DECOLONIAL RESISTANCE AND REARTICULATONS OF THE IDENTITY IN AMERICANAH, BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Abstract

The present article studies some aspects of decolonial resistance and identity rearticulations in the work of the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, focusing mainly on the novel Americanah, published in Brazil in 2014. Our research is based on the studies of Gayatri Spivak (2017) on literature and representation; Grada Kilomba (2019), on the new pedagogies of racism; Bernardino-Costa (2019) regarding the relations between the concepts of decoloniality and afro-diasporic thought; and Cláudio Braga (2019), who articulates a definition of cultural decolonization along with the literary context, focusing on the novel Americanah. The role of the Internet as a new enunciative place of resistance in the trajectory of Ifemelu, the lead character of Americanah, is here closely analyzed. Her life is investigated in a diasporic context, in the moment she rearticulates her identity in search of happiness and self-knowledge. Cultural decolonization is an essential issue to black people, and the novel represents them as subjects of their own narratives, in opposition to the canonical perspective. The voice of a black immigrant female as a lead character not only guides the whole creative process of the novel but also brings to the center of the representation a new subject, contributing to widen the studies on contemporary culture and society.