Style in African Literature

Style in African Literature PDF Author: J. K. S. Makokha
Publisher: Brill Rodopi
ISBN: 9789042034761
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Postcolonial and contemporary African literatures have always been marked by an acute sensitivity to the politics of language, an attentiveness inscribed in the linguistic fabric of their own modes of expression. It is curious however, that despite the prevalence of a much-touted 'linguistic turn' in twentieth century theory and cultural production, language has frequently been neglected by literary studies in general. Even more curiously, postcolonial literary studies, an erstwhile emergent and now established discipline which has from the outset contained important elements of linguistic critique, has eschewed any sustained engagement with this topic. This absence is salient in the study of African literatures, despite, for instance, the prominence of orature in the African literary tradition right up to the present day, and sporadic meditations on the part of such luminaries as Achebe and Ngũgĩ. Beyond this, however, there has been little scholarly work attuned to the multifarious aspects of language and linguistic politics in the study of African literature. The present volume aims to rectify such lacunae by making a substantial interdisciplinary and transcultural contribution to the gradual reinstatement of the 'linguistic turn' in African literary studies. The volume focuses variously on postcolonial and transcultural African literatures, areas of literary production where the confluence of several languages, whether indigenous and (post)colonial in the first case, and local and global in the second case, appears to be a central and decisive factor in the formation and transformation of the continent and its peoples' cultural identities.

Style in African Literature

Style in African Literature PDF Author: J. K. S. Makokha
Publisher: Brill Rodopi
ISBN: 9789042034761
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Postcolonial and contemporary African literatures have always been marked by an acute sensitivity to the politics of language, an attentiveness inscribed in the linguistic fabric of their own modes of expression. It is curious however, that despite the prevalence of a much-touted 'linguistic turn' in twentieth century theory and cultural production, language has frequently been neglected by literary studies in general. Even more curiously, postcolonial literary studies, an erstwhile emergent and now established discipline which has from the outset contained important elements of linguistic critique, has eschewed any sustained engagement with this topic. This absence is salient in the study of African literatures, despite, for instance, the prominence of orature in the African literary tradition right up to the present day, and sporadic meditations on the part of such luminaries as Achebe and Ngũgĩ. Beyond this, however, there has been little scholarly work attuned to the multifarious aspects of language and linguistic politics in the study of African literature. The present volume aims to rectify such lacunae by making a substantial interdisciplinary and transcultural contribution to the gradual reinstatement of the 'linguistic turn' in African literary studies. The volume focuses variously on postcolonial and transcultural African literatures, areas of literary production where the confluence of several languages, whether indigenous and (post)colonial in the first case, and local and global in the second case, appears to be a central and decisive factor in the formation and transformation of the continent and its peoples' cultural identities.

Teaching the African Novel

Teaching the African Novel PDF Author: Gaurav Desai
Publisher: Modern Language Association of America
ISBN: 9781603290371
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
What is the African novel, and how should it be taught? The twenty-three essays of this volume address these two questions and in the process convey a wealth of information and ideas about the diverse regions, peoples, nations, languages, and writers of the African continent. Topics include Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's favoring of indigenous languages and literary traditions over European; the special place of Marxism in African letters;the influence of Frantz Fanon; women writers and the sub-Saharan novel;the Maghrebian novel;the novel and the griot epic in the Sahel;Islam in the West African novel;novels in Spanish from Equatorial Guinea;apartheid and postapartheid fiction;African writers in the diaspora;globalization in East African fiction; teaching Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart to students in different countries;the Onitsha market romance. The volume editor, Gaurav Desai, writes, "The point of the volume is to encourage a reading of Africa that is sensitive to its history of colonization but at the same time responsive to its present multiracial and multicultural condition."

Theme and Style in African Poetry

Theme and Style in African Poetry PDF Author: Isaac Irabor Elimimian
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
A critical study which explores the range and content of African verse. The text embraces oral poetry and francophone verse.

Southern African Literatures

Southern African Literatures PDF Author: Michael J. F. Chapman
Publisher: University of Kwazulu Natal Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description
A study of the work of writers from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia, and written at a time of crucial change in the subcontinent, this book covers a range of work, from the storytelling of stone-age Bushmen to modern writing by figures.

Oral Literature in Africa

Oral Literature in Africa PDF Author: Ruth Finnegan
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1906924708
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. This book is the first volume in the World Oral Literature Series, an ongoing collaboration between OBP and World Oral Literature Project. A free online archive of recordings and photographs that Finnegan made during her fieldwork in the late 1960s is hosted by the World Oral Literature Project (http: //www.oralliterature.org/collections/rfinnegan001.html) and can also be accessed from publisher's website.

The Concubine

The Concubine PDF Author: Elechi Amadi
Publisher: Heinemann
ISBN: 9780435905569
Category : African fiction (English)
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Set in a remote village in Eastern Nigeria, an area yet to be affected by European values and where society is orderly and predictable, the story concerns a woman "of great beauty and dignity" who inadvertently brings suffering and death to all her lovers. The novel portrays a society still ruled by traditional gods, offering a glimpse into the human relationships that such a society creates.

Griots and Griottes

Griots and Griottes PDF Author: Thomas Albert Hale
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780253334589
Category : Folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
A comprehensive illustrated portrait of griots and griottes including extensive reference materials.

The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros

The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros PDF Author: Galawdewos
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691164215
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
A "geadl" or hagiography, originally written by Gealawdewos thirty years after the subject's death, in 1672-1673. Translated from multiple manuscripts and versions.

The House of Hunger

The House of Hunger PDF Author: Dambudzo Marechera
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478609494
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
This explosive, award-winning novella of growing up in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), told in exquisite, imaginative prose, touches the readers nerve through the authors harrowing portrait of lives disrupted by white settlers, a young disillusioned black man, and individual suffering in the 1960s and 1970s. Marecheras raw, piercing writings secured his place in African literature as a stylistic innovator and rebel commentator of the ghetto condition. While The House of Hunger is the centerpiece of this collection, readers are also treated to a series of short sketches in which Marechera, with angry humor, further navigates themes of madness, violence, despair, and survival.

Language, Literature and Style in Africa

Language, Literature and Style in Africa PDF Author: Taiwo Abioye
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443871737
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
This book brings together the seminal contributions of scholars interested in the study of language, literature and style in Africa. It marks a response to the longstanding neglect of stylistic analysis of canonical and emergent fictional and non-fictional African prose and discourse. As a reaction to this neglect of African literary artefacts, the book provides a welcome and timely deviation from the norm. The contributions to this volume include discussions that are both analytical and theoretical; analyses of style at the levels of lexis and semantics; newer and more innovative analyses that highlight the relationship between style, pedagogy and technology-mediated discourse; and a final discussion that provides an appropriate background against which issues related to language, literature and style can be understood. In terms of the volumes representation of diverse geographical contexts, the papers included here bridge the North-South divide in Africa, and there are contributions from Libya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. As such, the book is an interesting collection of papers that illuminate the study of literary style in Africa and highlight the need for a greater revival of it on a larger scale.