Home And Exile Av Chinua Achebe

<p>This trenchant and illuminating book by one of Africa''s most influential and celebrated writers is a major statement on the importance and dangers of stories, one in which Achebe makes telling use of his personal experiences to examine the political nature of culture and specifically literature.<br>It is the weaving of the personal into the bigger picture that makes <i>Home and Exile</i> so remarkable and affecting. It''s the closest we are likely to get by way of Achebe''s autobiography but it is also a brilliantly argued critique of imperialism. Achebe challenges the way the West has appropriated Africa with a particular emphasis on how ''imperialist'' literature has been used to justify its dispossession and degradation.<br>Above all this is a book that articulates persuasively why literature matters. Stories are a real source of power in the world, Achebe concludes, and to imitate the literature of another culture is to give that power away.</p>