Kategoria BISAC: Literary Criticism >> African

Beginning in the 1980s and gathering force in the last decade of the twentieth century, Moroccan women writers have become the latest group of Middle Eastern women to break their silence by writing both fiction and non-fiction. The Myth of the Silent Woman examines representative French-language texts from Moroccan women writers. Suellen Diaconoff situates these works in a discourse of social justice and reform, arguing that they contribute to the emerging national debate on democracy and help to create new public spaces of discourse and participation.

In novels and short...

"This is an extremely well written and carefully argued book that is quite persuasive. It should be essential reading for every scholar in African literature." --Research in African Literatures

..". a bold challenge and a tool for the student as well as for the scholar in African literature, and also a veritable tour de force in comparative literature." --World Literature Today

"Eileen Julien has produced an astute, well-researched, and lucidly written text on issues of orality in African literature." --International Journal of African Historical Studies

..". a joy to...

What is the African novel, and how should it be taught?

The twenty-three essays of this volume address these two questions and in the process convey a wealth of information and ideas about the diverse regions, peoples, nations, languages, and writers of the African continent. Topics include Ng?g? wa Thiong'o's favoring of indigenous languages and literary traditions over European; the special place of Marxism in African letters; the influence of Frantz Fanon; women writers and the sub-Saharan novel; the Maghrebian novel; the novel and the griot epic in the Sahel; Islam in the West...

There exists a strong tendency within Western literary criticism to either deny the existence of epics in Africa or to see African literatures as exotic copies of European originals. In both cases, Western criticism has largely failed to acknowledge the distinctiveness of African literary aesthetics. This book revises traditional literary canons in examining the social, cultural and emotional specificity of African epics. Mariam Konate Deme highlights the distinguishing features that characterize the African epic, emphasizing the significance of the fantastic and its use as an essential...