's discuss Ifemelu's relationships with Curt and Blaine.
Ifemelu writes a ‘Michelle Obama Shout-Out Plus Hair as Race Metaphor’ blog post. Discuss why hair is a useful way of examining race and culture.
Let’s talk about Mr. White, the security guard at Princeton and Ifemelu’s experience with him and also how Mr. White experiences racism.
How does Dike experience racism?
Discuss how Ifemelu is a different person returning to Nigeria.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
Explore Proquest's Black Freedom Struggle website, featuring expertly selected open primary source documents. Visitors will find historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more from specific time periods in U.S. history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom.
Suggested Further Readings & Videos
-
‘Reconfiguring Others’: Negotiating Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s AmericanahAkingbe, Niyi, and Adeniyi, Emmanuel. "‘Reconfiguring Others’: Negotiating Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah." Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 4, 2017. DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n4.05.
An examination of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah reveals a mapping of exponential growth of obtrusive racial tension which leaves in its wakes prejudice, acrimony and hatred. The article argues that despite its dialogic engagement with the possibility of harmonizing the varied characters’ racial/cultural backgrounds, Adichie’s Americanah’s experimentation with transculturalism faded in a miasma of morbid biases and despair. -
Narrative Ethics and Alterity in Adichie's Novel AmericanahBerning, Nora. "Narrative Ethics and Alterity in Adichie's Novel Americanah." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, vol. 17, no. 5, 2015, pp. 9. DOI:10.7771/1481-4374.2733.
In her article "Narrative Ethics and Alterity in Adichie's Novel Americanah" Nora Berning analyses Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel through the lens of a narrative ethics of alterity. -
Hair in Exile: Manifestations of Displacement, Difference, and Belongingness through Hair in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s AmericanahShuchi, Josephine R. Zote, and Department of Basic Sciences and Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Mizoram. "Hair in Exile: Manifestations of Displacement, Difference, and Belongingness through Hair in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah." Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 12, no. 6, 2020. DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.26.
One familiar phenomenon that is often found in diasporic identities is the preconceived idealization of their host lands prior to their displacement. Once disillusioned from this fantasy, the realities of their inhospitable surroundings set in, and a grave sense of displacement and nostalgia for their homelands continue to materialize. Such people often seek for a sense of home and communal consciousness connected to their homelands. In the case of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013), this connection manifests, and is explored by the protagonist, principally through hair.