Description

Book Synopsis

This is the first anthology to bring together the key texts of African literary theory and criticism.

  • Brings together key texts that are otherwise hard to locate
  • Covers all genres and critical schools
  • Provides the intellectual context for understanding African literature
  • Facilitates the future development of African literary criticism


Trade Review

"This anthology represents a gathering of the best critical work on African literature and on larger questions of literary history, the sociology of literature, criticism and theory. In this magnificent book, we have a collection of the best that has been thought and written about African literary culture and the modern imagination."
—Simon Gikandi, Professor of English, Princeton University

"Introduces the material in a crisp, always engaged, sometimes provocative manner .... Diverse perspectives through the rich dynamics of dialogue and debate. Highly recommended." (Choice)



Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction 1

Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson

Part I: Backgrounds 5

1 Africa and Writing 7
Alain Ricard (2004)

2 Sub-Saharan Africa’s Literary History in a Nutshell 16
Albert S. Ge´rard (1993)

3 Politics, Culture, and Literary Form 22
Bernth Lindfors (1979)

4 African Literature in Portuguese 31
Russell G. Hamilton (2004)

5 North African Writing 38
Anissa Talahite (1997)

6 A Continent and its Literatures in French 46
Jonathan Ngate (1988)

7 African Literature and the Colonial Factor 54
Simon Gikandi (2004)

8 African Literature: Myth or Reality? 60
V. Y. Mudimbe (1985)

Part II: Orality, Literacy, and the Interface 65

9 Africa and Orality 67
Liz Gunner (2004)

10 Orality, Literacy, and African Literature 74
Abiola Irele (1989)

11 Oral Literature and Modern African Literature 83
Isidore Okpewho (1992)

12 Women’s Oral Genres 92
Mary E. Modupe Kolawole (1997)

13 The Oral Artist’s Script 97
Harold Schenb (2002)

Part III: Writer, Writing, and Function 101

14 The Novelist as Teacher 103
Chinua Achebe (1965)

15 The Truth of Fiction 107
Chinua Achebe (1978)

16 Three in a Bed: Fiction, Morals, and Politics 115
Nadine Gordimer (1988)

17 Nobel Lecture 122
Naguib Mahfouz (1988)

18 Redefining Relevance 126
Njabulo S. Ndebele (1994)

19 Preparing Ourselves for Freedom 132
Albie Sachs (1990)

Part IV: Creativity in/and Adversarial Contexts 139

20 A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced 141
Wole Soyinka (2001)

21 Exile and Creativity: A Prolonged Writer’s Block 144
Micere Githae Mugo (1997)

22 Containing Cockroaches (Memories of Incarceration Reconstructed in Exile) 150
Jack Mapanje (1997)

23 Writing Against Neo-Colonialism 157
Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1988)

24 The Writer and Responsibility 165
Breyten Breytenbach (1983)

25 Dissidence and Creativity 172
Nawal El Saadawi (1996)

26 Culture Beyond Color? A South African Dilemma 178
Zoe¨ Wicomb (1993)

27 In Praise of Exile 183
Nuruddin Farah (1990)

28 The African Writer’s Experience of European Literature 186
D. Marechera (1987)

Part V: On Nativism and the Quest for Indigenous Aesthetics: Negritude and Traditionalism 193

29 Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century 195
Le´opold Se´dar Senghor (1970)

30 What is Ne´gritude? 203
Abiola Irele (1977)

31 Negritude and a New Africa: An Update 210
Peter S. Thompson (2002)

32 Prodigals, Come Home! 219
Chinweizu (1973)

33 Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Tradition 226
Wole Soyinka (1975)

34 My Signifier is More Native than Yours: Issues in Making a Literature African 234
Ade´le´ke` Ade´e`.ko´. (1998)

35 Out of Africa: Topologies of Nativism 242
Kwame Anthony Appiah (1988)

36 On National Culture 251
Frantz Fanon (1963)

37 True and False Pluralism 262
Paulin Hountondji (1973)

38 ‘‘An Open Letter to Africans’’ c/o The Punic One-Party State 271
Sony Labou Tansi (1990)

39 Resistance Theory/Theorizing Resistance or Two Cheers for Nativism 274
Benita Parry (1994)

Part VI: The Language of African Literature 279

40 The Dead End of African Literature? 281
Obiajunwa Wali (1963)

41 The Language of African Literature 285
Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1986)

42 Anamnesis in the Language of Writing 307
Assia Djebar (1999)

43 African-Language Literature: Tragedy and Hope 315
Daniel P. Kunene (1992)

Part VII: On Genres 323

44 Background to the West African Novel 325
Emmanuel N. Obiechina (1975)

45 Languages of the Novel: A Lover’s Reflections 333
Andre´ Brink (1998)

46 Realism and Naturalism in African Fiction 340
Neil Lazarus (1987)

47 ‘‘Who Am I?’’: Fact and Fiction in African First-Person Narrative 345
Mineke Schipper (1985)

48 Festivals, Ritual, and Drama in Africa 353
Tejumola Olaniyan (2004)

49 The Fourth Stage: Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy 364
Wole Soyinka (1973)

50 Introduction to King Oedipus 375
Tawfiq Al-Hakim (1949)

51 Poetry as Dramatic Performance 382
Kofi Anyidoho (1991)

52 ‘‘Azikwelwa’’ (We Will Not Ride): Politics and Value in Black South African Poetry 391
Anne McClintock (1987)

53 Revolutionary Practice and Style in Lusophone Liberation Poetry 402
Emmanuel Ngara (1990)

Part VIII: Theorizing the Criticism of African Literature 409

54 Academic Problems and Critical Techniques 411
Eldred D. Jones (1965)

55 African Literature, Western Critics 414
Rand Bishop (1988)

56 A Formal Approach to African Literature 422
Kenneth W. Harrow (1990)

57 African Absence, a Literature without a Voice 427
Ambroise Kom (1997)

58 The Nature of Things: Arrested Decolonization and Critical Theory 432
Biodun Jeyifo (1990)

59 Reading through Western Eyes 444
Christopher L. Miller (1990)

60 Inherited Mandates in African Literary Criticism: The Intrinsic Paradigm 449
Olakunle George (2003)

61 Exclusionary Practices in African Literary Criticism 455
Florence Stratton (1994)

Part IX: Marxism 461

62 Towards a Marxist Sociology of African Literature 463
Omafume F. Onoge (1986)

63 Writers in Politics: The Power of Words and the Words of Power 476
Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1997)

64 National Liberation and Culture 484
Amilcar Cabral (1970)

65 Concerning National Culture 492
Agostinho Neto (1979)

66 Masks and Marx: The Marxist Ethos vis-a`-vis African Revolutionary Theory and Praxis 496
Ayi Kwei Armah (1985)

67 Marxist Aesthetics: An Open-Ended Legacy 504
Chidi Amuta (1989)

Part X: Feminism 511

68 To Be an African Woman Writer – an Overview and a Detail 513
Ama Ata Aidoo (1988)

69 The Heroine in Arab Literature 520
Nawal El Saadawi (1980)

70 Women and Creative Writing in Africa 526
Flora Nwapa (1998)

71 African Motherhood – Myth and Reality 533
Lauretta Ngcobo (1988)

72 Stiwanism: Feminism in an African Context 542
Molara Ogundipe-Leslie (1994)

73 Feminism with a Small ‘‘f’’! 551
Buchi Emecheta (1988)

74 Writing Near the Bone 558
Yvonne Vera (1997)

75 Some Notes on African Feminism 561
Carole Boyce Davies (1986)

76 Bringing African Women into the Classroom: Rethinking Pedagogy and Epistemology 570
Obioma Nnaemeka (1994)

77 Enlightenment Epistemology and the Invention of Polygyny 578
Uzo Esonwanne (1997)

78 Feminism, Postcolonialism and the Contradictory Orders of Modernity 585
Ato Quayson (2000)

Part XI: Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, and Postmodernism 593

79 Genetic Structuralism as a Critical Technique

(Notes Toward a Sociological Theory of the African Novel) 595
Sunday O. Anozie (1971)

80 In Praise of Alienation 599
Abiola Irele (1982)

81 In the Wake of Colonialism and Modernity 608
Biodun Jeyifo (2000)

82 Poststructuralism and Postcolonial Discourse 614
Simon Gikandi (2004)

83 Subjectivity and History: Derrida in Algeria 621
Robert J. C. Young (2001)

84 The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘‘Post-colonialism’’ 628
Anne McClintock (1992)

85 Postmodernity, Postcoloniality, and African Studies 637
Tejumola Olaniyan (2003)

86 Postcolonialism and Postmodernism 646
Ato Quayson (2000)

87 Is the Post- in Postmodernism the Post- in Postcolonial? 654
Kwame Anthony Appiah (1991)

88 Postmodernism and Black Writing in South Africa 665
Lewis Nkosi (1998)

89 African-Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism 670
Karin Barber (1995)

Part XII: Ecocriticism 681

90 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses 683
William Slaymaker (2001)

91 Different Shades of Green: Ecocriticism and African Literature 698
Byron Caminero-Santangelo (2007)

92 Ecological Postcolonialism in African Women’s Literature 707
Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (1998)

93 Environmentalism and Postcolonialism 715
Rob Nixon (2005)

Part XIII: Queer, Postcolonial 725

94 ‘‘Wheyting be dat?’’: The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature 727
Chris Dunton (1989)

95 Out in Africa 736
Gaurav Desai (1997)

96 Toward a Lesbian Continuum? Or Reclaiming the Erotic 746
Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (1997)

97 Queer Futures: The Coming-Out Novel in South Africa 753
Brenna Munro (2007)

Index 765

African Literature

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    A Paperback / softback by Tejumola Olaniyan, Ato Quayson

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      Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 04/05/2007
      ISBN13: 9781405112017, 978-1405112017
      ISBN10: 1405112018
      Also in:
      Literary studies: general

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      This is the first anthology to bring together the key texts of African literary theory and criticism.

      • Brings together key texts that are otherwise hard to locate
      • Covers all genres and critical schools
      • Provides the intellectual context for understanding African literature
      • Facilitates the future development of African literary criticism


      Trade Review

      "This anthology represents a gathering of the best critical work on African literature and on larger questions of literary history, the sociology of literature, criticism and theory. In this magnificent book, we have a collection of the best that has been thought and written about African literary culture and the modern imagination."
      —Simon Gikandi, Professor of English, Princeton University

      "Introduces the material in a crisp, always engaged, sometimes provocative manner .... Diverse perspectives through the rich dynamics of dialogue and debate. Highly recommended." (Choice)



      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgments xii

      Introduction 1

      Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson

      Part I: Backgrounds 5

      1 Africa and Writing 7
      Alain Ricard (2004)

      2 Sub-Saharan Africa’s Literary History in a Nutshell 16
      Albert S. Ge´rard (1993)

      3 Politics, Culture, and Literary Form 22
      Bernth Lindfors (1979)

      4 African Literature in Portuguese 31
      Russell G. Hamilton (2004)

      5 North African Writing 38
      Anissa Talahite (1997)

      6 A Continent and its Literatures in French 46
      Jonathan Ngate (1988)

      7 African Literature and the Colonial Factor 54
      Simon Gikandi (2004)

      8 African Literature: Myth or Reality? 60
      V. Y. Mudimbe (1985)

      Part II: Orality, Literacy, and the Interface 65

      9 Africa and Orality 67
      Liz Gunner (2004)

      10 Orality, Literacy, and African Literature 74
      Abiola Irele (1989)

      11 Oral Literature and Modern African Literature 83
      Isidore Okpewho (1992)

      12 Women’s Oral Genres 92
      Mary E. Modupe Kolawole (1997)

      13 The Oral Artist’s Script 97
      Harold Schenb (2002)

      Part III: Writer, Writing, and Function 101

      14 The Novelist as Teacher 103
      Chinua Achebe (1965)

      15 The Truth of Fiction 107
      Chinua Achebe (1978)

      16 Three in a Bed: Fiction, Morals, and Politics 115
      Nadine Gordimer (1988)

      17 Nobel Lecture 122
      Naguib Mahfouz (1988)

      18 Redefining Relevance 126
      Njabulo S. Ndebele (1994)

      19 Preparing Ourselves for Freedom 132
      Albie Sachs (1990)

      Part IV: Creativity in/and Adversarial Contexts 139

      20 A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced 141
      Wole Soyinka (2001)

      21 Exile and Creativity: A Prolonged Writer’s Block 144
      Micere Githae Mugo (1997)

      22 Containing Cockroaches (Memories of Incarceration Reconstructed in Exile) 150
      Jack Mapanje (1997)

      23 Writing Against Neo-Colonialism 157
      Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1988)

      24 The Writer and Responsibility 165
      Breyten Breytenbach (1983)

      25 Dissidence and Creativity 172
      Nawal El Saadawi (1996)

      26 Culture Beyond Color? A South African Dilemma 178
      Zoe¨ Wicomb (1993)

      27 In Praise of Exile 183
      Nuruddin Farah (1990)

      28 The African Writer’s Experience of European Literature 186
      D. Marechera (1987)

      Part V: On Nativism and the Quest for Indigenous Aesthetics: Negritude and Traditionalism 193

      29 Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century 195
      Le´opold Se´dar Senghor (1970)

      30 What is Ne´gritude? 203
      Abiola Irele (1977)

      31 Negritude and a New Africa: An Update 210
      Peter S. Thompson (2002)

      32 Prodigals, Come Home! 219
      Chinweizu (1973)

      33 Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Tradition 226
      Wole Soyinka (1975)

      34 My Signifier is More Native than Yours: Issues in Making a Literature African 234
      Ade´le´ke` Ade´e`.ko´. (1998)

      35 Out of Africa: Topologies of Nativism 242
      Kwame Anthony Appiah (1988)

      36 On National Culture 251
      Frantz Fanon (1963)

      37 True and False Pluralism 262
      Paulin Hountondji (1973)

      38 ‘‘An Open Letter to Africans’’ c/o The Punic One-Party State 271
      Sony Labou Tansi (1990)

      39 Resistance Theory/Theorizing Resistance or Two Cheers for Nativism 274
      Benita Parry (1994)

      Part VI: The Language of African Literature 279

      40 The Dead End of African Literature? 281
      Obiajunwa Wali (1963)

      41 The Language of African Literature 285
      Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1986)

      42 Anamnesis in the Language of Writing 307
      Assia Djebar (1999)

      43 African-Language Literature: Tragedy and Hope 315
      Daniel P. Kunene (1992)

      Part VII: On Genres 323

      44 Background to the West African Novel 325
      Emmanuel N. Obiechina (1975)

      45 Languages of the Novel: A Lover’s Reflections 333
      Andre´ Brink (1998)

      46 Realism and Naturalism in African Fiction 340
      Neil Lazarus (1987)

      47 ‘‘Who Am I?’’: Fact and Fiction in African First-Person Narrative 345
      Mineke Schipper (1985)

      48 Festivals, Ritual, and Drama in Africa 353
      Tejumola Olaniyan (2004)

      49 The Fourth Stage: Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy 364
      Wole Soyinka (1973)

      50 Introduction to King Oedipus 375
      Tawfiq Al-Hakim (1949)

      51 Poetry as Dramatic Performance 382
      Kofi Anyidoho (1991)

      52 ‘‘Azikwelwa’’ (We Will Not Ride): Politics and Value in Black South African Poetry 391
      Anne McClintock (1987)

      53 Revolutionary Practice and Style in Lusophone Liberation Poetry 402
      Emmanuel Ngara (1990)

      Part VIII: Theorizing the Criticism of African Literature 409

      54 Academic Problems and Critical Techniques 411
      Eldred D. Jones (1965)

      55 African Literature, Western Critics 414
      Rand Bishop (1988)

      56 A Formal Approach to African Literature 422
      Kenneth W. Harrow (1990)

      57 African Absence, a Literature without a Voice 427
      Ambroise Kom (1997)

      58 The Nature of Things: Arrested Decolonization and Critical Theory 432
      Biodun Jeyifo (1990)

      59 Reading through Western Eyes 444
      Christopher L. Miller (1990)

      60 Inherited Mandates in African Literary Criticism: The Intrinsic Paradigm 449
      Olakunle George (2003)

      61 Exclusionary Practices in African Literary Criticism 455
      Florence Stratton (1994)

      Part IX: Marxism 461

      62 Towards a Marxist Sociology of African Literature 463
      Omafume F. Onoge (1986)

      63 Writers in Politics: The Power of Words and the Words of Power 476
      Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1997)

      64 National Liberation and Culture 484
      Amilcar Cabral (1970)

      65 Concerning National Culture 492
      Agostinho Neto (1979)

      66 Masks and Marx: The Marxist Ethos vis-a`-vis African Revolutionary Theory and Praxis 496
      Ayi Kwei Armah (1985)

      67 Marxist Aesthetics: An Open-Ended Legacy 504
      Chidi Amuta (1989)

      Part X: Feminism 511

      68 To Be an African Woman Writer – an Overview and a Detail 513
      Ama Ata Aidoo (1988)

      69 The Heroine in Arab Literature 520
      Nawal El Saadawi (1980)

      70 Women and Creative Writing in Africa 526
      Flora Nwapa (1998)

      71 African Motherhood – Myth and Reality 533
      Lauretta Ngcobo (1988)

      72 Stiwanism: Feminism in an African Context 542
      Molara Ogundipe-Leslie (1994)

      73 Feminism with a Small ‘‘f’’! 551
      Buchi Emecheta (1988)

      74 Writing Near the Bone 558
      Yvonne Vera (1997)

      75 Some Notes on African Feminism 561
      Carole Boyce Davies (1986)

      76 Bringing African Women into the Classroom: Rethinking Pedagogy and Epistemology 570
      Obioma Nnaemeka (1994)

      77 Enlightenment Epistemology and the Invention of Polygyny 578
      Uzo Esonwanne (1997)

      78 Feminism, Postcolonialism and the Contradictory Orders of Modernity 585
      Ato Quayson (2000)

      Part XI: Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, and Postmodernism 593

      79 Genetic Structuralism as a Critical Technique

      (Notes Toward a Sociological Theory of the African Novel) 595
      Sunday O. Anozie (1971)

      80 In Praise of Alienation 599
      Abiola Irele (1982)

      81 In the Wake of Colonialism and Modernity 608
      Biodun Jeyifo (2000)

      82 Poststructuralism and Postcolonial Discourse 614
      Simon Gikandi (2004)

      83 Subjectivity and History: Derrida in Algeria 621
      Robert J. C. Young (2001)

      84 The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘‘Post-colonialism’’ 628
      Anne McClintock (1992)

      85 Postmodernity, Postcoloniality, and African Studies 637
      Tejumola Olaniyan (2003)

      86 Postcolonialism and Postmodernism 646
      Ato Quayson (2000)

      87 Is the Post- in Postmodernism the Post- in Postcolonial? 654
      Kwame Anthony Appiah (1991)

      88 Postmodernism and Black Writing in South Africa 665
      Lewis Nkosi (1998)

      89 African-Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism 670
      Karin Barber (1995)

      Part XII: Ecocriticism 681

      90 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses 683
      William Slaymaker (2001)

      91 Different Shades of Green: Ecocriticism and African Literature 698
      Byron Caminero-Santangelo (2007)

      92 Ecological Postcolonialism in African Women’s Literature 707
      Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (1998)

      93 Environmentalism and Postcolonialism 715
      Rob Nixon (2005)

      Part XIII: Queer, Postcolonial 725

      94 ‘‘Wheyting be dat?’’: The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature 727
      Chris Dunton (1989)

      95 Out in Africa 736
      Gaurav Desai (1997)

      96 Toward a Lesbian Continuum? Or Reclaiming the Erotic 746
      Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (1997)

      97 Queer Futures: The Coming-Out Novel in South Africa 753
      Brenna Munro (2007)

      Index 765

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