A recent literary phenomenon in contemporary Africa is the developing relationship between film and African literature. ALT 28 focuses on the interface between film and literature in contemporary African writing and imagination. Contributors have examined the issue from a variety of perspectives: critiques of adaptations of African creative works into film, analyses of filmic structures in African dramatic literature, African writers as film makers, and the impact of the video film industry on literature and the reading culture in Africa. Ernest N. Emenyonu is Professor of the Department of...

Focuses on theoretical and pedagogical approaches to the teaching of African Literature on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond. The publication of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in 1958 drew universal attention not only to contemporary African creative imagination, but also established the art of the modern African novel. In 1986, Wole Soyinka became the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and opened the 'gate' for other African writers. By the close of the 20th century, African Literature had gained world-wide acceptance and legitimacy in the academy and featured on the...

Africa's encounter with the West and its implications and consequences remain far-reaching and enduring in the craft and thrust of its creative writers. The contributors to ALT 33 analyse the connections between traditional stories and myths that have been told to children, as well as the work of contemporary creative writers who are writing for children in order that they understand this complex history. Some of these writers are developing traditional myths, folk tales, and legends and are writing them in new forms, while others focus on the encounter with the West that has dominated much...

The intention of the African Literature Today series (ALT) was, and still is, to encourage African writing in any language, whether of fiction, poetry or plays, and also to encourage its criticism. The critic's role, according to Eldred Durosimi Jones in his 1968 Introduction to ALT 1, is to make the work accessible to a wider readership and to help establish literary standards for African literature: "The more permissive the publisher's policy is, the more necessary becomes the function of the critic." This book combines the first 4 volumes in the series, which had been published as single...

First published in 1983, this volume looks at new developments in the African novel and also at those aspects of more established works that received less critical attention, such as writing from southern Africa, to which censorship and war restricted access. Eldred Jones in his Editorial also cites the "searing impact of the Nigerian Civil War, on the consciousness, not just on Nigerians, but on Africans as a whole." There are also contributions on Nigerian populist Kole Omotoso and Dambudzo Marechera's prize-winning House of Hunger. One of the most significant trends is the emergence of the...

Originally published in 1971, this was the first volume in the series to focus on a specific theme, in this case the novel, but continues the format of including contributions from both writers and critics. There are articles on: Equiano, Onuora Nzekwu, T.M. Aluko, Ngugi, Sarif Easmon, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. The volume also includes a contribution from Ernest Emenyonu asking of African Literature "What does it take to be its critic" plus reviews of Sembene Ousmane's newly published God's Bits of Wood, Mbella Sonne Dipoko's Because of Women/, T.M. Aluko's Chief, The Honourable...

First published in 1973, this volume of the series includes a tribute from the Editor to the poet Christopher Okigbo who died fighting in the Biafran War in 1967, and two articles on his poetry. Also discussed are Leopold Senghor, Dennis Brutus, Wole Soyinka, Lenrie Peters and Ferdinand Oyono. The contributions analyse East African poetry, French Algerian poetry, Zulu poetry, and "Rara" chants in Yoruba oral poetry. Donatus I. Nwoga writes a general article on modern African poetry. The new books reviewed include Mazisi Kunene's Zulu Poems and Okot p'Bitek's Two Songs: "Song of Prisoner" and...

First published in 1975, this volume of the series continues in more depth the debate on the role of critics and the purpose of criticism. As Eldred Jones reminds the reader in his Editorial: "African Literature Today has always aimed to be a forum for discussion ... Not surprisingly some opinions have provoked strong reactions. Indeed where there is time reactions are deliberately sought so that differing opinions can appear close to each other....African Literature Today is happy to serve as the threshing floor." The lively exchanges on who is best placed to judge African literature and how...

First published in 1976, this volume has a focus on African drama and carries an introductory article by Ghanaian poet and playwright J.C. de Graft. There are three articles on Wole Soyinka's work as a playwright and an article on the dramatic works of Ama Ata Aidoo, as well as an article on four dramatists from East Africa. The dilemmas of the popular playwright are discussed in an article on two Zambian writers and Eldred Jones's Editorial gives examples from Sierra Leone of the challenges faced by more -popular- playwrights and those with the more -literary- concerns of publication.

This volume, first published in 1980, provides an overview of the way myth and history have influenced both the literature of Africa and individual writers. Isidore Okpewho, Solomon O. Iyasere and Mazisi Kunene contribute here on myth, oral tradition and African cosmological systems. Armah's vision of history is examined both in the way that it appears in his novels and in comparison with Ouologuem and Soyinka; also examined are Elechi Amadi's view of the gods, Achebe's use of myth in Arrow of God and the inward journey of Tutuola's Palm-Wine Drinkard. There are views across the Atlantic of...