White Fragility in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Contemporary Novel "Americanah"

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject American Studies, grade: 1,7, University of Paderborn (Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften), course: Being Black in America, language: English, abstract: This paper claims that the fictional novel Americanah by Adichie uncovers how White Fragility operates in everyday-life encounters with conversations about racism in America, thereby raising awareness for racism as functioning on an institutional level, rather than on an individual level. The first chapter offers a theoretical overview and defines racism and gives DiAngelo’s considerations to White Fragility. The analysis examines White Fragility operating within the novel, through characters and Ifemelu’s lifestyle blog. Finally, the paper’s findings will be summarized and an outlook on further research will be given.