Home away from Home: Imageability and Wayfinding in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing around Your Neck

  1. SVETLANA STEFANOVA 1
  1. 1 Universidad Internacional de La Rioja
    info

    Universidad Internacional de La Rioja

    Logroño, España

    ROR https://ror.org/029gnnp81

Revue:
ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies

ISSN: 2531-1654,  2531-1646

Année de publication: 2023

Número: 44

Pages: 11-34

Type: Article

DOI: 10.24197/ERSJES.44.2023.11-34 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

D'autres publications dans: ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies

Objectifs de Développement Durable

Résumé

This essay explores the process of orientation in migratory space in three of the twelve stories that make up Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection The Thing around Your Neck—“Imitation,” “On Monday of Last Week,” and “The Thing around Your Neck”—from theperspective of Kevin Lynch’s theory of wayfinding, developed in his work on urban spaces The Image of the City. The analysis of how gender and class affect the female protagonists’ conceptualization of home is based on Lynch’s notion of imageability. The metaphorical extension of the concepts of imageabilityand wayfindingaimsto grasp migrants’ psychological and emotional experiences of orientation.Taking as a point of reference three highly imageable objects—masks, mirrors, and letters—the study of the protagonists’ wayfinding in America reveals the tension between reality and imagination in the creation of mental images of home. In her recognition of the potential of female agency, Adichie draws a parallel between the protagonists’ reorientation in the exilic space and their reorientation in their intimate relationships.

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