Imagined States: Law and Literature in Nigeria 1900-1966

ISBN-13: 9781474487566 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 216 str.

Katherine Isobel Baxter

Opis

Imagined States' examines representations of the law in British and Nigerian high-brow, middle-brow and popular fiction and journalism. Drawing on a rich range of examples, the book focuses on the imaginative role that the state of exception played in the application of indirect rule during British colonialism and in the legal machinations of the postcolonial state. Discussion includes works by Chinua Achebe, Joyce Cary, Cyprian Ekwensi and Edgar Wallace, as well as a range of Nigerian market literature and journalism from between 1900 and 1966.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Introduction: Literature, Imagination and the State of Exception; Chapter One: ‘Natural Justice, Equity and Good Conscience’: History, Politics and Law in Nigeria, 1900-1966; Chapter Two: ‘I am the law’: District Commissioner Fiction and the State of Exception; Chapter Three: ‘Seeking a Legal Form’: Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson; Chapter Four: ‘Beast of No Nation’: Bribery, Corruption, and Late Colonial Administration in No Longer At Ease; Chapter Five: ‘Written in the Interest of the People’: Representing the Law in Cyprian Ekwensi and Market Literature; Chapter Six: ‘Sensational Coverage of a Sensational Trial’: Treason, Journalism and the State; Chapter Seven: Violence and the Law in A Man of the People; Conclusion: Imagined States; Bibliography.