Magical Realism in West African Fiction

Magical Realism in West African Fictionexamines this genre, as exemplified in the fiction of three of its West African pioneers, Syl Cheney-Coker of Sierra Leone, Ben Okri of Nigeria and Kojo Laing of Ghana. This study contextualizes the art of magical realism within current debates and theories of postcoloniality. Brenda Cooper explores the distinct elements of this fictional genre in a West African context, and in relation to: * A range of global expressions of magical realism, from the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to that of Salman Rushdie * Wider contemporary trends in African writing, with particular attention to how the realism of authors such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka have been connected with nationalist agendas.

Acknowledgements

viii

Seeing with a third eye

1

(14)

'Sacred names into profane spaces': magical realism

15

(22)

An endless forest of terrible creatures: magical realism in West Africa

37

(30)

'Out of the centre of my forehead, an eye opened': Ben Okri's The Famished Road

67

(48)

'The plantation blood in his veins': Syl Cheney-Coker and The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar

115

(41)

Intermediate magic and the fiction of B. Kojo Laing

156

(60)

'Old Gods, New Worlds': some conclusions

216

(11)

Notes

227

(10)

Bibliography

237

(10)

Index

247

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Magical Realism in West African Fiction

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Table of Contents

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