Title: Thresholds of change in African literature : the emergence of a tradition /
Authors: Harrow, Kenneth W.
Publisher: Heinemann,
Year: 1994
Subjects: African literature (French) History and criticism.; African literature (English) History and criticism; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Abstract: African literature in the twentieth century has grown from the early poetry of Negritude to recent novels of magical realism. As novelists, poets, and playwrights testified to the unique qualities of their lives and societies, a new tradition began to emerge. Novels of testimony, novels of revolt, novels of struggle, followed by postcolonial writings filled with complexities and ambiguities, have created a literary tradition expressive of the African spirit - a tradition influenced by earlier African oral literature, by European writings, by changing social conditions, and increasingly by Africa in writings themselves. Thresholds of Change in African Literature is interested in the emergence of this tradition and particularly in the ways in which the emergent literature underwent change at each critical stage.
Contents: Thresholds of change in African literature : the emergence of a tradition -- Literatures of Témoignage and the foundations for change -- From Témoignage to revolt -- The margins of autobiographical literature of Témoignage : Camara Laye, L'enfant noir -- Flying without perching : metaphor, proverb, and gendered discourse : Chinua Achebe, Things fall apart -- Of fathers and sons, a cusp in African literature : Ferdinand Oyono, Une vie de boy ; Chemin d'Europe ; Le vieux Nègre et la médaille -- The ironic limits of revolt : Yambo Ouologuem, Le devoir de violence -- Change on the margins : Bessie Head, The collector of treasures -- Literature of the oxymoron, the crossed lovers : V.Y. Mudimbe, Le bel immonde.