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

SAGE Open

Chinenye Amonyeze¹ 

关键词: liminality;    biculturalism;    racism;    image rights;    immigrants;   

DOI  :  10.1177/2158244017712773

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY