The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is a renowned African writer whose works have been widely studied. The present study approaches Achebe’s three novels from followership perspective against the familiar leadership perspective in previous studies. Studies on Achebe’s works which focus on followership remain unexplored....

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Main Author:	Akanbi, Afolabi Olarongbe
Format:	Thesis
Language:	eng eng eng
Published:	2019
Subjects:	HF5549-5549.5 Personnel Management Employment
Online Access:	https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/1/s900287_01.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/2/s900287_02.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/3/s900287_references.docx
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id	my-uum-etd.8774
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-uum-etd.87742022-02-16T01:43:06Z The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe 2019 Akanbi, Afolabi Olarongbe Abd Aziz, Noor Hashima Halim, Rohizah Awang Had Salleh Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Awang Had Salleh Graduate School of Arts & Sciences HF5549-5549.5 Personnel Management. Employment Chinua Achebe is a renowned African writer whose works have been widely studied. The present study approaches Achebe’s three novels from followership perspective against the familiar leadership perspective in previous studies. Studies on Achebe’s works which focus on followership remain unexplored. Therefore, this research was conducted with three objectives: a) to describe how Achebe portrays the followers and their powers in Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah from the post-colonial period and to explain why they were portrayed in such a manner, b) to identify the typologies of followership in these novels, and c) to show how the followers’ actions contributed to leadership failure in these novels. The theoretical perspectives that framed the study were Homi Bhabha’s Post-Colonial Theory that is, Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse and Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The data were obtained by analysing the novels using literary analysis. Literary devices such as metaphor, simile and personification were applied to explain the findings. The findings show that the ways the followers exercised their powers are different in the three novels. The followers in A Man of the People behaved as objects who exercised their powers blindly in support of the leaders which led to the leader’s failure. However, in Arrow of God, the followers behaved as subjects who exercised their powers to challenge the leader which led to a change of the status quo. The absolute powers accorded the leader initially contributed to his failure. In Anthills of the Savannah, the two typologies of followership (objects and subjects) are present. Some followers who condoned the wrong actions of the leader contributed to leadership failure. The findings have established the need to study Achebe’s novels from followership perspective. The study has also enriched the body of knowledge on followership research. The application of Homi Bhabha’s theory which is commonly used for leadership in post-colonial discourse has been found to be also suitable for followership studies. 2019 Thesis https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/ https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/1/s900287_01.pdf text eng public https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/2/s900287_02.pdf text eng public https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/3/s900287_references.docx text eng public other doctoral Universiti Utara Malaysia
institution	Universiti Utara Malaysia
collection	UUM ETD
language	eng eng eng
advisor	Abd Aziz, Noor Hashima Halim, Rohizah
topic	HF5549-5549.5 Personnel Management Employment
spellingShingle	HF5549-5549.5 Personnel Management Employment Akanbi, Afolabi Olarongbe The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe
description	Chinua Achebe is a renowned African writer whose works have been widely studied. The present study approaches Achebe’s three novels from followership perspective against the familiar leadership perspective in previous studies. Studies on Achebe’s works which focus on followership remain unexplored. Therefore, this research was conducted with three objectives: a) to describe how Achebe portrays the followers and their powers in Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah from the post-colonial period and to explain why they were portrayed in such a manner, b) to identify the typologies of followership in these novels, and c) to show how the followers’ actions contributed to leadership failure in these novels. The theoretical perspectives that framed the study were Homi Bhabha’s Post-Colonial Theory that is, Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse and Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The data were obtained by analysing the novels using literary analysis. Literary devices such as metaphor, simile and personification were applied to explain the findings. The findings show that the ways the followers exercised their powers are different in the three novels. The followers in A Man of the People behaved as objects who exercised their powers blindly in support of the leaders which led to the leader’s failure. However, in Arrow of God, the followers behaved as subjects who exercised their powers to challenge the leader which led to a change of the status quo. The absolute powers accorded the leader initially contributed to his failure. In Anthills of the Savannah, the two typologies of followership (objects and subjects) are present. Some followers who condoned the wrong actions of the leader contributed to leadership failure. The findings have established the need to study Achebe’s novels from followership perspective. The study has also enriched the body of knowledge on followership research. The application of Homi Bhabha’s theory which is commonly used for leadership in post-colonial discourse has been found to be also suitable for followership studies.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	other
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Akanbi, Afolabi Olarongbe
author_facet	Akanbi, Afolabi Olarongbe
author_sort	Akanbi, Afolabi Olarongbe
title	The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe
title_short	The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe
title_full	The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe
title_fullStr	The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe
title_full_unstemmed	The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe
title_sort	portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of chinua achebe
granting_institution	Universiti Utara Malaysia
granting_department	Awang Had Salleh Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
publishDate	2019
url	https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/1/s900287_01.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/2/s900287_02.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8774/3/s900287_references.docx
_version_	1747828457781329920

The portrayals of people's power in three selected post-colonial novels of Chinua Achebe

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