Chidi Amuta is a Nigerian journalist, intellectual and literary critic. He was previously a senior lecturer in literature and communications at the universities of Ife and Port Harcourt. He is also chaitman of the editorial board for the Nigerian Daily Times.Biodun Jeyifo is a professor of African and African American studies and of comparative literature at Harvard University. His previous books include Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, Postcolonialism (2004).

Amuta’s monograph remains irreplaceable in being the very first systematic attempt to give us a cognitive map of where African literary theory came from.

• PrefaceIntroduction1. Ideological Formations in the Criticism of African Literature2. Traditionalism and the Quest for an African Literary Aesthetic3. Marxism and African Literature4. A Dialectical Theory of African Literatures: Categories and Springboards5. Issues and Problems in African Literature: A Dialectical Revision6. History and the Dialetics of Narrative in the African Novel7. Drama and Revolution in Africa8. Poetry and Liberation Politics in Africa9. Beyond DecolonizationSelect Bibliography

Chidi Amuta is a Nigerian journalist, intellectual and literary critic. He was previously a senior lecturer in literature and communications at the universities of Ife and Port Harcourt. He is also chaitman of the editorial board for the Nigerian Daily Times.Biodun Jeyifo is a professor of African and African American studies and of comparative literature at Harvard University. His previous books include Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, Postcolonialism (2004).

Amuta’s monograph remains irreplaceable in being the very first systematic attempt to give us a cognitive map of where African literary theory came from.

• PrefaceIntroduction1. Ideological Formations in the Criticism of African Literature2. Traditionalism and the Quest for an African Literary Aesthetic3. Marxism and African Literature4. A Dialectical Theory of African Literatures: Categories and Springboards5. Issues and Problems in African Literature: A Dialectical Revision6. History and the Dialetics of Narrative in the African Novel7. Drama and Revolution in Africa8. Poetry and Liberation Politics in Africa9. Beyond DecolonizationSelect Bibliography

Chidi Amuta is a Nigerian journalist, intellectual and literary critic. He was previously a senior lecturer in literature and communications at the universities of Ife and Port Harcourt. He is also chaitman of the editorial board for the Nigerian Daily Times.Biodun Jeyifo is a professor of African and African American studies and of comparative literature at Harvard University. His previous books include Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, Postcolonialism (2004).

Amuta’s monograph remains irreplaceable in being the very first systematic attempt to give us a cognitive map of where African literary theory came from.

• PrefaceIntroduction1. Ideological Formations in the Criticism of African Literature2. Traditionalism and the Quest for an African Literary Aesthetic3. Marxism and African Literature4. A Dialectical Theory of African Literatures: Categories and Springboards5. Issues and Problems in African Literature: A Dialectical Revision6. History and the Dialetics of Narrative in the African Novel7. Drama and Revolution in Africa8. Poetry and Liberation Politics in Africa9. Beyond DecolonizationSelect Bibliography