scholarly journals One Text, Many Literary Traditions: The Multidimensionality of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman

Afrika Focus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-282
Author(s):  
Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega
Keyword(s):  
Nobel Prize ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
Dramatic Text ◽  
The Rich

Abstract Death and the King’s Horseman, published in 1975, is undoubtedly Wole Soyinka’s most acclaimed play. When awarding the playwright the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 1986, the Committee specifically cited it as a “drama of existence”. Many literary critics have written about the play from multifarious perspectives. However, the dramatic text is still open to multidimensional interpretations that can further illuminate the rich texture of this canonical work. My study contextualises this dramatic masterpiece as yielding to a form of critical inquiry that makes it cohere with definitions of various literary traditions. It can be interrogated as Yoruba/Nigerian national literature, African literature, postcolonial literature, and world literature. It is, therefore, in this effort to use many approaches to see the play as a holistic text that I have chosen to interrogate it as “one text, many literary traditions”.

African Cultural Festivals and World Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-257
Author(s):  
Claire Ducournau
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Cultural Festivals ◽  
The World ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Bear Witness

Abstract In an era where cultural festivals multiply, so-called African festivals have spread in Africa, but also outside of the continent, in major cities as well as in little-known villages, for example in provincial France. What are some of their implications and effects in the case of francophone African literature? These events privilege a continental representation of literature, which often reveals itself as problematic when confronted with the complex geographies of the texts and authors represented at these festivals. Using cross-disciplinary methodology, this critical inquiry reads different reallocations of this persistent African matrix through a typology and contemporary examples (Kossi Efoui’s writings, the “Étonnants Voyageurs” and “Plein sud” festivals). As an object of study, festivals bear witness to the necessity of expanding the toolbox of the (world) literary scholar by making use of documentary sources and adopting ethnographic approaches. It reveals a structural tension between an African map and various concrete territories, where local issues matter often more than this continental category, and can affect the form and content of literature itself.

Indonesian Literature’s Position in World Literature

TEKNOSASTIK ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dina Amelia
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Western World ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

There are two most inevitable issues on national literature, in this case Indonesian literature. First is the translation and the second is the standard of world literature. Can one speak for the other as a representative? Why is this representation matter? Does translation embody the voice of the represented? Without translation Indonesian literature cannot gain its recognition in world literature, yet, translation conveys the voice of other. In the case of production, publication, or distribution of Indonesian Literature to the world, translation works can be very beneficial. The position of Indonesian literature is as a part of world literature. The concept that the Western world should be the one who represent the subaltern can be overcome as long as the subaltern performs as the active speaker. If the subaltern remains silent then it means it allows the “representation” by the Western.

World Literature, the opaque archive, and the untranslatable: J. M. Coetzee and some others

2021 ◽  
pp. 002198942098874
Author(s):  
Andrew van der Vlies
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Limit Case ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Theoretical Orientations ◽  
Disciplinary Field

A key concern of recent theoretical orientations in the development of “World Literature” as a discipline has been the question of accessibility to literatures in minor languages, which is to say of literal and metaphorical translatability, even transparency. This essay explores the challenge posed by the occlusion of the possible intertextual influence of works in such languages that are evident only as a trace in texts that now seem indisputably part of a canon of World Literature. What happens when the engagement of writers in this canon with cultural production in languages adjacent to those in which they themselves principally operate is not evident to an increasingly global community of scholars, and perhaps not even evidenced in an author’s archive (whether this is understood to be a material collection or indeed a virtual space conceptualized as the literary ecosystem in which an author has developed)? This essay addresses these questions with reference to the work of South African-born Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. Coetzee, and to the problem posed by some of his work’s (and his archive’s) others, here specifically Afrikaners and the work of Afrikaans-language writers. This consideration has implications not only for the current shape of Coetzee studies, but for that of World Literature more broadly, presenting something of a limit-case for the translation metaphor that directs some of its formulations as disciplinary field.

Form and History in Modern Arabic Poetics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Fakhreddine
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Prose Poem ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Fundamental Forces ◽  
Modern Arabic

Modern Arabic poetic forms developed in conversation with the rich Arabic poetic tradition, on one hand, and the Western literary traditions, primarily English and French, on the other. In light of the drastic social and political changes that swept the Arab world in the first half of the 20th century, Western influences often appear in the scholarship on the period to be more prevalent and operative in the rise of the modernist movement. Nevertheless, one of the fundamental forces that drove the movement from its early phases is its urgent preoccupation with the Arabic poetic heritage and its investment in forging a new relationship with the literary past. The history of poetic forms in the first half of the 20th century reveals much about the dynamics between margin and center, old and new, commitment and escapism, autochthonous and outside imperatives. Arabic poetry in the 20th century reflects the political and social upheavals in Arab life. The poetic forms which emerged between the late 1940s and early 1960s presented themselves as aesthetically and ideologically revolutionary. The modernist poets were committed to a project of change in the poem and beyond. Developments from the qas̩īdah of the late 19th century to the prose poem of the 1960s and the notion of writing (kitābah) after that suggest an increased loosening or abandoning of formal restrictions. However, the contending poetic proposals, from the most formal to the most experimental, all continue to coexist in the Arabic poetic landscape in the 21st century. The tensions and negotiations between them are what often lead to the most creative poetic breakthroughs.

scholarly journals Will Saudi's 2030 Vision Raise the Students’ Awareness to National Literature? Saudi Literature and Identity

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Mubarak Altwaiji ◽  
Majed Alenezi ◽  
Sajeena Gayathrri ◽  
Ebrahim Mohammed Alwuraafi ◽  
Maryam Naif Alanazi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Modern Identity

Forming national identity is placed on top of the seven aspects of High-Impact Educational Practices (HIEPs) in Northern Border University. Similarly, the concept of academic awareness to national literature has been one of the main challenges to national literature in the Middle East. Just as the strong presence of national identity in Saudi’s 2030 vision has initiated re-evaluations of how national identity is shaped, Saudi novel has similar concerns that inform social constructs of national identity through overarching themes and comprehensive representations of cultural issues. This study investigates the ways in which two Saudi novelists interrogate the intertwined issues shared by 2030 vision and national novel which address the archetypal Saudi identity: first, that the construction of modern identity requires much cultural openness with the world; second, that construction of Saudi identity needs exclusion of otherness; and third, that national identity depends on the rich history of two historical regions – Najd and Hijaz - that binds identity to a unified territory. The study focuses on how these novels give visibility to issues that are at the core of 2030 vision’s social and cultural aspect such as life style, appearance behaviours, attitudes, accepting differences and willingness to work and volunteer. Drawing on this narrative analysis, the study advocates for the utility of introducing national novel for undergraduate students to help them perceive identity as a position and support their identity enactment.

scholarly journals El traductor visible de literatura poscolonial ante la tentación del exotismo

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goretti López Heredia
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Side Product ◽  
Translation Strategy

Building upon The Translator’s Invisibility by L. Venuti and related work by Susan Bassnett, Ovidi Carbonell, Anuradha Dingwaney, Samia Mehrez and Mahasweta Sengupta, among others, this paper argues for the visibility of the postcolonial literature translator and draws a carefull line between proper visibility – as we define it – and a counterproductive exotism that may arise as the side-product of a poorly understood visibility. Our discussion focuses on the particular case of postcolonial lusophone African literature. In particular, we analyze the translation strategy adopted by the author of this paper for the translation from portuguese to catalan of A Varanda do Frangipani, a novel by Mia Couto from Mozambique.

Maithili Language and the Movement, Part–I

2018 ◽  
pp. 110-166
Author(s):  
Mithilesh Kumar Jha
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Indian Language ◽  
Good Education ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
The Rich

This chapter examines the ways through which the Maithili movement became more provocative and assertive from the beginning of the 1920s until the independence of India. It begins with not just a categorical refutation to Hindi’s claim of Maithili being its ‘dialect’, but by invoking the cultural and historical figures like Vidyapati, Govinda Das, which led to controversy between the supporters of Bengali and Maithili, it tried to galvanize and broaden its support among the Maithili speakers who were divided on the basis of caste, class, religion, region, and sects. In this period, there were many Bengali scholars who tried to project Vidyapati and Govinda Das as Bengali poets. However, the controversy was settled by the Bengali scholars themselves through their meticulous research on Vidyapati and eventually they began to support the cause of Maithili as an independent language. All these developments galvanized the support for Maithili among the Maithils who otherwise were suspicious of Maithili’s prospect in terms of either getting good education or employment. Whereas on the other hand, learning Hindi was seen not only as supporting the nationalist cause but a language that can provide better opportunities. However, Maithili elites remained ambivalent to Hindi. They could foresee its prospect but were not willing to forgo the rich literary traditions of Maithili for championing the cause of Hindi. So, while they were not inimical to Hindi, they rallied solidly behind Maithili to assert its status as an independent modern Indian language. The broadening of Maithili journalism attempts to revive its script—Mithilakshar, and formation of the Maithili Sahitya Parishad were other significant developments in this period. Gradually, these developments led to the growth of a new sense of geopolitical identity on the basis of Maithili. And Mithila-Maithil-Maithili became the key slogan of this phase of the Maithili movement.

scholarly journals Filial Descent: The African Roots of Postcolonial Literature in Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-77
Author(s):  
Cristina Lombardi-Diop
Keyword(s):  
Strong Influence ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Black African ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
Generational Shift ◽  
Narrative Forms

Abstract The essay concentrates on two seminal postcolonial novels by authors of African descent: Cristina Ubax Ali Farah’s Madre piccola (2007) (Little Mother: A Novel) and Gabriella Ghermandi’s Regina di fiori e di perle (2007) (Queen of Flowers and Pearls). It argues that these works give expression to an African diasporic urban generation that is changing the literary legacy of the Horn of Africa. The co-presence of multiple genres, with orality appearing as a strong influence on their written narrative forms, places these novels within the larger formation of a black African literary tradition. By looking at these two novels from an Africanist perspective, the essay takes into consideration their plurilingual interventions, the use of glossaries and linguistic borrowings, alongside the presence of Somali and Amharic cultural references. It highlights the authorial perspective as a ‘filial descent’ that addresses the complexity of a postcolonial generational shift in contemporary African literature. By placing these works within an African literary tradition and showing their critical de-centring of this tradition, the essay reconfigures a possible space of cultural autonomy for African postcolonial writing, away from the Italocentric space of discourse that has so far dominated its critical reception in Italy.

My Africa Reads

LOGOS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Olatoun Gabi-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Shared Reading ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Book Group ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Reading History ◽  
International Women

‘My Africa Reads’ is a memoir that looks back at my reading history. The ‘Preamble’ identifies authors who influenced my worldview during my secondary and tertiary education in the UK and who remained my companions during the first decade of my return to Nigeria. From this immersion in Eurocentric literature, the memoir progresses to my encounter with postcolonial African literature in the collective setting of the Africa Book Group (ABG), which I joined in 2002 and led from 2014 to 2018. The memoir looks at authors and literature that the international women of ABG have engaged with, and at meetings at which guest experts spoke on aspects of African studies and affairs. It highlights the power of ABG—a shared reading experience—to advance that part of my cultural liberation facilitated by good postcolonial literature and open, unconstrained discussions with other women.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document