Title:
African textualities : texts, pre-texts, and contexts of African literature
Author:
Lindfors, Bernth.
ISBN:
9780865436152
9780865436169
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, c1997.
Physical Description:
viii, 232 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Contents:
Texts. Achebe's Escort Service. Ambiguity and Intention in Arrow of God. Adventure and Self-Discovery in Mission to Kala. South Africa's First Indian Novel. John Bruin: South African Enigma in Texas -- Pre-Texts. Armah's Groton Essays. Armah's Harvard Writings. Amos Tutuola, Oral Tradition, and the Motif-Index. Towards an Achebe Iconography -- Contexts. Are There Any National Literatures in Black Africa Yet? Politics, Culture, Literary Form. Xenophobia and Class Consciousness in African Writing. Exile and Aesthetic Distance in the Works of Peter Abrahams. The Rise and Fall of Mbongeni Ngema. Ken Saro-Wiwa: In Short, a Giant.
Abstract:
African literary texts can be approached in a variety of ways. They may be examined in isolation as verbal artifacts that have a unique integrity. They may be studied in relation to other texts that preceded and followed them. Or they may be seen against the backdrop of the times, traditions and circumstances that helped to shape them. In this book, all these approaches have been utilized, sometimes singly, sometimes in combination.