Texts, Tasks, and Theories

TOBIAS ROBERT KLEIN is an associate member of the International Centre for African Music and Dance at the University of Ghana. His research interests centre on the literary and musical cultures of Western Europe and West Africa. ULRIKE AUGA is a professor of Theology and Gender Studies at the Humboldt University, Berlin. Her publications include the critique of intellectuals, ‘national identities’ in transition; gender issues, and, more recently, religion; and human rights and the notion of sexuality. VIOLA PRÜSCHENK graduated from Humboldt University, Berlin, with an M.A. in African studies and ethnomusicology. She is currently working on a dissertation on the process of intermediality (music in written texts) in African and Caribbean literatures.

• Acknowledgements and NoticeIntroductionTobias Robert KLEIN, Ulrike AUGA & Viola PRÜSCHENK: Postcolonialism, Gender, and Modernity: African Literatures and the Agendas of Theory at the Outset of the Twenty-First CenturyLanguage, Modernism, and ModernitySimon GIKANDI: African Literature and ModernityFrank SCHULZE–ENGLER: African Literature and the Micropolitics of Modernity: Post-Traditional Society in Wole Soyinka’s Season of Anomy, Nuruddin Farah’s Sardines, and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous ConditionsTobias Robert KLEIN: Kojo Laing and the Cultural Specifics of an African ModernityFred OPALI: Romantic and African Notions of Poetic Language: Shelley and Okot p’BitekNew Readings in African Literature and Postcolonial TheoryKwadwo OSEI–NYAME: Toward the Decolonization of African Postcolonial Theory: The Example of Kwame Appiah’s In My Father’s House vis-à-vis Ama Ata Aidoo’s Our Sister Killjoy, Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel, and Ike Oguine’s A Squatter’s TaleMaik NWOSU: The River, the Earth, and the Spirit World: Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, and the Novel in Africa Oyeniyi OKUNOYE: Postcoloniality, Modern African Poetry, and Counter-DisourseLindy STIEBEL: Looking at the Local /Locale: A Postcolonial Reading of Lewsi Nkosi’s Mating BirdsAfrican Literature and Contemporary Society: Identity, Dissidence, and Cultural PracticeMichael CHAPMAN: African Literature, African Literatures: Cultural Practice or Art Practice?Pinkie MEKGWE: Theorizing African Feminism(s): The ‘Colonial’ QuestionKatrin BERNDT: The Multilayered Construction of Identity in Alexander Kanengoni’s Echoing Silences and Farida Karodia’s “The Red Velvet Dress”Ulrike AUGA: Intellectuals Between Resistance and Legitimation: The Cases of Nadine Gordimer and Christa WolfNotes on Contributors and Editors Notes for Contributors