Re-contextualizing Postcolonial Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus: A Derridean Perspective

Abstract

The article explores the binary oppositions embedded in the maiden novel of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2003). It re-interprets the binary opposites from a Derridean perspective by attempting to re-contextualize the Postcolonial identity. Purple Hibiscus is a quintessential novel which encapsulates multiple perspectives of the colonizer and colonized and Adichie articulates postcolonial discourse which dismantles the Nigerian identity portrayed by the colonizer. Adichie in her TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story” states how a single story (narrative) can silence multiple perspectives by creating stereotypes.  The present study seeks to analyse the binary oppositions that underlie the dominant ways of thinking in postcolonial Nigeria. Derrida’s deconstructive strategy is adopted to exemplify the dichotomies. Derrida opines that human society and culture can only be understood through close analysis of language and its influence on human thought and society. Derridean view of systematic power encoded in language creates a hierarchical binary. This dominant force of power dynamics leads to the strategic resistance in postcolonial discourse. Eventually, the strategic resistance proclaims the identity of the oppressed in postcolonial context. The present study attempts to foreground the operations of binary oppositions such as tradition & modernity, silence & speech (voice), colonized & colonizer and power/resistance in Purple Hibiscus there by navigating the postcolonial identity.