Acquiring and Studying African Literature

PMLA ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 117 (5) ◽  
pp. 1225-1227
Author(s):  
Mette Shayne
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Third World ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
African Writers ◽  
National Languages ◽  
Buying In

martin cohen's “developments in foreign approval buying,” in the march 2001 issue of pmla, lists some of “the foreign language bibliographer's […] tricks” (393) for stocking collections. Acquiring African literature, however, is largely a different matter. The approval plans Cohen mentions, whereby “the vendor allows you to see the book [or a description of it] before you decide whether or not to add it to the collection,” would be applicable to the presses in England and France specializing in Third World literature (e.g., Heinemann in England, L'Harmattan in France), which publish primarily the most established African writers (see Maja-Pearce; Ruppert). But when it comes to publishing on the continent of Africa, even books by well-known writers (like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o), when written in the national languages, can only be obtained locally. And certainly all other literature has to be bought in the country of origin.

scholarly journals Literatura, Linguagem e Descolonização em Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Quênia) e Chinua Achebe (Nigéria)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Bruno Ribeiro Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Chinua Achebe ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
African Languages ◽  
African People ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Writers ◽  
The Many

A história de literatura africana contemporânea está repleta de debates que tratam de sua utilidade frente aos povos de África e a natureza dessa literatura. Através das ideias de dois escritores africanos, Chinua Achebe e Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, este artigo revisita a história das ideias desses autores em respeito à literatura africana e sua linguagem de escrita. Tratamos de perceber como dois autores da mesma geração, porém de locais diferentes, Nigéria e Quênia, respectivamente, pensaram a produção literária e sua função em África no período pós-colonial.Palavras-chave: Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938-), Literatura Africana, Línguas Africanas AbstractThe history of African contemporary literature is full of debates that deal with its utility to the many African people and the nature of this literature. Through the ideas of two African writers, Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, we revisit the history of the ideas of these authors in relation to African literature and the language in which this literature is written. We try to perceive how authors from the same generation, but from different locals, Nigeria and Kenya, respectively, thought their literary production and its function in Africa in the post-colonial period.Keywords: Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938-), African Literatures, African Languages

Cultural Formalism and the Criticism of Modern African Literature

1976 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-330
Author(s):  
Solomon O. Iyasere
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Wole Soyinka ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Yambo Ouologuem ◽  
African Writers ◽  
Vital Element

Criticism of African creative works by both African and western scholars has become a major intellectual activity. Many articles have been published on African writers and their works, and, in recent years, several journals have appeared which are devoted exclusively to the discussion of African literature. This surge of interest is further reflected in the fact that a number of book-length studies have been produced, and African writers such as Wole Soyinka (a dramatist) and Yambo Ouologuem (a novelist) have received international accolades. In short, African literature is now recognised as a vital element in the corpus of world literature.

scholarly journals Decolonizing Siberian Minds

Sibirica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. v-vi
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Romaniello
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Language And Education ◽  
The Mind

Russian imperialism continues to leave a strong imprint on indigenous cultures across Siberia, and throughout the Russian Federation and the post-Soviet republics. Imperialism is invasive and persistent, and it might be impossible to escape its consequences. In 1986, African novelist and postcolonial theorist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o published his influential essay collection, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. One of his arguments is that no postcolonial subject could be free from the constraints of imperialism until she or he succeeded in freeing the mind from the trap of an imposed (and foreign) language. Ngũgĩ’s experience was based on his own life growing up in Kenya, but his lesson is as applicable to Siberia as it is for East Africa. For indigenous Siberians, language and education are at the forefront of the ongoing postcolonial struggle to maintain their cultural identities in modern Russia.

The Position Of Foreign Language In African Literature

2019 ◽  
pp. 535
Author(s):  
Arab Samir ◽  
Mohamed Yamine Boulenouar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
African Literature

scholarly journals INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL LANGUAGES: CRITERIA, RATINGS, FORECASTS

Movoznavstvo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 320 (5) ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
P. O.  SELIHEY ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
International Language ◽  
World Languages ◽  
Social Prestige ◽  
The Status ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
National Languages ◽  
The Military ◽  
Intellectual Power ◽  
Informational Value

The article examines the criteria on the basis of which ratings of international languages are compiled and their future is predicted. Language’s chances of becoming international are not highly dependent on its demographic power, structural advantages or ease of learning. What matters most is the influence that speakers of the language have on other peoples. The criteria of «internationality» of the language actually coincide with the criteria of its influence, communicative value, social prestige, sociolinguistic weight. The ratings of the influence of national languages are based on various criteria: state status, communicative potential, economic power, the number of people studying it as a foreign language. These ratings reveal more essential criteria of an international language: prevalence on several continents, the status of an official language in international organizations, value as a source of modern knowledge, a large number of its speakers as a second. A specific feature that brings the international language to the class of world languages should be recognized as its worldwide prevalence. This language is used all over the world, it is spoken (as the first or second) by the majority of the world’s population, its world status is recognized in all countries. The composition of the club of leading languages is constantly changing: some languages come to it, others decrease — depending on the military-political, demographic, economic and cultural success of their speakers. Although the number of speakers of English as a second language is growing steadily, its dominance should be considered as temporary. A new hierarchy of languages may emerge in the middle of 21st century, with other major languages — Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi/Urdu, competing equally with English in their respective regions. Although state status of the Ukrainian language creates favorable preconditions for its development, it could spread much faster due to its informational value, intellectual power, cultural attractiveness and economic success of Ukraine.

scholarly journals (Re)claiming English Language Today

2019 ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
Nadežda Stojković
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Cultural Renewal ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
National Languages ◽  
The Impact

In the huge and most diverse discussion on the influence of the English language as a second, international, or bridge language, there are distinctive voices drawing attention to the fact that this language as nowadays so widely used in innumerable contexts, is no longer ‘owned’ by the community of speakers to whom it is mother language, those primarily of the countries from where English language originates. Moreover, the number of people speaking, or rather using English language today either as their second or foreign language, by far outnumbers people to whom it is native. Situation being such, it is further claimed the concept of ‘standard English’ reflects inherent inequality stance, for if it belongs to everyone speaking it, then insisting on the supremacy on only one of its variants means placing all those speakers of it in a subdued position, and this possibly being yet another facet of English an agent of neocolonialism and globalization (Pennycook 1998, Phillipson 1992). The spread of the English language has been much investigated as oppressive to the formation and expression of personal and collective identities, degrading national languages and through globalization diminishing the impact of local cultures (Bhaba 1990), that it challenges cultures and discourses, being the impetus for continuous re-codification and re-colonisation (Foucault 1980). However, equally significant in relevance and number, the opposing views claim English today offers an expanded community of users enabling new ways of expressing, changing, negotiating voices that offer chances for cultural renewal and exchange around the world, that the awareness of this brings “decolonizing of the colonizers mind” (Penycook 2013). Taking the flip side of the situation, English language natives are noted to be in a paradoxical situation of being expatriates from their own language, themselves “co-victims” (Bratlinger 1990). This insurgent knowledge of the status of English language today is certainly to instigate further investigation, ‘writing back’ of what ontology this language now embodies.

scholarly journals Hybridity and the Shape of the New African Woman

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-361
Author(s):  
Regie Panadero Amamio
Keyword(s):  
Women Characters ◽  
African Literature ◽  
African Woman ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Gender Oppression ◽  
Dark Continent ◽  
The New Woman ◽  
African Writers ◽  
The Many

Hybridity is argued as an intricate combination of attraction and repulsion that describes the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized. This combination creates a challenge to and disruption of the monolithic power exercised by the colonizers of Africa who (mis)represented the land as a Dark Continent. Such monolithic power underpins the portrayal of the colonizers’ patriarchal tradition within which women characters in creative works by Africans are commonly situated. The inclusion of women as part of the many subjects of power strengthens the discourse on hybridity in African literature. To question power is to see men and women both apart and together as ambivalence that defines the idea of hybridity in the African literary tradition. In this paper, the employment of deconstruction in the  analysis of women characters in five selected stories by African writers reveals a new consciousness in African literature using the Dark Continent metaphor as a mirror of  the female aesthetics. In this sense, the use of women’s bodies in the short stories does not only point to the issue of gender oppression but also to a power that is disrupting and slowly dismantling the long-entrenched patriarchal stance forcing the male characters to question their current worldview and position. Overall, this paper has established that contemporary African literature on women recognizes the hybridized identity and shape of the new woman, consequently proving that the so-called Dark Continent is nothing but a myth.

Negritude: Some Dissident Voices

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
Barbara Ischinger
Keyword(s):  
African Literature ◽  
Wole Soyinka ◽  
Ousmane Sembene ◽  
Ferdinand Oyono ◽  
Literary Evolution ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Ezekiel Mphahlele ◽  
African Writers

Only eight years ago Janheinz Jahn stated in Neo-African Literature that the critics of nigritude were all writing in English—not in French. Jahn was referring to writers like Ezekiel Mphahlele, Gerald Moore and Wole Soyinka, whose criticism he regarded as “based on an inadequate translation.” 2 The most important movement in the literary evolution in French-speaking Africa had, according to Jahn, only been criticized out of ignorance and misunderstanding. Today, criticism of Negritude has become a major issue in those French-speaking countries which were among its strongest supporters originally. It should be mentioned, however, that certain French African writers—among them Ferdinand Oyono and Ousmane Sembene—have opposed Negritude since the 1950s.

Teaching Third World Literature

ADFL Bulletin ◽  
1983 ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Richard Bjornson
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Third World
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