A Study Of African Diaspora Identity In Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie（1977-）is a representative diasporic writer in Nigeria today.Based on her own diasporic experiences,Adichie has produced Americanah which describes the lives of those African diaspora in a foreign culture.In this novel,Americanah narrates diasporic living experiences of Ifemelu,a Nigerian immigrant for a scholarship in America.The author profoundly depicts the living conditions of African diaspora who immigrate abroad under the tide of globalization and their cultural identity plight when straddling between foreign culture and indigenous culture.In this process,they have all experienced confusion about their identity or even mental suffering,and made different cultural choices.Although studies at home and abroad have involved the interpretation of the cultural identities of the characters in the novel,there is still room for further interpretation in terms of the causes of their identity crisis and ways to construct their identities due to different research emphases.Therefore,from the perspective of diaspora criticism,this thesis aims to analyze the cultural identity of African diaspora,which may offer instructions to African diaspora in identity plight.This thesis covers five chapters.The first chapter gives a general knowledge of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,Americanah and studies on this novel from home and abroad.Besides,theories of diaspora criticism are introduced as well.The second chapter focuses on the two generations of African diaspora who have been marginalized and othered in front of western mainstream culture and expounds their identity plight without sense of belonging in the diasporic experience.The third chapter analyzes underlying reasons of the identity plight such as conflicts between African diaspora and white Americans who impose negative stereotypes on Africa and Africans and have public silence on racism.They also cannot identify with African Americans based on different national identity.The fourth chapter explores how African diaspora try to reconstruct their identity.Through admitting African culture and writing to have their own voice,they find a way to construct a positive hybridity.The fifth chapter is conclusion.Adichie uses return narratives to offer another strategy to get out of identity plight.