West African Literatures: Ways of Reading

Cover
OUP Oxford, 08.06.2006 - 259 Seiten
The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series (general editor: Elleke Boehmer) offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English.This study of West African literatures interweaves the analysis of fiction, drama, and poetry with an exploration of the broader political, cultural, and intellectual contexts within which West African writers work. Anglophone literatures form the central focus of the book, with comparative comments on vernacular literature, francophone writing and oral literatures, and detailed discussion of selected francophone texts in translation (e.g., Senghor, Tadjo, Beyala, Bâ, Sembene). Movingfrom a discussion of nationalist and anti-colonial writing in the period before independence, towards the more experimental writings of contemporary authors such as Véronique Tadjo (Ivory Coast), Syl Cheney-Coker (Sierra Leone), and Kojo Laing (Ghana), the book constantly relates texts to the social andpolitical history of West Africa. Canonical, internationally well-known writers such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are positioned in relation to the literary cultures and debates which surrounded them when they first produced their seminal texts; the discussions and disagreements which have grown up around their work in subsequent decades are also considered. The work of new and lesser-known writers is also considered, including Niyi Osundare (Nigeria) and Kofi Anyidoho (Ghana). In order toconvey a sense of the rich and complex societies that are clustered beneath the umbrella-term 'postcolonial', emphasis is placed on West Africa's diverse oral and popular cultures, and the ways in which local intellectuals and readers have responded to the most prominent authors through theaesthetic frameworks generated by these forms.
 

Inhalt

Where is West Africa?
1
2 Négritude
24
Islam and Identity in West African Literature
45
4 Oral Literatures
59
5 Lost and Found in Translation
74
Presence and Palimpsest in the Colonialscape
85
7 Popular Literature
101
Literary Experiments with Oral Genres 1960s1990s
124
10 Marxism and West African Literature
159
Postmodernism Poststructuralism Postcolonialism
172
12 Experimental Writing by the Third Generation
182
Calixthe Beyala Werewere Liking and Véronique Tadjo
192
West Africa in Postcolonial Theory
201
Notes
214
Bibliography
225
Index
251

9 Feminism and the Complex Space of Womens Writing
136

Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen

Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Autoren-Profil (2006)

Stephanie Newell is Reader in English Literature at the University of Sussex. Her research interests include West African literature, African newspaper culture, African readerships, and postcolonial theory. She has published widely on African popular culture and West African newspaper history. Her most recent books include two studies of West African popular literature and a queer history of colonial West Africa, The Forger's Tale: The Search for 'Odeziaku'.

Bibliografische Informationen