Migration and Realism in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract

Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah uses realism to explore the
question of diaspora in the contemporary context of migration and
globalization. In literature realism aims at the reproduction of
objective reality with emphasis on the portrayal of everyday,
quotidian activities and life, primarily among the middle or lower
class society, without romantic idealization or dramatization. This
paper examines how Americanah raises a plurality of themes and
subthemes: studies in Philosophy, psychology, Politics, Race,
Gender, etc. Globalization occasions Migration. Chimamanda’s
perspective articulates the experience of Ifemefelu, a migrant that
is a template at once particular and universal. Americanah
collides the histories of race and colonialism. This paper shows
how this collusion enriches Anglo-American experiences of racial
formation and can be an invaluable tool for the archeology of
race, gender and normative performances. In Americanah Adichie
characterizes the global society as a multi-voiced body, a unity
composed of differences.