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Single Stories And Post-Colonialism In Adichie's The Danger Of A Single Story

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Effects of Single Stories and Post-colonialism The power of a single story is that it can make us believe that the world is as the story tells it, without questioning the authors who are constructing the narrative. According to Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” speech, That is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become, it is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story to become the only story (Adichie:2009). In the speech with the same name, Adichie questions the ideas such as the potential of a single narrative to create stereotypes. Also, how the importance of bringing different several stories of representation to inform about the urgency of the search for knowledge, about the proper understanding of the 'other ' cultures not only about the West and European culture and literature. The speech talks as well about the issue of power that is closely connected to the construction of the single story. The stories have been used to expropriate and label, but can also be used to empower and humanize. Accordingly, Adichie says, many stories matter, but we cannot know every story. However, we are
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