320 Pages
    by Routledge

    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume reflects one of the new areas of English Studies as it broadens to take in non-western literatures, and places more emphasis on the contexts and broader notions of `writing'. In discussing writing from and about Africa, this collection touches on studies in black writing, colonialism and imperialism and cultural development in the third world. It begins by providing a historical introduction to the main regional traditions, and then builds on this to discuss major issues, such as oral tradition, the significance of `literature' as a western import, representations of Africa in western writing, African writing against colonialism and its themes and politics in a post-colonial world, popular writing and the representation of women.

    Notes on contributors 1. Introduction: Writing and Africa Part One: Writing and History: A survey 2. North African writing 3. West African writing 4. Eastern and Central African writing Part Two: Issues and Problems 5. What is African Literature? Ethnography and Criticism 6. Fiction as an historicising form in modern South Africa 7. Empires of Imagination: Rider Haggard, popular fiction and Africa 8. Stars in the moral universe: Writing and resistance to colonialism 9. Writing, literacy and history in Africa 10. Oral traditions as history 11. Popular writing in Africa 12. African writing and gender 13. The changing fortunes of the writer in Africa? 14. The Press: Expression and repression 15. Post-Colonialism and langauge Documents and Bibliography Index

    Biography

    Mpalive-Hangson Msiska, Paul Hyland