Graceland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Graceland - Essay Example him a jail sentence twice and even landing him on the death row; it was only with the help of the intervention of his friends that he was able to escape a politically motivated execution. He migrated to the UK where he earned his Master’s in Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College in London and later an MA in English and a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Southern California. Abani later went on to become professor for creative writing and the University of California. Chris Abani has been called as one of the so called third generation of Nigerian authors, the ‘children of the post colony’, he is a breed of writers whose works have become integral to the publishing world of today. In this novel Abani leverages his unique perspectives of African and Western cultures in the context of multiculturalism, globalization and neocolonialism. One of the key compelling factors of this novel is its multifaceted approach that challenges and questions western and particularly American cultural, economic and colonial intervention into a globalized Africa. There is a richness in the novel which stems from Abani’s own multicultural perspectives and wealth of experiences from both within and without the power structure that offer a nuanced and complex portrait of modern day globalized Africa. In this regard Graceland shares a niche with such novels as Helen Oyeyemi’s ‘The Icarus Girl’, Sefi Atta’s ‘Everything g ood will come’, Unoma Azuah’s ‘Sky High’ all of which integrate Western and Nigerian themes in their quest to project a unique perspective of nuanced Nigerian culture in the light of the triple themes of Neocolonialism, multiculturalism and globalization. The resulting product is singularly unique in its depiction of intercultural themes, of an ethno-cultural fusion that represents the new age of integrated globalized hybridity so characteristic of the modern literary era. The novel is set in a Nigeria parallel to