A Companion to African Literatures

Rediscover the diversity of modern African literatures with this authoritative resource edited by a leader in the field

How have African literatures unfolded in their rich diversity in our modern era of decolonization, nationalisms, and extensive transnational movement of peoples? How have African writers engaged urgent questions regarding race, nation, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And how do African literary genres interrelate with traditional oral forms or audio-visual and digital media? A Companion to African Literatures addresses these issues and many more.

Consisting of essays by distinguished scholars and emerging leaders in the field, this book offers rigorous, deeply engaging discussions of African literatures on the continent and in diaspora. It covers the four main geographical regions (East and Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), presenting ample material to learn from and think with.

A Companion To African Literatures is divided into five parts. The first four cover different regions of the continent, while the fifth part considers conceptual issues and newer directions of inquiry. Chapters focus on literatures in European languages officially used in Africa -- English, French, and Portuguese -- as well as homegrown African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, and Yoruba. With its lineup of lucid and authoritative analyses, readers will find in A Companion to African Literatures a distinctive, rewarding academic resource.

Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students in literary studies programs with an African focus, A Companion to African Literatures will also earn a place in the libraries of teachers, researchers, and professors who wish to strengthen their background in the study of African literatures.

Olakunle George is Professor of English and Africana Studies at Brown University. His academic interests are in African Literary and Cultural Studies, Black Atlantic Internationalism, and Anglophone Postcolonial Studies. From 2012-17 he served on the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association’s Forum on 20^th and 21^st-Century Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Chair, 2015-16); and the Executive Committee of the Division on African Literatures from 1999-2004 (Chair, 2002-03). He was Associate Editor of Encyclopedia of the Novel (Wiley-Blackwell 2011). He is author of African Literature and Social Change: Tribe, Nation, Race (2017); and Relocating Agency: Modernity and African Letters (2003).

Notes on Contributors

Preface

Part I  East and Central Africa

1. East and Central Africa: An Introduction

--Grace A. Musila

2.  Rereading East African Literature Through a Human Rights Lens: The Example of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not Child

--Katwiwa Mule

3.  Of Authenticity and Engagement in Francophone African Cultural Production

 --Brian Valente-Quinn

4. Literature and Hybridity in Mauritius and Reunion

--Anjali Prabhu

5.  The Representation of Nation and National Identity in Modern Amharic Literature

 --Tewodros Gebre

6. Swahili Literature (Fasihi ya Kiswahili)

 --Evan Maina Mwangi

Part II  North Africa

7.  North Africa: An Introduction

 --Mohamed-Salah Omri

8. Nation and Identity in Modern Arabic Literature in Egypt

--Ahmed Idrissi Alami

9. Hyphens and Hymens: Franco-Arab Literature of the Maghreb

 --yasser elhariry

10. Translation and North African Letters

 --Tahia Abdel Nasser

11. Cross-pollination and Interweavings Between the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa Through Art, Cinema, and Music

 --Hélène Tissières

12. France and North Africa: A Cinematic Retrospective of Centuries of Entangled Relations

 --Fazia Aitell

Part III Southern Africa

13. Southern Africa: An Introduction

 --Stefan Helgesson

14. Anglophone Literature of South Africa

 --Peter Blair

15. The Machinery of Life-Writing Under Zimbabwe’s Third Chimurenga

 --Josiah Nyanda

16. Afrikaans Cultural Expressions of the Powerless and Subjugated

 --Hein Willemse

17. Lusophone Southern African Literature (Angola, Mozambique)

 --Luís Madureira

18. A Socio-Critical Survey of Black South African English Poetry 1900-2000

 --Thengani H. Ngwenya

Part IV West Africa

19. West Africa: An Introduction

 --Olakunle George

20. West African Literature in English

 --Neil ten Kortenaar

21. Migration, Literary Imagination, and Mirages in the Francophone Text: Paths to Anthropological Mutilation

 --Cilas Kemedjio

22.    Reading Yoruba Literature

    --Adélékè Adéẹ̀kọ́

Part V  Redoublings and Reconstellations

23. Post-hybrid Conjunctive Consciousness in the Literature of the New African Diaspora

 --Lokangaka Losambe

24. Outing Africa: On Sexualities, Gender, and Transgender in African Literatures

 --Chantal Zabus

25. African Literature and the European Canon: From Past to Present and Back Again

--Jeanne-Marie Jackson

26. War, Human Rights, and Historical Representation: Torture as Synecdoche

 --Eleni Coundouriotis

27. African Literature’s Other Media: Art Film, Nollywood

--Noah Tsika

28. Navigating Digital Worlds: African Literary Forms in the Digital Age

--Stephanie Bosch Santana

Index

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