African Literature

Tejumola Olaniyan is Professor in English at the University of Wisconsin. His publications include: Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African American and Caribbean Drama (1995), Arrest the Music: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (2004), and he is coeditor of African Drama and Performance (2004).Ato Quayson is Professor in English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnationalism Studies, University of Toronto. His previous publications include Strategic Transformation in Nigerian Writing (1997), Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process? (2000), Relocating Postcolonialism (Blackwell, 2002) and Calibrations: Reading for the Social (2003).

"This anthology represents a gathering of the best critical work on African literature and on larger questions of literary history, the sociology of literature, criticism and theory. In this magnificent book, we have a collection of the best that has been thought and written about African literary culture and the modern imagination."—Simon Gikandi, Professor of English, Princeton University"Introduces the material in a crisp, always engaged, sometimes provocative manner .... Diverse perspectives through the rich dynamics of dialogue and debate. Highly recommended." (Choice)

• Acknowledgments xiiIntroduction 1Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato QuaysonPart I: Backgrounds 51 Africa and Writing 7Alain Ricard (2004)2 Sub-Saharan Africa’s Literary History in a Nutshell 16Albert S. Ge´rard (1993)3 Politics, Culture, and Literary Form 22Bernth Lindfors (1979)4 African Literature in Portuguese 31Russell G. Hamilton (2004)5 North African Writing 38Anissa Talahite (1997)6 A Continent and its Literatures in French 46Jonathan Ngate (1988)7 African Literature and the Colonial Factor 54Simon Gikandi (2004)8 African Literature: Myth or Reality? 60V. Y. Mudimbe (1985)Part II: Orality, Literacy, and the Interface 659 Africa and Orality 67Liz Gunner (2004)10 Orality, Literacy, and African Literature 74Abiola Irele (1989)11 Oral Literature and Modern African Literature 83Isidore Okpewho (1992)12 Women’s Oral Genres 92Mary E. Modupe Kolawole (1997)13 The Oral Artist’s Script 97Harold Schenb (2002)Part III: Writer, Writing, and Function 10114 The Novelist as Teacher 103Chinua Achebe (1965)15 The Truth of Fiction 107Chinua Achebe (1978)16 Three in a Bed: Fiction, Morals, and Politics 115Nadine Gordimer (1988)17 Nobel Lecture 122Naguib Mahfouz (1988)18 Redefining Relevance 126Njabulo S. Ndebele (1994)19 Preparing Ourselves for Freedom 132Albie Sachs (1990)Part IV: Creativity in/and Adversarial Contexts 13920 A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced 141Wole Soyinka (2001)21 Exile and Creativity: A Prolonged Writer’s Block 144Micere Githae Mugo (1997)22 Containing Cockroaches (Memories of Incarceration Reconstructed in Exile) 150Jack Mapanje (1997)23 Writing Against Neo-Colonialism 157Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1988)24 The Writer and Responsibility 165Breyten Breytenbach (1983)25 Dissidence and Creativity 172Nawal El Saadawi (1996)26 Culture Beyond Color? A South African Dilemma 178Zoe¨ Wicomb (1993)27 In Praise of Exile 183Nuruddin Farah (1990)28 The African Writer’s Experience of European Literature 186D. Marechera (1987)Part V: On Nativism and the Quest for Indigenous Aesthetics: Negritude and Traditionalism 19329 Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century 195Le´opold Se´dar Senghor (1970)30 What is Ne´gritude? 203Abiola Irele (1977)31 Negritude and a New Africa: An Update 210Peter S. Thompson (2002)32 Prodigals, Come Home! 219Chinweizu (1973)33 Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Tradition 226Wole Soyinka (1975)34 My Signifier is More Native than Yours: Issues in Making a Literature African 234Ade´le´ke` Ade´e`.ko´. (1998)35 Out of Africa: Topologies of Nativism 242Kwame Anthony Appiah (1988)36 On National Culture 251Frantz Fanon (1963)37 True and False Pluralism 262Paulin Hountondji (1973)38 ‘‘An Open Letter to Africans’’ c/o The Punic One-Party State 271Sony Labou Tansi (1990)39 Resistance Theory/Theorizing Resistance or Two Cheers for Nativism 274Benita Parry (1994)Part VI: The Language of African Literature 27940 The Dead End of African Literature? 281Obiajunwa Wali (1963)41 The Language of African Literature 285Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1986)42 Anamnesis in the Language of Writing 307Assia Djebar (1999)43 African-Language Literature: Tragedy and Hope 315Daniel P. Kunene (1992)Part VII: On Genres 32344 Background to the West African Novel 325Emmanuel N. Obiechina (1975)45 Languages of the Novel: A Lover’s Reflections 333Andre´ Brink (1998)46 Realism and Naturalism in African Fiction 340Neil Lazarus (1987)47 ‘‘Who Am I?’’: Fact and Fiction in African First-Person Narrative 345Mineke Schipper (1985)48 Festivals, Ritual, and Drama in Africa 353Tejumola Olaniyan (2004)49 The Fourth Stage: Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy 364Wole Soyinka (1973)50 Introduction to King Oedipus 375Tawfiq Al-Hakim (1949)51 Poetry as Dramatic Performance 382Kofi Anyidoho (1991)52 ‘‘Azikwelwa’’ (We Will Not Ride): Politics and Value in Black South African Poetry 391Anne McClintock (1987)53 Revolutionary Practice and Style in Lusophone Liberation Poetry 402Emmanuel Ngara (1990)Part VIII: Theorizing the Criticism of African Literature 40954 Academic Problems and Critical Techniques 411Eldred D. Jones (1965)55 African Literature, Western Critics 414Rand Bishop (1988)56 A Formal Approach to African Literature 422Kenneth W. Harrow (1990)57 African Absence, a Literature without a Voice 427Ambroise Kom (1997)58 The Nature of Things: Arrested Decolonization and Critical Theory 432Biodun Jeyifo (1990)59 Reading through Western Eyes 444Christopher L. Miller (1990)60 Inherited Mandates in African Literary Criticism: The Intrinsic Paradigm 449Olakunle George (2003)61 Exclusionary Practices in African Literary Criticism 455Florence Stratton (1994)Part IX: Marxism 46162 Towards a Marxist Sociology of African Literature 463Omafume F. Onoge (1986)63 Writers in Politics: The Power of Words and the Words of Power 476Ngugi wa Thiong’O (1997)64 National Liberation and Culture 484Amilcar Cabral (1970)65 Concerning National Culture 492Agostinho Neto (1979)66 Masks and Marx: The Marxist Ethos vis-a`-vis African Revolutionary Theory and Praxis 496Ayi Kwei Armah (1985)67 Marxist Aesthetics: An Open-Ended Legacy 504Chidi Amuta (1989)Part X: Feminism 51168 To Be an African Woman Writer – an Overview and a Detail 513Ama Ata Aidoo (1988)69 The Heroine in Arab Literature 520Nawal El Saadawi (1980)70 Women and Creative Writing in Africa 526Flora Nwapa (1998)71 African Motherhood – Myth and Reality 533Lauretta Ngcobo (1988)72 Stiwanism: Feminism in an African Context 542Molara Ogundipe-Leslie (1994)73 Feminism with a Small ‘‘f’’! 551Buchi Emecheta (1988)74 Writing Near the Bone 558Yvonne Vera (1997)75 Some Notes on African Feminism 561Carole Boyce Davies (1986)76 Bringing African Women into the Classroom: Rethinking Pedagogy and Epistemology 570Obioma Nnaemeka (1994)77 Enlightenment Epistemology and the Invention of Polygyny 578Uzo Esonwanne (1997)78 Feminism, Postcolonialism and the Contradictory Orders of Modernity 585Ato Quayson (2000)Part XI: Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, and Postmodernism 59379 Genetic Structuralism as a Critical Technique(Notes Toward a Sociological Theory of the African Novel) 595Sunday O. Anozie (1971)80 In Praise of Alienation 599Abiola Irele (1982)81 In the Wake of Colonialism and Modernity 608Biodun Jeyifo (2000)82 Poststructuralism and Postcolonial Discourse 614Simon Gikandi (2004)83 Subjectivity and History: Derrida in Algeria 621Robert J. C. Young (2001)84 The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term ‘‘Post-colonialism’’ 628Anne McClintock (1992)85 Postmodernity, Postcoloniality, and African Studies 637Tejumola Olaniyan (2003)86 Postcolonialism and Postmodernism 646Ato Quayson (2000)87 Is the Post- in Postmodernism the Post- in Postcolonial? 654Kwame Anthony Appiah (1991)88 Postmodernism and Black Writing in South Africa 665Lewis Nkosi (1998)89 African-Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism 670Karin Barber (1995)Part XII: Ecocriticism 68190 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses 683William Slaymaker (2001)91 Different Shades of Green: Ecocriticism and African Literature 698Byron Caminero-Santangelo (2007)92 Ecological Postcolonialism in African Women’s Literature 707Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (1998)93 Environmentalism and Postcolonialism 715Rob Nixon (2005)Part XIII: Queer, Postcolonial 72594 ‘‘Wheyting be dat?’’: The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature 727Chris Dunton (1989)95 Out in Africa 736Gaurav Desai (1997)96 Toward a Lesbian Continuum? Or Reclaiming the Erotic 746Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi (1997)97 Queer Futures: The Coming-Out Novel in South Africa 753Brenna Munro (2007)Index 765