"My God Tells Me" and "My Bible Says": Nigerian Pentecostalism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah
Adichie's Americanah has been studied by many. This paper looks at the portrait she paints in the novel of the Christian religion, especially Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria. This is an area that has remained understudied. Adichie is a Catholic, not a Pentecostal, and as a novelist she take...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Religion & literature
Year: 2023, Volume: 55, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 233-255 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi 1977-, Americanah
/ Nigeria
/ Pentecostal churches
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KDG Free church |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Adichie's Americanah has been studied by many. This paper looks at the portrait she paints in the novel of the Christian religion, especially Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria. This is an area that has remained understudied. Adichie is a Catholic, not a Pentecostal, and as a novelist she takes a degree of creative license in the composition of her work. The author's religious background, therefore, complicates the correspondence between what she says thereof and the real-world praxis of the thousands of neo-Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. At the same time, however, this article maintains that her portrait of Nigerian neo-Pentecostalism is largely informed by the real-world practices of these churches. And because these practices have sometimes been taken to ridiculous and, indeed, fanatical heights by some Nigerian Pentecostals, they become, in the novel, the objects of her satire and criticism. Hence, hers is, in fictional form, a commentary on the Pentecostal phenomenon in Nigeria, amidst many others in the form of nonfiction. The paper adds not only to the existing body of scholarship on Americanah but also to the study of Pentecostal Christianity in African literature. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/rel.2024.a948412 |
