Description
Book SynopsisIn a collection of sixteen essays, Gagiano addresses over twenty texts from various African regions and periods. The works discussed here range from transcriptions of ancient (Khoikhoi / San) folktales to some of the classic texts of the African English literary canon and include recent writing about urgent contemporary social and gender issues. As the title indicates, Annie Gagiano's focus is on the way these texts engage with the forces that damage and threaten life and quality of life in various African contexts. She pays tribute -- by means of carefully argued analyses -- to the authors' political courage and social concern and to their subtle delineations of their African character' experiences. Central to her focus is the verbal artistry of these authors' memorable and complex representations. Her collection as a whole insists on the philosophical and aesthetic importance of African texts of the kind discussed here -- to the global reading public as much as to the 'real world' of their original contexts. Along with a new preface, several new essays have been added to the new 2014 edition to bring the collection up to date with the latest developments in the field of study.
Trade Reviewthe different essays are always informative, perceptive and full of the humility that insists that a critic should read a text on the terms of the writer of it, and not with a fully scripted already written agenda. -- Research in African Literatures 40.4 (Winter 2009)
a valuable collection of essays not only because it confronts the social and political themes which African writers have addressed in troubling times, but also because the articles convey a brilliant sense of the genres, nuanced language and originality of the writers who are represented here. -- Journal of the African Literature Association 3.1 (Winter 2008/Spring 2009)
"Incisiveness, innovation, multi-layered contextualization and meticulous referencing are what one has learned to expect from Annie Gagianos literary analyses, and this volume delivers no less."Journal of Postcolonial Writing 46.3-4 (2010)
"Gagiano's skills as a close reader are admirable. [] Gagiano's vein of inquiry is strikingly original, intelligent and rewarding."Scrutiny 2 15.1 (2010)
"This collection of essays by one of South Africa's most admired postcolonial critics collects a range of discrepant engagements with literary texts. [] The essays without exception are persuasive, each combining a close reading of the intersection of text and context []."Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 47.1 (2010)
