Download or read book The Quest for Identity in West African Literature written by Kristine Lynette Martin and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tongue and Mother Tongue written by African Literature Association. Meeting and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tongue and Mother Tongue takes on two compelling challenges: the language question and the place and role of the mother tongue in African literature. This collection is the culmination of the fierce, decades-old debate on the question of African literature and its criticism. The fourteen essays range from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives, covering the theoretical and ideological aspects of the language question, the nature of criticism, the influence of the oral tradition, critical analysis of mother tongue literature and textual analyses.
Download or read book Cultural identity in the East African novel written by Regina Hartmann and published by diplom.de. This book was released on 2014-04-11 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: As the Black African writers have taught us, we must dance our word, for in human speech as in dance, lies an offering; to speak and to write is also to offer oneself to the other; it is to be reborn together . This quotation by M. Rombaut locates African literature close to the performing arts. According to his statement African literature seems to transcend the conventional European conception of writing, which is conceiving literature as something planned and permanent. The idea of a literary performance in African writing places the author much closer to the story-teller, who is dependent on his audience and trying to keep in touch with them. By processing their feelings in his performance he gives expression to a common consciousness. In contrast to the Western author who often wants to stand apart from his society, African authors tend to aim their participation in the formation of a shared identity. This paper tries to find out how authors from the framework of East Africa conceive of cultural identity. Basically, I will proceed in two steps: part A is dedicated to the development of a pattern within which the complex issue of identity can be adequately discussed in an East African context. In Part B I will then apply this discussion scheme to three novels which as I will explain are representative for East African writing, in far as this term is justified. Part A starts off from some basic observations about identity, on the foundation of which I want to deduce the structure of my analysis. I will argue that identity is based on ones observation of the environment and on the influence of outsiders. All this is to some extent true for two concepts: individual and cultural identity. The latter develops when a group of individuals feels or is ascribed a common bond apt to correspond to several individual self-concepts. These individuals may then share a feeling of home, which can act as a physical but also mental commitment. Departing form these ideas I will show that four issues might be interesting in dealing with cultural identity, which can be expressed by some central questions: 1.Identity imposed and adopted: In how far can others influence our identity? 2.Identity rediscovered and reinvented:To what extent does our history work on identity? 3.Identity displaced: How does our feeling of physical or mental bond to a physical or mental space I will call home work on identity? 4.Identity integrated: How [...]
Download or read book So Long a Letter written by Mariama Bâ and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2012-05-06 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by award-winning African novelist Mariama Bâ and translated from the original French, So Long a Letter has been recognized as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences —some wistful, some bitter—recounted by recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined. Considered a classic of contemporary African women’s literature, So Long a Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country. Winner of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Download or read book African Youth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture written by Vivian Yenika-Agbaw and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how African youth are depicted in contemporary literature and popular culture, and discusses the different ways by which they attempt to construct personal and cultural identities through popular culture and social media outlets. The contributors approach the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective, looking at images in children’s and adolescent literature from Africa, and the African diaspora, from Nollywood and Hollywood movies, from popular magazines, and from youth cultures encountered directly through field experiences. The findings reveal that there are many stereotypes about Africa, African youth and black cultures, and that African youth are aware of these. Since they juggle multiple identities shaped by their ethnicities, race and religion, it is often a challenge for them to define themselves. As they also share a global youth culture that transcends these cultural markers, some take advantage of media outlets to voice their concerns and participate in political struggles. Others simply use these to promote their personal interests. Contributors ponder the challenges involved in constructing unique identities, offering ideas on how African youth are doing so successfully or not in different parts of the continent and the African diaspora, and thus offer new possibilities for youth studies.
Download or read book Postcolonial Identities and West African Literature written by Anwesha Das and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anchored in postcolonial theory, this book highlights the concept of “postcolonial soliloquies” as an original idea in analyzing West African literature. It uses the political theory of “dialogue” to broaden the reader’s understanding of history, culture, identity and indigenous memories. The book shows how the novels of T. Obinkaram Echewa plunge into the known territory of colonial history with new boundaries.
Download or read book The Pan African Ideal in Literatures of the Black World written by Kofi Anyidoho and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Companion to African Literatures written by Olakunle George and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-03-22 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rediscover the diversity of modern African literatures with this authoritative resource edited by a leader in the field How have African literatures unfolded in their rich diversity in our modern era of decolonization, nationalisms, and extensive transnational movement of peoples? How have African writers engaged urgent questions regarding race, nation, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And how do African literary genres interrelate with traditional oral forms or audio-visual and digital media? A Companion to African Literatures addresses these issues and many more. Consisting of essays by distinguished scholars and emerging leaders in the field, this book offers rigorous, deeply engaging discussions of African literatures on the continent and in diaspora. It covers the four main geographical regions (East and Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), presenting ample material to learn from and think with. A Companion To African Literatures is divided into five parts. The first four cover different regions of the continent, while the fifth part considers conceptual issues and newer directions of inquiry. Chapters focus on literatures in European languages officially used in Africa -- English, French, and Portuguese -- as well as homegrown African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, and Yoruba. With its lineup of lucid and authoritative analyses, readers will find in A Companion to African Literatures a distinctive, rewarding academic resource. Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students in literary studies programs with an African focus, A Companion to African Literatures will also earn a place in the libraries of teachers, researchers, and professors who wish to strengthen their background in the study of African literatures.
Download or read book The Quest for Identity and the Loss of Identity in North African Literature of Exile written by Imene Belhassen and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines the theme of exile in the writings of North African writers, and explores how exile shapes their notion of identity. The notion of "exile" can be understood in two related but distinct ways: literally, it refers to a forced emigration, and metaphorically, to a voluntary one. This dissertation studies both types of exile, focusing on the metaphorical definition, and interpreting many forms of social exclusion as manifestations of a metaphorical exile. The focus is on francophone North African writers who are currently living in France, either willingly or by force, such as Tahar Ben Jelloun, Assia Djebar, and Malika Mokeddem, and on Beur writers, such as Azouz Begag, Mahdi Charef, and Leila Marouane. The thesis is a literary study of their works, assessing the varied ways in which exile is portrayed, as well as several implied questions. One of these is the nature of exile itself: examining how it represents a loss, and how it is a quest for the acquisition of a new identity. The works examined are L'enfant de sable, La nuit sacree, Jour de silence a Tangers, L'interdite, Des reves et des assassins, Vaste est la prison, Le the au harem, Le Gone du Cha̲aba, and La vie sexuelle d'un Islamiste a Paris. This dissertation also investigates the way in which Islam is represented in the literature of exile, as a religion, a culture, or an ethnicity. It also takes into account the effect of gender, in terms of the differences and similarities between representations created by male and female writers. Additionally, it examines how Islam, as a religion and as a strict political ideology, is one of the primary reasons for the exile of some North African writers, especially those from Algeria, due to the emergence of oppressive fundamentalism, and how this is reflected in their novels. This study concludes that these writers use exile as a tool by which to examine their roots through nostalgia and criticism, and to regain a lost freedom and acquire a new identity.
Download or read book Language and the Quest for Political and Social Identity in the African Novel written by John Bolland and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Re imagining African Identity in the Twenty First Century written by Fetson Anderson Kalua and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses the idea of African identity in the twenty-first century, calling into question and deconstructing any understanding and representation of the idea of African identity as being based exclusively on the notion of ‘Blackness’, or the Black race. In countering such an idea of African identity as a flawed notion, the text propounds the idea of intermediality as a new modality of thinking about the importance of embracing the primacy of tolerance for the difference of identity. The notion of intermediality promotes the need for people of all races across the African continent to embrace the idea of difference as the defining feature of African identity so that the geographical locality called Africa is seen as a vibrant, open, and cosmopolitan continent which is accessible to people of all races and identities.
Download or read book Decolonising the Mind written by Ngugi wa Thiong'o and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 1986 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ngugi wrote his first novels and plays in English but was determined, even before his detention without trial in 1978, to move to writing in Gikuyu.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of African Literature written by Simon Gikandi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 1009 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive reference work on African literature to date, this book covers all the key historical and cultural issues in the field. The Encyclopedia contains over 600 entries covering criticism and theory, African literature's development as a field of scholarship, and studies of established and lesser-known writers and their texts. While the greatest proportion of literary work in Africa has been a product of the twentieth century, the Encyclopedia also covers the literature back to the earliest eras of story-telling and oral transmission, making this a unique and valuable resource for those studying social sciences as well as humanities. This work includes cross-references, suggestions for further reading, and a comprehensive index.
Download or read book Mother is Gold written by Adrian Roscoe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1971-07-02 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did West African literature in English begin? What influences affected its birth and development? How much does it imitate European models? How is traditional African culture influencing modern writing? What kind of experiments are being tried? These are some of the questions, relevant to African writing throughout the continent, which this critical study discusses by examining the most significant work in verse, prose, drama, children's literature, journalism and political writing in West Africa. The author examines the writing of major figures such as Soyinka, Achebe, Okara, Clark, Tutuola and Ekwensi as well as that of authors whose work is not as widely known.
Download or read book Bessie Head written by Huma Ibrahim and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the foremost African writers of our time, who dispelled the silence between colonial and feminist discourses by "talking back", Bessie Head at last gets her due in this first book-length, comprehensive study of her work. This book locates Head's unquestionable importance in the canon of African literature. Author Huma Ibrahim argues that unless we are able to look at the merging of women's sexual and linguistic identity with their political and gendered identity, the careful configurations created in Head's work will elude us. Ibrahim offers a series of thoughtful readings informed by feminist, diasporan, postcolonial, and poststructuralist insights and concerns. She identifies a theme she calls "exilic consciousness" - the desire to belong - and traces its manifestations through each phase of Head's work, showing how "women's talk" - a marginalized commodity in the construction of southern Africa - is differently embodied and evaluated. Bessie Head's works are frequently featured in courses in African literature, third-world literature, and fiction writing, but there is little critical material on them. Ibrahim offers readings of Head's novels When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power, as well as the collections Tales of Tenderness and Power, A Collector of Treasures, A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings, and The Cardinals, the histories Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind and A Bewitched Crossroad, and her letters to Robert Vigne collected in A Gesture of Belonging. In Head's exploration of oppressed people, especially women and those in exile, Ibrahim finds startling insights into institutional power relations. Head not only subverts Western hegemonic notions ofthe third-world woman but offers a critique of postcoloniality.
Download or read book West African Literatures written by Stephanie Newell and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2006-06-08 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series (general editor: Elleke Boehmer) offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English. This study of West African literatures interweaves the analysis of fiction, drama, and poetry with an exploration of the broader political, cultural, and intellectual contexts within which West African writers work. Anglophone literatures form the central focus of the book, with comparative comments on vernacular literature, francophone writing and oral literatures, and detailed discussion of selected francophone texts in translation (e.g., Senghor, Tadjo, Beyala, Bâ, Sembene). Moving from a discussion of nationalist and anti-colonial writing in the period before independence, towards the more experimental writings of contemporary authors such as Véronique Tadjo (Ivory Coast), Syl Cheney-Coker (Sierra Leone), and Kojo Laing (Ghana), the book constantly relates texts to the social and political history of West Africa. Canonical, internationally well-known writers such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are positioned in relation to the literary cultures and debates which surrounded them when they first produced their seminal texts; the discussions and disagreements which have grown up around their work in subsequent decades are also considered. The work of new and lesser-known writers is also considered, including Niyi Osundare (Nigeria) and Kofi Anyidoho (Ghana). In order to convey a sense of the rich and complex societies that are clustered beneath the umbrella-term 'postcolonial', emphasis is placed on West Africa's diverse oral and popular cultures, and the ways in which local intellectuals and readers have responded to the most prominent authors through the aesthetic frameworks generated by these forms.
Download or read book Literature and Modern West African Culture written by Donatus Ibe Nwoga and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
