COLONIAL RESISTANCE AND GENDER BIAS IN ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART: A CRITICAL DECONSTRUCTION

Abstract

Critical discourse on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has often been disproportionately focused on two dominant themes: the marginalization of women in pre-colonial Igbo society and the critique of European colonial incursion into African culture. These prevailing interpretations assert that the novel denigrates the female folk while valorizing traditional African values over European ones. This paper interrogates these assumptions through the lens of Jacques Derrida’s deconstructionist theory. By identifying and challenging the binary oppositions embedded in these dominant readings—such as male/female, tradition/colonialism, and self/other—the study re-evaluates the novel's thematic structure. The analysis reveals textual instances that complicate, and in some cases, subvert these binary narratives, suggesting a more nuanced portrayal of both women and colonial forces. The paper argues that common interpretations may reflect an oversimplification or misreading of Achebe’s intentions, and that Things Fall Apart is open to alternative readings that resist rigid ideological framing. Ultimately, this work contributes to broader postcolonial and gender debates by illuminating the text’s complexity and its resistance to definitive categorization.