Major Themes in African Literature
Title | Major Themes in African Literature PDF eBook |
Author | Damian Ugwutikiri Opata |
Publisher | |
Pages | 272 |
Release | 2000 |
Genre | African literature |
ISBN |
Literature of Africa
Title | Literature of Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Douglas Killam |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 2004-11-30 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0313058210 |
As more works of African Literature are being incorporated into the Language Arts and Cultural Studies curriculum, it becomes increasingly important to offer students and educators a meaningful context in which to explore these works. As part of Greenwood's Literature as Windows to World Culture series, this volume introduces readers to the cultural concerns of 10 of Africa's most reknowned writers. Written in clear accessible language, close analysis is given for 14 novels, including Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, chosen because of their literary importance and the frequency with which they are assigned. The ten analysis chapters each begin with a brief account of the authors' lives and their writing careers, noting especially the experiences and influences which have shaped their writing. Following this section is a major essay on their most prominent and best known work. Discussion of the historical and cultural issues in the novels is integrated into the literary commentary. Students will gain not a deeper appreciation for the fiction, but a more solid understanding of the core historical issues and cultural concerns that influence and shape the writing. The Introduction outlines the general history and development of Sub-Saharan African Literature. The colonial experiences and postcolonial struggles, the principal subject matter of African writers, differs from region to region. The geographic organization of this guide into West, East and South Africa reflects these different perspectives. Each section ends with a list of critical works that will assist readers and researchers further their understanding of the authors and their works. Short biographical sketches on 80 authors are also provided to expand readers' contact with African literature. The index assists users in identifying not only title and authors but also major themes and topics that the writings reveal.
African Literature
Title | African Literature PDF eBook |
Author | Nadine Gordimer |
Publisher | |
Pages | 68 |
Release | 1972 |
Genre | African fiction (English) |
ISBN |
Themes in West Africa’s History
Title | Themes in West Africa’s History PDF eBook |
Author | Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong |
Publisher | Ohio University Press |
Pages | 459 |
Release | 2006-01-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0821445669 |
There has long been a need for a new textbook on West Africa’s history. In Themes in West Africa’s History, editor Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong and his contributors meet this need, examining key themes in West Africa’s prehistory to the present through the lenses of their different disciplines. The contents of the book comprise an introduction and thirteen chapters divided into three parts. Each chapter provides an overview of existing literature on major topics, as well as a short list of recommended reading, and breaks new ground through the incorporation of original research. The first part of the book examines paths to a West African past, including perspectives from archaeology, ecology and culture, linguistics, and oral traditions. Part two probes environment, society, and agency and historical change through essays on the slave trade, social inequality, religious interaction, poverty, disease, and urbanization. Part three sheds light on contemporary West Africa in exploring how economic and political developments have shaped religious expression and identity in significant ways. Themes in West Africa’s History represents a range of intellectual views and interpretations from leading scholars on West Africa’s history. It will appeal to college undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars in the way it draws on different disciplines and expertise to bring together key themes in West Africa’s history, from prehistory to the present.
Writing and Africa
Title | Writing and Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Mpalive-Hangson Msiska |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 421 |
Release | 2017-07-28 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1315505150 |
This volume reflects one of the new areas of English Studies as it broadens to take in non-western literatures, and places more emphasis on the contexts and broader notions of `writing'. In discussing writing from and about Africa, this collection touches on studies in black writing, colonialism and imperialism and cultural development in the third world. It begins by providing a historical introduction to the main regional traditions, and then builds on this to discuss major issues, such as oral tradition, the significance of `literature' as a western import, representations of Africa in western writing, African writing against colonialism and its themes and politics in a post-colonial world, popular writing and the representation of women.
Things Fall Apart
Title | Things Fall Apart PDF eBook |
Author | Chinua Achebe |
Publisher | Penguin |
Pages | 226 |
Release | 1994-09-01 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 0385474547 |
“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
Specimens of Bushman Folklore
Title | Specimens of Bushman Folklore PDF eBook |
Author | Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek |
Publisher | |
Pages | 622 |
Release | 1911 |
Genre | Folklore |
ISBN |