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 102
... major post-war writers. Roland Dempster, poet laureate of Liberia, and president and founder of the Association of Liberian Writers, taught World Literature at the university while producing his poetry. His only work of prose, described ...
... major post-war writers. Roland Dempster, poet laureate of Liberia, and president and founder of the Association of Liberian Writers, taught World Literature at the university while producing his poetry. His only work of prose, described ...
Page 121
... major trend in Senegalese fiction, a trend which was later to be illustrated in the novels of Abdoulaye Sadji and Ousmane Socé. Meanwhile, however, two interesting developments were being initiated in Dahomey. Whereas France had exerted ...
... major trend in Senegalese fiction, a trend which was later to be illustrated in the novels of Abdoulaye Sadji and Ousmane Socé. Meanwhile, however, two interesting developments were being initiated in Dahomey. Whereas France had exerted ...
Page 129
... major concern. The conflicts seem to result more from two different conceptions of life than from the relationship of exploiter to exploited, which dominates later fiction. One problem is that if the writer wished to deal with ...
... major concern. The conflicts seem to result more from two different conceptions of life than from the relationship of exploiter to exploited, which dominates later fiction. One problem is that if the writer wished to deal with ...
Page 138
... major theme in much African writing of the late fifties, but Gadeau was the first to provide an outspoken dramatic indictment of forced labour. The play was suppressed by the censor. Perhaps in order to ingratiate himself with the ...
... major theme in much African writing of the late fifties, but Gadeau was the first to provide an outspoken dramatic indictment of forced labour. The play was suppressed by the censor. Perhaps in order to ingratiate himself with the ...
Page 183
... major events, such as the killing of Piet Retief during the trekkers' application for a grant of land from the Zulu empire under Dingaan in Natal, and their defence of their laager of waggons during the offensive of the Matebele forces ...
... major events, such as the killing of Piet Retief during the trekkers' application for a grant of land from the Zulu empire under Dingaan in Natal, and their defence of their laager of waggons during the offensive of the Matebele forces ...
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