“Chike’s School Days” And “Dead Men’s Path” By Chinua Achebe: A Phenotextualization Of Religionwise Culture Shock

Casimir KOMENAN

Maître-Assistant

Département d’Anglais

Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny

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Abstract: Using Edmond Cros’s sociocriticism, the article shows the extent to which Chinua Achebe phenotextualizes religionwise culture shock in such short stories as “Chike’s School Days” and “Dead Men’s Path.” Achebe puts into phenotext the religious conflict between Christianity and Odinani by portraying and verbalizing insubordinate and alienated characters like Amos, Sarah, Elizabeth, Chike and Michael Obi, who reject Odinani, the Igbo traditional religion, because of their inferiority and superiority complexes, as well as their spiritual intolerance. It appears from the religiously and culturally antagonistic genotext and phenotext penned by Achebe that Christianity actually is as “the humanitarian religion,” “the Fascist Religion,” which questions, transgresses, opposes, tyrannizes, swallows up and brings down Odinani.

Keywords: Achebe, Christianity, Cros, culture shock, Igbo, Odinani, phenotextualization, religionwise, short stories, sociocriticism.

Resume: Using Edmond Cros’s sociocriticism, the article shows the extent to which Chinua Achebe phenotextualizes religionwise culture shock in such short stories as “Chike’s School Days” and “Dead Men’s Path.” Achebe puts into phenotext the religious conflict between Christianity and Odinani by portraying and verbalizing insubordinate and alienated characters like Amos, Sarah, Elizabeth, Chike and Michael Obi, who reject Odinani, the Igbo traditional religion, because of their inferiority and superiority complexes, as well as their spiritual intolerance. It appears from the religiously and culturally antagonistic genotext and phenotext penned by Achebe that Christianity actually is as “the humanitarian religion,” “the Fascist Religion,” which questions, transgresses, opposes, tyrannizes, swallows up and brings down Odinani.

Mots clefs:  Achebe, christianité, Cros, choc culturel, odinani, phenotextualisation, religieux, sociocritique

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