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Writing and Africa
This volume reflects one of the new areas of English Studies as it broadens to take in non-western literatures, and places more emphasis on the contexts and broader notions of `writing'. In discussing writing from and about Africa, this collection touches on studies in black writing, colonialism and imperialism and cultural development in the third world. It begins by providing a historical introduction to the main regional traditions, and then builds on this to discuss major issues, such as oral tradition, the significance of `literature' as a western import, representations of Africa in western writing, African writing against colonialism and its themes and politics in a post-colonial world, popular writing and the representation of women.
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Offering an insight into African culture that had not been portrayed before, Things Fall Apart is the tragic story of an individual set in the wider context of colonialism, as well as a powerful and complex political statement of cross-cultural encounters. This guide offers an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Things Fall Apart, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present and the critical material that surrounds it.
Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka
Soyinka's representation of postcolonial African identity is re-examined in the light of his major plays, novels and poetry to show how this writer's idiom of cultural authenticity both embraces hybridity and defines itself as specific and particular. For Soyinka, such authenticity involves recovering tradition and inserting it in postcolonial modernity to facilitate transformative moral and political justice. The past can be both our enabling future and our nemesis. In a distinctive approach grounded in cultural studies, Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka locates the artist's intellectual and political concerns within the broader field of postcolonial cultural theory, arguing that, altho...
South & Southern African Literature
The end of the apartheid era in South Africa has meant the opening up of the country's culture, languages and literatures to the outside world. Within South Africa the literature of protest need no longer dominate creative output and there has been a move towards a rediscovery of the ordinary . The realities of post-independence Zimbabwe as expressed in song and literature are also examined. North America: Africa World Press
Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka
Soyinka’s representation of postcolonial African identity is re-examined in the light of his major plays, novels and poetry to show how this writer’s idiom of cultural authenticity both embraces hybridity and defines itself as specific and particular. For Soyinka, such authenticity involves recovering tradition and inserting it in postcolonial modernity to facilitate transformative moral and political justice. The past can be both our enabling future and our nemesis. In a distinctive approach grounded in cultural studies, Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka locates the artist’s intellectual and political concerns within the broader field of postcolonial cultural theory, arguing that,...
The Quiet Chameleon
"...REWARDING READING [FOR] THE ACUITY OF ITS CRITICAL PERCEPTIONS & ITS ELEGANCE IN DICTION & STYLE."-WORLD LITERATURE TODAY. The first extended analysis of the poets & poetry of the Malawi region, QUIET CHAMELEON begins by tracing the development of verse in the area--both written & oral--& places it within a larger framework of African literature, politics & culture, from Zambia to Zimbabwe. Separate discussions devoted to the lives & workd of Jack Mapanje, Steve Chim-ombo, Felix Mnthali, Frank Chipasula & Edison Mpina, reveal a striking range of personal & literary styles. Close scrutiny of key texts identifies the distinctive themes, motifs & strategies of each writer's oeuvre. The textual analysis is complimented by descriptions of the men themselves, their careers to date & their critical reception--reflecting the varied influences of personal & political experience on literary development. (NEW PERSPECTIVES ON AFRICAN LITERATURE, 2)
Wole Soyinka
The book reconsiders Soyinka's contribution to the debate about African identity, exploring the various elements constituting his distinctive aesthetic and apprehension of African culture. It concentrates on his plays, his fiction and poetry and investigates his views on the relationship between myth, history, and modernity, primarily highlighting his conception of the nature of African post-colonial society and power. Also, the book looks at Soyinka's exploration of the metaphysical aspects of evil, particularly as manifested in political violence, and, in addition, it examines his belief in the irrepressibility of the human desire to transcend any form of political, spiritual and social oppression. Finally, it argues that Soyinka's major contribution to our understanding of contemporary African life and art lies in his attempts to move beyond the idea of identity as an opposition between Self and Other to a conception of identity in which such concepts are either themselves questioned or transferr
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought
From St. Augustine and early Ethiopian philosophers to the anti-colonialist movements of Pan-Africanism and Negritude, this encyclopedia offers a comprehensive view of African thought, covering the intellectual tradition both on the continent in its entirety and throughout the African Diaspora in the Americas and in Europe. The term "African thought" has been interpreted in the broadest sense to embrace all those forms of discourse - philosophy, political thought, religion, literature, important social movements - that contribute to the formulation of a distinctive vision of the world determined by or derived from the African experience. The Encyclopedia is a large-scale work of 350 entries covering major topics involved in the development of African Thought including historical figures and important social movements, producing a collection that is an essential resource for teaching, an invaluable companion to independent research, and a solid guide for further study.
The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing
The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing provides a comprehensive historical overview of the diverse literary traditions impacting on this field's evolution, from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing on the expertise of over forty international experts, this book gathers innovative scholarship to look forward to new readings and perspectives, while also focusing on undervalued writers, texts, and research areas. Creating new pathways to engage with the naming of a field that has often been contested, readings of literary texts are interwoven throughout with key political, social, and material contexts. In making visible the diverse influences constituting past and contemporary British literary culture, this Cambridge History makes a unique contribution to British, Commonwealth, postcolonial, transnational, diasporic, and global literary studies, serving both as one of the first major reference works to cover four centuries of black and Asian British literary history and as a compass for future scholarship.
Reading Contemporary African Literature
Reading Contemporary African Literature brings together scholarship on, critical debates about, and examples of reading African literature in all genres – poetry, fiction, and drama including popular culture. The anthology offers studies of African literature from interdisciplinary perspectives that employ sociological, historical, and ethnographic besides literary analysis of the literatures. It has assembled critical and researched essays on a range of topics, theoretical and empirical, by renowned critics and theorists of African literature that evaluate and provide examples of reading African literature that should be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of African literature, culture, and history amongst other subjects. Some of the essays examine authors that have received little or no attention to date in books on recent African literature. These essays provide new insights and scholarship that should broaden and deepen our understanding and appreciation of African literature.
