Writing and identity in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the writing and identity of Ifemelu, central character in the novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In my analysis, I intend to discuss the character’s act of writing and, consequently, Adichie’s writing as dialoguing directly with a (Black) female literary tradition, built on the premise that writing can be a way to elaborate and to build a sense of identity, previously denied to women. Thus, it is my argument that writing enables women to develop or recover a formerly silenced voice, as well as to build new spaces in which this voice can reverberate into action and subjectivity.