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‘Force’ and ‘Chi’: Duality, Identity, and Struggle in Star Wars and Buchi Emecheta’s Kehinde

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Published/Copyright: December 7, 2022
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From the journal Anglia Volume 140 Issue 3-4

Abstract

Cultural and religious representations may seem different from one culture to another. Yet the concept of the ‘Force’ that George Lucas developed in the Star Wars saga (1977–2019) has been compared to the Judeo-Christian and East Asian religions and traditions, and even to the Greco-Roman philosophical concept of ‘pneuma’. In turn, the Igbo of Nigeria believe in the existence of ‘Chi’, an enigmatic concept that has given rise to various interpretations. This article conducts a comparative analysis of the concept of ‘Force’ in Lucas’ Star Wars saga and the Igbo ‘Chi’ in Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta’s novel Kehinde (1994). It focuses on the principle of duality these works establish between the natural and supernatural worlds and its relevance for the twin characters in the narratives. The connections between the ‘Force’ and the twins Luke and Leia and between ‘Chi’ and Kehinde and her dead twin sister Taiwo evoke the epic structure of a hero that must, in Joseph Campbell’s terms, “slay [the] dragon” (Campbell and Moyers 1988/1991: 182). The article examines the relevance of religion and myths in these twentieth-century narratives that readdress the development of the heroes’ identity and their struggle to offer audiences role models to confront modern social and political questions.

Key terms: force; chi; George Lucas; Star Wars ; Buchi Emecheta; Igbo; hero; religion

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Published Online: 2022-12-07
Published in Print: 2022-12-01

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  3. Light and Divine Wisdom: An Alternative Interpretation of the Iconography of the Fuller Brooch
  4. Tu beoð gemæccan: The Key Concept of Maxims I Representing One of the Fundamental Principles of the World Order
  5. Wulf and Eadwacer Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer
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  7. Influences of George Gordon Byron on Asdren
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  13. Anxious Dynamics of Exile and the Ambivalence of Arab American Identity in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent: Critical Reflections and Contemplations
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https://doi.org/10.1515/ang-2022-0050
Keywords for this article
force; chi; George Lucas; Star Wars; Buchi Emecheta; Igbo; hero; religion

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. Light and Divine Wisdom: An Alternative Interpretation of the Iconography of the Fuller Brooch
  4. Tu beoð gemæccan: The Key Concept of Maxims I Representing One of the Fundamental Principles of the World Order
  5. Wulf and Eadwacer Reloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer
  6. Sensational News about Nature: Risk and Resilience in Satirical Ozone Poetry of the Victorian Era
  7. Influences of George Gordon Byron on Asdren
  8. Construction of Identity/World and ‘Symbolic Death’: A Lacanian Approach to William Golding’s Pincher Martin
  9. The Anatomist of Love and Disease in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body
  10. Conventions of the Ungendered Narrative
  11. “In My Mind’s Eye”: On the Relocation of Hamlet’s Story by Michael Almereyda
  12. ‘Force’ and ‘Chi’: Duality, Identity, and Struggle in Star Wars and Buchi Emecheta’s Kehinde
  13. Anxious Dynamics of Exile and the Ambivalence of Arab American Identity in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent: Critical Reflections and Contemplations
  14. Between Remembering and Confession: A Refugee Narrative in Dina Nayeri’s Refuge
  15. Orfeo: A Posthuman Modern Prometheus. Uncommon Powers of Musical Imagination
  16. On Literary Apathy: Forms of Dis/Affection in My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018)
  17. Reviews
  18. Roberta Frank. 2022. The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse. Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies 2010. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, xxx + 265 pp., $ 65.00.
  19. Claire Breay and Joanna Story (eds.), with Eleanor Jackson. 2021. Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections. Dublin: Four Courts Press, xvii + 256 pp., numerous colour illustr., € 58.50.
  20. Mark Amsler. 2021. The Medieval Life of Language: Grammar and Pragmatics from Bacon to Kempe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 264 pp., 2 figures, 2 tables, € 106.00.
  21. Alexandra Barratt and Susan Powell (eds.). 2021. The Fifteen Oes and Other Prayers: Edited from the Text Published by William Caxton (1491). Middle English Texts 61. Heidelberg: Winter, xxxvi + 54 pp., € 44.
  22. Carolin Gebauer. 2021. Making Time: World Construction in the Present-Tense Novel. Narratologia 77. Berlin/Boston, MA: De Gruyter, xvii + 378 pp., 5 tables, 5 illustr., € 99.95.
  23. Kai Wiegandt. 2019. J. M. Coetzee’s Revisions of the Human: Posthumanism and Narrative Form. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, ix + 280 pp., € 90.94.
  24. Linda K. Hughes, Sarah Ruffing Robbins and Andrew Taylor with Heidi Hakimi-Hood and Adam Nemmers (eds.). 2022. Transatlantic Anglophone Literatures, 1776–1920: An Anthology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 808 pp., 60 illustr., £ 29.99/$ 39.95.
  25. Juliane Braun. 2019. Creole Drama: Theatre and Society in Antebellum New Orleans. Writing the Early Americas 4. Charlottesville, VA/London: The University of Virginia Press, 280 pp., 12 illustr., $ 69.50.
  26. Lisa Gotto. 2021. Passing and Posing between Black and White: Calibrating the Color Line in U. S. Cinema. Film Studies. Bielefeld: transcript, 247 pp., 30 figures, € 49.00.
  27. Daniel Stein. 2021. Authorizing Superhero Comics: On the Evolution of a Popular Serial Genre. Studies in Comics and Cartoons. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, xv + 315 pp., 28 illustr., $ 34.95.
  28. Books Reviewed: Anglia 140 (2022)
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