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Literary critics have long interpreted Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart as a conscious retelling of African society. However, this essay will explore the text as a response to John Buchan’s Prester John and its genre of imperial romance. Contextualizing Prester John within its historical moment allows for an anthropological exploration of imperial romance. In turn, Achebe’s novel counters Buchan’s treatment of setting, particularly land and the ownership of land, through its adherence to a genre of ethnographic fiction, problematizing the imperial adventurer’s claim to space, community, and ownership.
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