Adichie turns narrative asymmetry into a theory of identity and power. The “single story” does not operate simply by disseminating false information; it reduces complex persons and places to one repeatedly available account until that account becomes the dominant condition of recognition. Her autobiographical examples show that representation works through repetition, unequal access to narration and the authority to decide which stories become general knowledge. Methodologically, the talk uses situated narrative rather than abstract typology, allowing the argument to demonstrate its own claim: multiplicity is restored by adding standpoints, histories and contradictions that a dominant account has excluded. The bridge to social psychology is direct because categorisation and stereotype are shown as narrative processes, while the bridge to postcolonial theory lies in the unequal distribution of representational power. Identity emerges as vulnerable to narrative compression but not reducible to it. Counter-storytelling becomes an epistemic and political practice through which categories can be reopened rather than merely replaced by new fixed images.
