Spheres Public and Private: Western Genres in African Literature, (Hardcover)

The coverage displayed here is predominantly on sub-Saharan literary production, and with a - perhaps systemic - focus on important aspects of political history and socio-political structures (including marxian analyses of the 'public sphere') and such crucial arenas as religious discipline, the tension between tradition and modernity, ecological awareness, family, and gender.<br>Most of the discussions are traditionally content-oriented, but there are at least two essays (on Soyinka's <i>Aké </i>and on Amma Darko's <i>The Housemaid</i>) that attempt to come to grips narratologically with the medium of prose fiction itself. A quartet of essays with a more general purview - including a refreshing demontage of exclusive obeisance to (Western) <i>écriture</i> - is followed by a section on poets, some canonical, others emergent: Ogaga Ifowodo, Jack Mapanje, Olu Oguibe, Tanure Ojaide, Okot p'Bitek, Wole Soyinka, Ladé Wosornu. Essays on fiction cover general topics (women's fiction; political writing in Nigeria; the nightmare of Biafra), and landmark texts both anglophone (Chinua Achebe, Amma Darko, Festus Iyayi, Ng&amp;#361;g&amp;#297; wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka), francophone (Mariama Bâ, Mongo Beti, and Ousmane Sembène), and - a <i>novum</i> for <i>Matatu</i> - hispanophone (Donato Ndongo). The theatre section has essays on Ama Ata Aidoo, Zakes Mda, Anne Tanyi-Tang, Soyinka, and Ahmed Yerima, as well as Ng&amp;#361;g&amp;#297; and Mugo.<br>We are especially pleased to be able to offer accomplished original poetry, short stories, and a complete drama text. Four comprehensive essay-reviews (on literary criticism, cinema, graphic art, and traditional African society) round out this issue.

• Spheres Public and Private: Western Genres in African Literature, (Hardcover)
• Author: Gordon Collier
• ISBN: 9789042033757
• Format: Hardcover
• Publication Date: 2011-01-01
• Page Count: 712