Writing a New Reputation: Liminality and Bicultural Identity in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah

Chinenye Amonyeze

SAGE Open, 2017, vol. 7, issue 2, 2158244017712773

Abstract: Turner’s liminality describes a phase in social life wherein the confrontation between activity which has no structure and its structured results produces in men their highest pitch of self-consciousness. Ifemelu is one of the faces of America’s growing youth immigrants whose liminal state is suspended between social structures in a state of continuous transition. The article examines Chimamanda Adichie’s modern mythic characters as positive models of Nigerian immigration responding to negative racial stereotypes. The essay analyzes how Americanah , as a fiction of reputation management, renegotiates image rights of immigrants and minorities on a humanistic template engendering social compact of respect and mutual understanding. Adichie’s redemptive narrative stresses the bicultural fix of economic exiles, affirming vision of a new cultural space for Africans at home and in the Diaspora. Focusing on the survival and agency of Black immigrants, Adichie advocates immigrants’ proud avowal of their bicultural identity in a neo-colonial space.

Keywords: liminality; biculturalism; racism; image rights; immigrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:7:y:2017:i:2:p:2158244017712773

DOI: 10.1177/2158244017712773

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