In 2009, the debut book "Say You're One of Them" by the Nigerian author Uwem Akpan became a bestseller after being chosen by the American TV star Oprah Winfrey for her popular Book Club. The five short stories in the book are set in different African countries and describe horrible events such as child abuse, prostitution and religious wars. Akpan writes his fictional stories through the eyes of children and claims to be speaking for African children in general. After being presented on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on Oprah’s website Oprah.com, Akpan’s book became very popular, especially in the US. Literary scholars have not published any studies about Akpan’s stories yet, so there is no scientific work about the book. However, the short stories were discussed intensely by the members of "Oprah’s Book Club", who read the book on Oprah’s advice and exchanged their ideas about the stories on message boards on the internet. In the past few years, scholars of literary and cultural studies have given more and more attention to Oprah’s Book Club and its effect on the practices of reading and talking about books. Several writers have also focused on the internet as a setting for discussions about books.
The phrases “give a voice to” and “speaking for” are important catchwords in the field of postcolonial studies. In “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Gayatri Spivak (1995) exposes the process of giving a voice to the subaltern as a process of colonial domination. By trying to speak for those who do not or cannot speak for themselves - in Akpan’s case the African children - writers tend to ignore the heterogeneity of the subaltern and take an essentialist point of view. This problem has been discussed in connection with various pieces of postcolonial writing, and plays a role in the interpretation of Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them as well. By now, postcolonial literature has quite a long history, so the field of postcolonial studies has undergone several changes and has been subject to a lot of criticism in recent years.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Say You’re One of Them in the Media
2.1 Publication and Prizes
2.2 Say You’re One of Them in Reviews
2.3 Reception in Oprah’s Book Club
3. Case Study: Reader Responses Concerning Say You’re One of Them on Oprah.com
3.1 Oprah’s Message Board
3.2 Say You’re One of Them on Oprah’s Message Board
3.3 The Webcast about Say You’re One of Them
4. Problem areas
4.1 The Western World and Africa
4.2 Self- Transformation or Political Change?
4.3 The Danger of Recolonization
5. Conclusion
6. Works Cited
Research Objectives and Themes
This thesis investigates the reception of Uwem Akpan’s short story collection "Say You’re One of Them" following its selection for Oprah’s Book Club. The primary research goal is to analyze how western readers engage with African literature through digital platforms and to examine the extent to which Oprah Winfrey’s curatorial practices shape these reader responses and reinforce certain postcolonial power dynamics.
- The influence of Oprah’s Book Club on book reception and sales.
- Digital discourse and reader responses on online message boards and webcasts.
- Postcolonial representations of Africa in literature and western media.
- The tension between empathy, self-improvement, and meaningful political change.
- The problematic nature of "speaking for" marginalized groups in literary contexts.
Excerpt from the Book
3.2 Say You’re One of Them on Oprah’s Message Board
From September 25, 2009 until September 15, 2010, users of the website Oprah.com posted 429 comments on the message board about Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them. The comments address a variety of topics ranging from discussions about the different short stories to talks about more general political topics. All in all, there are 85 different discussion threads, some of them consisting of only a single comment, some containing lively discussions among two or more users. The users’ comments on the message board can be put into different categories. Firstly, the readers’ opinions can be divided into praising and critical statements; secondly they can be categorized according to their intentions and contents. The following paragraphs will present selected comments by different users of the message board on Oprah.com. Spelling mistakes and grammar errors will remain uncorrected to maintain the comments’ authenticity.
Many of the users, who praise Akpan’s writing on Oprah’s message board, state that they identify with Akpan’s characters and find parallels between events in the short stories and their own lives. Very often those readers react emotionally to the shocking events that happen in the book. The user rufernan writes: “I marveled at the author's apt ability to transfer the pain, the characters, their thoughts and their feelings from this book straight to my heart.” Skylar77 and bookgirl 51 say the stories aroused strong emotions: “I cannot even express to you how deeply I related to these children. The relationship between the little boy and his sister was so much like the relationship of my two youngest children that as I read it was their faces i pictured,” and “The story reminded me of my son Omar who passed 4 years ago.” In several cases, these emotional reactions are combined with religious feelings: “I dropped to my knees and prayed for the children and plight of Africa.” Many comments end with different variations of “God Bless.” These postings show that the readers get emotionally involved in the stories and develop a feeling of compassion. The problematic relation between reader response and empathy will be discussed in a later part of this work.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces Uwem Akpan’s work and situates the research within the context of postcolonial studies and the evolution of literary reception via new media.
2. Say You’re One of Them in the Media: The chapter explores the publication history, critical reviews of the book, and the significant role of Oprah’s Book Club in popularizing the author.
3. Case Study: Reader Responses Concerning Say You’re One of Them on Oprah.com: A detailed analysis of online message boards and a webcast, highlighting how readers interpret the stories and engage with the author.
4. Problem areas: This section critically examines themes such as the western perception of African "crises," the shift from self-transformation to political engagement, and the danger of "recolonization" through empathy.
5. Conclusion: The author synthesizes findings, arguing that while Oprah’s platform provides visibility, it often simplifies complex postcolonial issues, and calls for more critical engagement by readers.
6. Works Cited: A comprehensive bibliography listing all academic sources, web articles, and primary texts used in this study.
Keywords
Uwem Akpan, Say You’re One of Them, Oprah’s Book Club, Postcolonial Studies, Reader-Response Criticism, Digital Reception, Africa, Empathy, Charitainment, Subaltern, Online Message Boards, Literary Criticism, Cultural Studies, Recolonization, Global Literature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this thesis?
The thesis examines the intersection of digital reader reception, the influence of mass media institutions like Oprah’s Book Club, and the critical debates surrounding the representation of African experiences in literature.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
Key themes include the impact of celebrity-led book clubs, the ethics of empathy in postcolonial reading, the use of digital forums for literary discourse, and the dangers of western essentialism when engaging with stories from the Global South.
What is the central research question?
The study explores how western readers, mediated by Oprah Winfrey’s platform, receive and interpret the traumatic narratives of African children in Akpan’s work, and whether this process encourages genuine awareness or reinforces stereotypical, colonizing structures.
Which academic methodology is employed?
The author employs a case study approach, analyzing textual data from online message boards and transcripts from an Oprah webcast, framed by existing theories in reader-response criticism and postcolonial studies.
What topics are discussed in the main body of the work?
The main body covers the media reception of Akpan's debut, detailed analysis of reader discussions on Oprah.com, and a theoretical critique of "charitainment" and its failure to drive systemic political change.
Which key terms characterize this academic work?
The work is defined by concepts such as the "subaltern," "charitainment," "interpretive communities," "postcolonialism," and the "middlebrow readership," among others.
How does the author evaluate the "webcast" as a source?
The author views the webcast as a valuable, albeit complex, source because it combines visual elements with direct interaction, though it remains inherently controlled and moderated by Oprah’s production.
What is the significance of the "recolonization" argument in this study?
The author argues that when readers attempt to "incorporate the other into the self" by over-identifying with characters from drastically different realities, they risk neglecting the actual suffering of those subjects, effectively repeating patterns of colonial appropriation.
- Quote paper
- Anna Poppen (Author), 2011, Reception of Uwem Akpan's "Say You’re One of Them" in Oprah Winfrey's "Book Club", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/274668
