European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan AfricaAlbert S. Gérard John Benjamins Publishing, 1 janv. 1986 - 1288 pages The first major comparative study of African writing in western languages, European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Albert S. Gérard, falls into four wide-ranging sections: an overview of early contacts and colonial developments Under Western Eyes ; chapters on Black Consciousness manifest in the debates over Panafricanism and Negritude; a group of essays on mental decolonization expressed in Black Power texts at the time of independence struggles; and finally Comparative Vistas, sketching directions that future comparative study might explore. An introductory essay stresses the millennia of writing in Africa, side by side with a richly eloquent and artistic set of vernacular oral traditions; written and oral traditions have become interwoven in adaptations of imported forms and linguistic innovations that challenge traditional high literary norms. Gérard uses the mathematical concept of fuzzy sets to explain why the focus on Black Africa has led him to set aside for future analysis the literatures produced in North Africa, which fall under the influence of Muslim civilization, as well as the diasporic literatures of the New World. Over sixty scholars from twenty-two countries contribute specialized studies of creative writing by leading authors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Achebe, Mphahlele, Ngugi, Senghor, Soyinka, and Tutuola. Critical analyses are organized primarily around regions, reflecting different colonial languages imposed through schools and other social institutions. Some authors trace the adaptation of western genres, others identify syncretism with folktales or myths. The volumes are attentive to the heterogeneity of national literatures addressed to polyethnic and multilingual populations, and they note the instrumental politics of language in newly independent states. A closing chapter, Tasks Ahead, identifies areas for future scholars to explore. |
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Page 57
... English, not only in Britain but in America and Africa. As the greater part of their work was connected with the transatlantic slave trade, much of it can be regarded as the beginning either of Afro-American literature or of a modern ...
... English, not only in Britain but in America and Africa. As the greater part of their work was connected with the transatlantic slave trade, much of it can be regarded as the beginning either of Afro-American literature or of a modern ...
Page 58
... English language, and about the function which proficiency in English might fulfil within the black community; secondly, it is of obvious historical interest to enquire about the ways in which members of that community learned their English ...
... English language, and about the function which proficiency in English might fulfil within the black community; secondly, it is of obvious historical interest to enquire about the ways in which members of that community learned their English ...
Page 59
... English of the African chiefs _ and traders of Calabar, providing early examples of those varieties of English (for instance, Freetown Krio, Calabar Pidgin) which cannot be discussed here, but the significance of which should be ...
... English of the African chiefs _ and traders of Calabar, providing early examples of those varieties of English (for instance, Freetown Krio, Calabar Pidgin) which cannot be discussed here, but the significance of which should be ...
Page 98
... English than it did in French. Partly, this must have been due to the prestige and intellectual influence of an English-speaking black community. To this should presumably be added the greater flexibility of the English language ...
... English than it did in French. Partly, this must have been due to the prestige and intellectual influence of an English-speaking black community. To this should presumably be added the greater flexibility of the English language ...
Page 105
... English.”62 Although this mastery is exemplified in some of his stories, he has not yet written enough to give one an idea of his ability: his first full-length novel, The Rain and the Night did not come out until 1979. Robert H. Brown ...
... English.”62 Although this mastery is exemplified in some of his stories, he has not yet written enough to give one an idea of his ability: his first full-length novel, The Rain and the Night did not come out until 1979. Robert H. Brown ...
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