Description
Book SynopsisThis is a study of the unofficial side of African fiction.Stephanie Newell's book reveals the undocumented writing, publishing and reading of pamphlets and paperbacks which exist outside of mainstream mass-production in Ghana. Gender relations are a dominant theme in the stories which explore and symbolically resolve commonly held pre-occupations about marriage, money and manhood. North America: Ohio U Press
Trade ReviewFascinating ... Like most good critical works, it kindles interest in its subject, and for this alone Ghanaian Popular Fiction deserves praise. More than that, it is a perceptive study which has made a significant advance in its field -- James Copnall * THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *
This is an intriguing examination of Ghana's popular fiction stretching back to the 1930s. -- Guy Arnold * WEST AFRICA *
... this superb detailed study... -- Gareth Griffiths * ARAS *
Stephanie Newell breaks new conceptual and analytic ground in this first book-length study of the English language popular literary expression and production in Ghana... Newell's Ghanaian Popular Fiction is the definitive book-length work on West African popular literary expression that we have long been waiting for. Its nuanced theorization and analytic multi-dimensionality should stimulate fresh departures from know-it-all theoretical orthodoxy and open new lines of research into what really is going on culturally within the postcolonial contact zone. -- Kwaku Larbi Korang * INTERVENTIONS *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - the relevance of postcolonial theories to the study of West African popular literatures; the proverbial space in Ghanian popular literatures; "making up their own minds" -readers, interpretations and the difference of view; Ghanian readers' comments on the role of authors and the function of literature; "pen-pictures" of readers - the early days of Ghanian popular fiction; an incident of colonial intertextuality - the adventures of the black girl in her search for Mr Shaw; the "book famine" in postcolonial West Africa; "two things may be alike but never the same" - E.K. Mickson's parodic techniques; "those mean and empty-headed men" - the shifting representations of wealth and women in two Ghanian popular novels; "reading the right sort of books and articles" - Kate Abbam's Obaa Sima; uprising genres -Akosua Gyamfuaa-Fofie's romantic fiction; conclusion - popular novels and international African fiction.
