Narration and Perspective in Chinua Achebe’s There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

Abstract

Critical forays into Chinua Achebe’s There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra have basically tended to dwell on the political side of the text, no doubt because it is predominantly informed by politics; hence, it is a personal account with a heavy dose of political issues resulting in war and violence. But the technicality of narration of the memoir and its perspective, no less worthy of critical engagements, have hardly received sustained criticism. This paper occupies that critical opening. It is made out that the pattern of narration of the account, and the perspective from which the narrative is laid out exist side by side in the text, and it is these that together contribute to the authenticity of the art of the memoir and the individuality of the same. Julia Kristeva’s notion of the figure of “double destinations” in her theory of intertextuality is adopted in this reading to aid comprehension of these two intertwining components, narration and perspective, which together form the basis of the art and individuality of the memoir.