Meditations on African Literature

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Dubem Okafor

Book Code: GM9866

ISBN: 0-313-29866-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-29866-0

DOI:

208 pages, tables

Greenwood Press

Publication: 2/28/2001

List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £65.00)

Availability: Out of stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies

Series Number: 201

Reviews:

This is a book that anyone with a serious interest in African literature should read, first for the quality of the individual essays, but also for the problems it forces us to think about.
—Africa Today 2004
[O]ffers an array of essays that reward attention.
—International Fiction Review 2003
Okafor's volume makes a productive contribution to the scholarship of the field...Egaging the debate on African writers' location portends far more than the mere designation of literary identity. Rather it can provoke a deeper reflection on and assessment of the implications of the late-twentieth-century dispersal of African on what it means to be African in the twenty-first century.
—The International Journal of African Historical Studies 2002

Description: While African literature is presently enjoying much attention from the scholarly community, its heritage and identity are becoming less clearly defined. While Africa has a rich oral tradition, African writers find themselves writing in the languages of their colonial oppressors. So too, many of the best African writers now live outside Africa, particularly in North America. Much of the criticism of African literature is written by American professors, African writers sometimes teach their literature at American universities, and American publishers issue African literary works. At the same time, the political climate of many African countries has been detrimental to literacy and writing. This book explores many of the issues currently facing African literature. Each chapter is written by an expert contributor, to provide the volume with a broad coverage of numerous topics related to the present state of African literature. The opening chapters examine issues of language and postcoloniality in African literary works. Later chapters discuss such concerns as the formation of an African literary canon, representations of history and ideology in African writing, the role of women in African literature, and African ritual theater. Through its various chapters, the volume makes clear that African writers continue to engage pressing social and political issues, and that they are intellectuals rather than entertainers.

Table of Contents:

Preface by Femi Osofisan & Dubem Okafor
The Cacophonous Terrain of Nigerian/African Literature by Dubem Okafor
Language, Theory, and Modern African Literature: Some More Questions by Wole Ogundele
On the Concept "Commonwealth" Literature by Isidore Okpewho
Who Counts? De-Ciphering the Canon by Bernth Lindfors
Five Nigerian Novel by Romanus Egudu
Things Fall Apart: Problems in Constructing an Alternative Ethnography by Charlie Sugnet
Historicity and the Un-Eve-ing of the African Woman: Achebe's Novels by Chimalum Nwankwo
Over-Determined Contradictions: History & Ideology in a A Man of the People by Dubem Okafor
The True Fantasies of Grace Ogot, Storyteller by Peter Nazareth
The Anglo-African, the "Woman Question," and Imperial Discourse by Michael J.C. Echeruo
Impersonation in Some African Ritual Theater by Sam Ukala
Exile and Home: Africa in Caribbean Theater by Osita Okagbue
One Year in the First Instance by Biodun Jeyifo
Select Bibliography
Index

LC Card Number: 99-462059

LCC Class: PR9340

Dewey Class: 820


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