WE HAVE FALLEN APART: o legado colonial em Purple Hibiscus de Chimamanda Adichie e Things Fall Apart de Chinua Achebe

Abstract

The present thesis proposes the study of the consequences of British colonialism over the Federal Republic of Nigeria concerning religion, education, language, race and gender, having as objects of analyses Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe and Purple Hibiscus (2003) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The way in which literature is written and read has been changing throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, opening space to the postcolonial literatures, that is, literatures that have as a common background the fact that they come from the experience of colonialism. Propelled by this context, African literary production has been achieving space and renown in the global scenery. This work aims to relate literature and social-political situation, bringing to the debate historically silenced voices, opening possibilities to resist the colonial gaze while investigating the Nigerian literature. Even though the british colonial rule has come to an end, the consequences of this politics are still present in the daily lives of that people, in the fact that traditional religion was brutally substituted by Christianism, in the ancient languages replaced by English, in the educational system that took over home schooling, in the valorization of white skin and the patriarchal power system. Literature has a central role in establishing colonial structures and this work tries to convert literature into a liberation tool.