Commonwealth Lecture 2012 by Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie

At the 2012 Commonwealth Lecture in London, Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke about the importance of realist literature, insisting that “the role of literature is to instruct and delight” and that realist literature becomes a “search for humanity.”
“The world of realist literature is not the same as the real world, but it is close enough, aligned enough, to the real world to be able to illuminate it. And it is books of that sort that I would like to make a case for today.”
In the magnificent setting of the Guildhall in the heart of the City of London, Ms Adichie addressed the 2012 Commonwealth Theme: ‘Connecting Cultures’, explaining that “Realistic fiction is not merely the recording of the real, as it were, it is more than that, it seeks to infuse the real with meaning. As events unfold, we do not always know what they mean. But in telling the story of what happened, meaning emerges and we are able to make connections with emotive significance.”
Referring to the story of the Philosopher Diogenes the Cynic who carried a lantern in daylight, walking up and down the streets of Athens, looking for humanity, Adichie explained that in this action he did not take the idea of humanity for granted and perhaps did not even presume he would find it: “to read realist literature is, I think, to search for humanity as Diogenes did.”
Ms Adichie reminded the Commonwealth it is a common assumption that our collective humanity is self-evident, rather than needing searching for, explaining: “When we read human stories, we become alive in bodies not our own. Literature is in many ways like faith: it is a leap of imagination. Both reading and writing require an imaginative leap and it is that imaginative leap that enables us to become alive in bodies not our own. It seems to me that we live in a world where it has become increasingly important to try and live in bodies not our own, to embrace empathy, to constantly be reminded that we share, with everybody in every part of the world, a common and equal humanity.”
She went on to clarify that this is not a suggestion that we are all the same, instead, “Literature is indeed about how we are different, but also how, in those differences, we are similar.”
“I read human stories to be instructed and to be delighted. I also read to remind myself that I am not alone. That I, in the words of Pablo Neruda, “belong to this great mass of humanity, not to the few but to the many.”
 
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