European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan AfricaAlbert S. Gérard John Benjamins Publishing, 1 janv. 1986 - 1288 pages The first major comparative study of African writing in western languages, European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Albert S. Gérard, falls into four wide-ranging sections: an overview of early contacts and colonial developments Under Western Eyes ; chapters on Black Consciousness manifest in the debates over Panafricanism and Negritude; a group of essays on mental decolonization expressed in Black Power texts at the time of independence struggles; and finally Comparative Vistas, sketching directions that future comparative study might explore. An introductory essay stresses the millennia of writing in Africa, side by side with a richly eloquent and artistic set of vernacular oral traditions; written and oral traditions have become interwoven in adaptations of imported forms and linguistic innovations that challenge traditional high literary norms. Gérard uses the mathematical concept of fuzzy sets to explain why the focus on Black Africa has led him to set aside for future analysis the literatures produced in North Africa, which fall under the influence of Muslim civilization, as well as the diasporic literatures of the New World. Over sixty scholars from twenty-two countries contribute specialized studies of creative writing by leading authors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Achebe, Mphahlele, Ngugi, Senghor, Soyinka, and Tutuola. Critical analyses are organized primarily around regions, reflecting different colonial languages imposed through schools and other social institutions. Some authors trace the adaptation of western genres, others identify syncretism with folktales or myths. The volumes are attentive to the heterogeneity of national literatures addressed to polyethnic and multilingual populations, and they note the instrumental politics of language in newly independent states. A closing chapter, Tasks Ahead, identifies areas for future scholars to explore. |
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Achebe African literature African writers Afrikaans Amos Tutuola Angola António appeared artistic become Beier Birago Diop Black Orpheus British Cameroon Cape Verde Cape Verdean century characters Christian civilization collection colonial colour Congo creative writing critical cultural Dadié Diop drama early élite English essay European experience française France francophone French Ibadan Ibid Igbo independence inspiration intellectual issue John Pepper Clark journal language later Lisbon literary littérature London Lopes Luanda Manuel Lopes Mbari missionary modern Mongo Beti Mozambican Mozambique narrative native nègre negritude Negro Nigerian noire novelists Okigbo oral Paris play poems poet poetic poetry political Portuguese Présence Africaine Press printed problems prose fiction protest published race racial satire Senegal Senegalese Senghor short stories significant slave social society South African theatre theme tion traditional Tutuola Ulli Beier University verse village West African Western William-Ponty Wole Soyinka written Yoruba young