Encountering Difference – Africa and the Other (Fall 2018)
Short Paper Assignment
(i) INSTRUCTIONS: In response to the question below, write a well-organized, lucid essay of between 5-
6 pages (typed, double-spaced, 12-font, Times New Roman). Due Date: October 5th 2018 (Last day before
the Fall Break: I will grade all papers over the break)
(ii) Argument, Length, Format: As we have practiced in journals, learning how to identify historical
arguments and central propositions, you must now craft an essay that has your own central
argument/central proposition or arguable thesis in the Introduction of your essay. You must sustain that
argument consistently throughout the paper. Your response must be analytical and not a summary or
regurgitation of events in the novel. Just as in our weekly responses, in each of your subsequent paragraphs,
use the novel as evidence to come up with your own reasoned argument and sustain that argument in your
essay without contradicting it. No outside research is required (you can only consult approved
recommended sources below) – the question is based on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The paper
should be 5-6 pages long, typed and double-spaced. (Please make sure that you use formal language,
paying attention to your use of grammar, tenses, etc.). Proof-read!
During the Writing Week beginning on September 27
th
, I will be happy to review drafts of your Intros,
looking for your central arguments/theses, and also discuss the evidentiary material you intend to use in the
essay. Consultation hours will be every week day from 9/27-10/4, 10:00am-12:00pm. However, I will not
read full drafts. There are no extensions on the due date (I will NOT read/grade late papers).
Special Guest: Prof. Monica Locker, Assessment, Teaching & Learning Librarian will visit our class on
October 2nd, and will share some important tips on “Writing and Plagiarism”. (Contact
Email: mlocker@holycross.edu)
(iii) Prompt:
1. “The white man is very clever. …He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we
have fallen apart” (Okonkwo’s words, Things Fall Apart, p. 176). As one author argued, “what
defines Things Fall Apart as the quintessential African (post)colonial text is the interplay of
encounters and engagements…” (Ouzgane & Okome, 2009), a balancing act of encounters
between outsiders and insiders, our larger Cluster theme. Why do you think Chinua Achebe
chose the title “Things Fall Apart” for his novel, and how useful is Things Fall Apart to our
understanding of how Africans interpreted their colonial encounters and engagements with
Europeans in the late nineteenth century?
(iv) Required Source: 1. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart.
Recommended sources: 1. Listen to Achebe’s own reading and analysis of TFA at the Library of Congress
in Washington D.C. – follow this link:

p_video
2. Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa”, in Research in African Literatures, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1978,
pp. 1-15
3. Harry Odamtten, “The Significance of Things Fall Apart to African Historiography”, in
Interventions, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 161-165
4. Emad Mirmotahari, “History as project and source in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, in
Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 373-385
5. Lahoucine Ouzgane & Onookome Okome, “Encounters and Engagements with Things Fall
Apart”, in Interventions, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 135-140
6. Hilary Dannenberg, “The Many Voices of Things Fall Apart”, in Interventions, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.
176-179
7. Neil Kortenaar, “Things Fall Apart in History”, in Interventions, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 166-170
Key Dates: Consultation days: 9/27-10/4, 10:00am-12:00pm (O’Kane 387)
Writing Week Guest Consultant: 10/2 class, Prof. Monica Locker, Assessment, Teaching & Learning Librarian
Due Date: 10/5, by 12:00pm
2
(v) Citations: Your paper should contain citations that give credit to quotations in the book OR to ideas
that come from another source.
You may use one of two standard formats for citations.
1. Parenthetical footnotes: Within the text of the paper, you include in parenthesis the name of
the author and page numbers. For example, (Achebe, 25)
2. Footnotes or endnotes: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Random House, New York, 1994,
p. 25.
A subsequent citation would read: Achebe, p. 28 or Ibid., pp.28-29.
(vi) Important note on sources: The sources listed above are the only ones that you should consult for
this paper. I am well aware of some websites that provide “papers” about other versions of this novel, and
in fact I have read these papers very carefully. I think very little of the analysis provided in the papers,
since the writers know almost nothing about African history. So, if you decide to use these “papers”
(illegally!) as sources for your own paper, you are warned in advance that:
1. I will know.
2. I think that the internet “papers” are garbage.
3. Your grade will suffer accordingly.