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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... century. The essential feature of Swahili writing is the predominance of narrative poetry. The eighteenthcentury epics dealt mainly with the life of Muhammad and his wars against the Christians soon after hijra: they were based on ...
... century. The essential feature of Swahili writing is the predominance of narrative poetry. The eighteenthcentury epics dealt mainly with the life of Muhammad and his wars against the Christians soon after hijra: they were based on ...
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... century and well into the twentieth, apart from a few scattered experiments which are interesting as such but statistically meaningless, literary activity centred in British territories, especially in Southern Africa, and was almost ...
... century and well into the twentieth, apart from a few scattered experiments which are interesting as such but statistically meaningless, literary activity centred in British territories, especially in Southern Africa, and was almost ...
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... century Enlightenment, a number of freed slaves were thus enabled to express themselves most forcefully on the subject of slavery and the slave trade especially in the English language. In Africa, during a large part of the nineteenth ...
... century Enlightenment, a number of freed slaves were thus enabled to express themselves most forcefully on the subject of slavery and the slave trade especially in the English language. In Africa, during a large part of the nineteenth ...
Page 28
... century in the voluminous works of Edward W. Blyden, a typical product of the pre-imperialistic phase in the evolution of European colonialism in Africa. Any such trends were inevitably silenced by the hardening of European colonial ...
... century in the voluminous works of Edward W. Blyden, a typical product of the pre-imperialistic phase in the evolution of European colonialism in Africa. Any such trends were inevitably silenced by the hardening of European colonial ...
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... century, her mastery of the most important and promising part of her African empire, Ethiopia, lasted only five years (1936—41) and was therefore too short-lived for any genuine cultural changes, except negative ones, to be eflected. On ...
... century, her mastery of the most important and promising part of her African empire, Ethiopia, lasted only five years (1936—41) and was therefore too short-lived for any genuine cultural changes, except negative ones, to be eflected. On ...
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achievement activity African Literature appeared became become beginning British called Cape century character Christian civilization collection colonial concerned contribution creative critical cultural described drama early edition emergence English especially European example experience expression fact fiction first followed France French hand human important independence influence intellectual interest issue journal language late later literary living London major means narrative native nature negritude Nigerian noir novel original Paris perhaps period play poems poet poetry political Portuguese present Press printed problems produced prose protest publication published race racial remained represented seems Senghor sense short shows significant social society South African story theme tion traditional translation turn University values village West Western writers written Yoruba young