EXPLORING PUBLIC RELATIONS IN IGBO HOMES AND SOCIETY THROUGH NARRATIVE LITERATURE AS PRINT MEDIA: INSIGHTS FROM ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART

This thematic content analysis explored Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It examined how Igbo literature and culture can be used to inform, shape, and build sound public relations through cordial relationships and mutual understanding at the family level and society. The study was hinged on the frameworks of Public Relations (PR), Bowen Family Systems, and Reader-Response Literary Theory. PR theory explored the principles underlying effective communication between one character and another, or among characters as a group. It also revealed the need for effective communication and other PR principles in conflict resolution, building and maintaining sound relationships, shaping perceptions, mutual understanding, and influencing personality behaviour in the Igbo domestic and social settings. Bowen Family Systems guided the researchers to explore the nature of behaviours and relationships among the characters by providing a scientific perspective of understanding human behaviour and dealing with human problems in the home and society. The Reader-Response Literary Theory helped the researchers to understand the narrative assumptions, text structures and the underlying social contexts in the novel for subjective interpretation of motifs, actions, emotions, and meanings. Through simple random sampling, Things Fall Apart was selected among the plethora of similar literary texts of the same genre and thematic preoccupation. It became the sample from where we derived the data for thematic analysis. Findings showed that there is a relationship in the PR principles and strategies adopted by modern PR and traditional PR as practiced in Igbo society. Another discovery was that conflict resolution in the Igbo traditional society, like in the modern practice, adopted the approaches of constructive dialogue, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, social responsibility, community participation, and mixed methods. Further findings revealed the binary role of both Igbo and foreign cultures in the practice of public relations. Recommendations were proffered.