 Corresponding author: Savarimuththu Kilbert Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0. Things fall apart: A liminal identity: Thematic approach of identity crisis Savarimuththu Kilbert * , Thangarajah Jeevahan and Maniccarajah Thamilselvan Department of English, Advanced Technological Institute, Trincomalee. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2023, 17(01), 589–595 Publication history: Received on 06 December 2022; revised on 15 January 2023; accepted on 18 January 2023 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2023.17.1.0079 Abstract The aim of this research is to analyze the novel, Things Fall Apart as a liminal Identity: Thematic approach of Identity Crisis from the perspective of Postcolonial Literature. The study analyzes the plot development and the thematic aspects of the novel on one level. On the other level the paper analyzes how the facts related to the colonial aspects of Africa and the impact of colonialism are embedded in this fiction. Therefore, it is a comparative study of Post-colonialism and Post- Colonial Literature. A brief introduction to Postcolonial literature is given at the outset. The indication of the word ‘post - colonialism’ along with the origin and development of the postcolonial theories and studies are critically examined. The research evaluates the thematic aspect of postcolonial literature, identity crisis with special reference to liminal identity. It also critically analyses the various representative authors like Rushdie, Achebe, Ondantje, Fanon, Derek Walcott, and J. M. Coetzee in addition to some female writers like Jamaica Kancaid, Isabelle Illende and Eavan Bolland. Furthermore, it also briefly examines the political history of colonization and the impact of colonialism on the literature produced during post-colonial period. The research introduces Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, from the point of his personal and historical background in order to compare the content and the context of his writing. Thus, the study reveals that the novel, Things Fall Apart, is a revelation of Identity Crisis. Keywords: Post-colonialism; Post-Colonial Literature; Identity; Hybridity; Orientalism; Ethnicity; African Culture and Tradition; Literary Theory 1. Introduction Chinua Achebe was born in the Igbo town of Ogidi in Eastern Nigeria on November 16, 1930. His father was an instructor in Christian catechism for the church missionary society. Nigeria was a British colony during Achebe’s early years. His parents even named him Albert. Achebe himself chose his name when he was in college. Achebe attended the church missionary society’s school. At about eight, he began learning English. And after graduating at eighteen, he was accepted to study medicine at the new university college at Ibadan. At university college, Achebe switched his studies to liberal arts, including history, religion and English. His first published story appeared in the student publication the university herald. In 1972 he was appointed to a three-year visiting professorship at the University of Massachusetts at the Amherst. And in 1975, to a one- year visiting professorship at the university of Connecticut. Achebe received many awards from academic and cultural institution around the world. Things Fall Apart was his first novel published in 1958 and in 1959 it won the Margaret wrong Memorial Prize. The following year, after the publication of its sequel, no longer at ease, he was awarded the Nigerian National Trophy for literature. Achebe has used his education as a mean by which to strengthen, not demean, his cultural heritage; a medium to forge a new identity of his own. Achebe made use of his writings to re-unite and re-build his community. His writings in general long for going back to the original identity of Africans.