Crisis of filiation: exile and return in Munonye's trilogy

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Periodical article

Title:	Crisis of filiation: exile and return in Munonye's trilogy
Author:	Akwanya, A.N.
Year:	1999
Periodical:	Okike: an African Journal of New Writing
Issue:	41
Pages:	88-108
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	literature novels
About person:	John Munonye (1929-1999)
Abstract:	In the writings of John Munonye (Nigeria, 1929) exile and rootlessness are the main discourse formatives. This article focuses on three of his novels, 'The only son' (1966), 'Obi' (1969) and 'Bridge to a wedding' (1978). In these historical novels the colonist's and the traditional African world do not clash, the exile-return sequence takes place as a historical narrative, with its oppositional format. The three novels form one story, connected at different levels: that of incidents, subjectivities and the domain of action. The present author pays particular attention to the formal aspects of these interconnections, such as the fact that the characters are not only individuals having identical names and characterizing features, but also individuals who are functionally equivalent, even when they appear in different sequences or portions of the story. Bibliogr.