Neohelicon
Volume/Issue:
Volume 38: Issue 2
From centre-stage to the wings: the process of cultural adjustment in arrow of god and tess of the d’urbervilles
Authors:
S. Akhuemokhan Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, P.M.B. 1154, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

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and
R. Masagbor Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, P.M.B. 1154, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

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Pages:
475–486
Online Publication Date:
11 Jan 2011
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2011
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-010-0078-1
Keywords:
Culture; Cell; Element; Centralization; Marginalization
Open access

Abstract  

The essay examines culture and cultural adjustment in two novels—Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe and Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Using Edward Said’s theory on culture as a foundation, it compares the relative elasticity of a fictional, precolonial West African society, Umuaro, with the relative stiffness of a fictional Victorian society, Wessex. The essay pictures culture as a large cell with core elements located at the centre, like a nucleus. The study then proceeds to apply this mental picture to the texts, seeing the two protagonists as analogous of core elements in their cultures and hence as equivalent to the nuclei at the centre of their respective cells. Both protagonists are pivotal figures initially. This is expressed symbolically in terms of the centralized position of the core elements in the cultural cell. At the end of the day, however, both protagonists have become social outcasts, which again is expressed symbolically in terms of the movement of the core elements away from the centre to the periphery. The essay concludes that the symbolic reproduction of culture re-inforces the literal one, and that Achebe and Hardy equally recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the communities they are describing.

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Cover Neohelicon
Neohelicon
Print ISSN:
0324-4652
Online ISSN:
1588-2810

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Neohelicon
Language English
Size B5
Year of
Foundation		 1973
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 2
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 0324-4652 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2810 (Online)

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