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English Text Construction
Vol. 16:1 (2023) ► pp.1–29

“May the path never close”

A Deleuze-Guattarian reading of Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah

ORCID logo | University of Isfahan
ORCID logo | University of Isfahan

Resistance to postcolonial oppressive ideologies assumes significance within Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah (1987), portraying predicaments of a post-independence fictional African state of Kangan. Drawing on the Deleuze-Guattarian “ontology of becoming”, “rhizome”, “nomad thought”, distinction of “striated” and “smooth” spaces, their account of the “State Apparatus” and the “war machine”, and “assemblage”, the study demonstrates how Achebe entertains possibilities of convergence with their philosophy. It displays how the Kangan people, while engaging in “ontology of becoming”, strive to deterritorialise themselves from Sam’s State that attempts to define their subjectivity. Concurrently, Sam’s State implements varieties of schemes to re-subjugate its subjects under its territorial authority. The study concludes how the war machine’s menacing force eventually destabilises the whole “State Apparatus”.

Keywords: Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah , Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, “ontology of becoming”, “striated” and “smooth” spaces, the “State Apparatus” and the “war machine”, “assemblage”
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discussion
    • 2.1The ontology of becoming
    • 2.2Rhizome
    • 2.3Nomadism
    • 2.4Space
    • 2.5De/reterritorialisation
    • 2.6The State Apparatus and the war machine
    • 2.7Assemblage
  • 3.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 17 November 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.21013.abb
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