This handbook provides a critical overview of literature dealing with groups of people or regions that suffer marginalization within Africa. The contributors examine a multiplicity of minority discourses expressed in African literature, including those who are culturally, socially, politically, religiously, economically, and sexually marginalized in literary and artistic creations. Chapters and sections of the book are structured to identify major areas of minority articulation of their condition and strategies deployed against the repression, persecution, oppression, suppression, domination, and tyranny of the majority or dominant group. Bringing together diverse perspectives to give a holistic representation of the African reality, this handbook is an important read for scholars and students of comparative and postcolonial literature and African studies.

Encyclopedic in its coverage, this one-of-a-kind reference is ideal for students, scholars, and others who need reliable, up-to-date information on folk and fairy tales, past and present. Folktales and fairy tales have long played an important role in cultures around the world. They pass customs and lore from generation to generation, provide insights into the peoples who created them, and offer inspiration to creative artists working in media that now include television, film, manga, photography, and computer games. This second, expanded edition of an award-winning reference will help students and teachers as well as storytellers, writers, and creative artists delve into this enchanting world and keep pace with its past and its many new facets. Alphabetically organized and global in scope, the work is the only multivolume reference in English to offer encyclopedic coverage of this subject matter. The four-volume collection covers national, cultural, regional, and linguistic traditions from around the world as well as motifs, themes, characters, and tale types. Writers and illustrators are included as are filmmakers and composers—and, of course, the tales themselves. The expert entries within volumes 1 through 3 are based on the latest research and developments while the contents of volume 4 comprises tales and texts. While most books either present readers with tales from certain countries or cultures or with thematic entries, this encyclopedia stands alone in that it does both, making it a truly unique, one-stop resource.

El objetivo principal planteado en esta obra es la reconstitución de la historia de individuos y grupos políticos, religiosos y sociales como actores de la escena magrebí entre los siglos II/VIII y IX/XV. La primera parte de la obra está dedicada al mundo ibadí magrebí. En este bloque, el lector encontrará trabajos basados en fuentes diversas del ámbito ibadí pero también textos no ibadíes que proporcionan datos de importancia sobre este medio. El segundo bloque está dedicado a personajes destacados que ejercieron un papel excepcional en la historia del Magreb medieval. En esta parte se hace patente el uso de varios tipos de fuentes que pueden a veces plantear problemas de credibilidad del propio contenido de los textos. Estamos ante el estudio de individuos que viajan entre la historia y la leyenda, y al mismo tiempo sirven los intereses de las historiografías de sus respectivas épocas. En el tercer bloque encontramos trabajos relacionados con escritores y personajes destacados de la vida intelectual y política del Magreb, entre los siglos VI/XII y IX/XV. El cuarto y último bloque está dedicado a grupos tribales, elites religiosas y círculos de poder. Estos estudios están basados en buena parte en las fuentes árabes del Occidente islámico pero también en textos producidos en el sur del Magreb y en documentos cristianos. Finalmente, esperamos que los trabajos reunidos en este volumen brinden la oportunidad de reflexionar acerca de varios temas de historia social y permitan entender mejor algunos de sus aspectos considerando el Magreb como parte integrante del mundo árabe-musulmán medieval y, al mismo tiempo, como "margen" del Oriente.