Ayi Kwei Armah, Radical Iconoclast: Pitting Imaginary Worlds Against the Actual

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Ohio University Press, 2000 - Literary Criticism - 211 pages

Ghanaian novelist, essayist, and short-story writer Ayi Kwei Armah has won international recognition as one of Africa's most articulate writers. In this book, Ode Ogede argues that previous critics have misinterpreted the aesthetic and literary influences that have shaped Armah's artistic vision and overlooked his most significant and valuable contribution to the problems of writing "outside the prison-house of conventional English."

Professor Ogede situates Armah's writing within its cultural, historical, and political contexts and examines Armah's ability to create new literary forms based on his masterful manipulation of African oral traditions. Armah is presented here as a writer who looks beyond the corruption that would seem to have engulfed Africa and who successfully bridges the concerns of first- and second-generation postcolonial African writers.

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Contents

The Author in the Works Intention and Practice
10
Beyond Fracture Entrapment Dislocation
26
A Modern Middle Passage
75
Copyright

5 other sections not shown

Common terms and phrases

Achebe achieve action African Literature African writers American Armah artist attempt Ayi Kwei Baako Beautyful become Born bring calls cause characters claims colonial concern continue corruption create critics cultural describes early effects elite essay European example experience expression fact fails fiction forces Fragments give Healers Heinemann human ideas important individual interest issues language lead liberation literary lives London Longer at Ease look major man's material means Modin moral narrative narrator Ngugi wa Thiong'o novel offer oral original Osiris Rising past political position present Press problems reader reality regard responsible role roots Seasons sense shows significance situation social society story struggle things thinking Thousand Seasons tion tradition turned understanding University values vision voice West Western whole women

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About the author (2000)

Ode Ogede received his Ph.D. from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and is a Professor of English at North Carolina Central University. He is the author of Art, Society, and Performance, and Achebe and the Politics of Representation.

Bibliographic information

TitleAyi Kwei Armah, Radical Iconoclast: Pitting Imaginary Worlds Against the Actual
AuthorOde Ogede
Editionillustrated
PublisherOhio University Press, 2000
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedMar 4, 2008
ISBN082141352X, 9780821413524
Length211 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / African
Literary Criticism / General
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African Studies
  
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