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19 November 2021
Episode 3+ BONUS - Adichie’s “Tomorrow Is Too Far”
How does one read a story which creates its own rules? What else should we ever do?
A sociological look at Adichie’s intersectionality, including a discussion of difference, second person narrative, linguistic compounding and kennings, feminism, and sociological theory for African writers and readers of African literature. Finally, we connect Adichie’s short story to works discussed earlier in the season.
One passage considered:
—
At Nonso’s funeral in a cold cemetery in Virginia with tombstones jutting out obscenely, your mother was in faded black from head to toe, even a veil, and it made her cinnamon skin glow, like placing a very ripe corn against a blackboard. Your father stood away from the both of you, in his usual dashiki, milk-coloured cowries coiled round his neck. He looked as if he was not family, as if he was one of the guests who sniffled loudly and later asked your mother in hushed tones exactly how Nonso had died, exactly how he had fallen from one of the trees he had climbed since he was a toddler.
—
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/adichie-tomorrow-is-too-far/
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CHAPTERS
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:05 Adichie & Difference
00:05:26 No Clean Lines; Filling the Gaps
00:08:03 Snakes & Epistemic Shifts
00:12:33 **Linguistics: Compounding & Kennings
00:25:14 Deconstructing “You”
00:30:37 Bigger Than the Story
00:31:24 Feminism’s Epistemologies
00:44:57 Bakhtin: Intersections and Bad Binaries
00:47:36 A Closer Reading: Layers in the Details
00:51:51 Sociological Theory: Ill-Fitting Frames
01:04:35 Reflection: Juxtaposing Authors
01:07:28 Closing: One More Moment
01:09:13 Outro
**Added segment for the Bonus episode
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The Waywords Podcast is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with deep-dive examinations of literature around some common questions or themes and 1-3 smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs.
Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.
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CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
USING THIS WORK:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.
MLA CITATION:
Chisnell, Steve. “Adichie: ‘Tomorrow is Too Far.’” Waywords Studio, 19 Nov. 2021, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/adichie-tomorrow-is-too-far/.
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