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Cultural Formalism and the Criticism of Modern African Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Solomon O. Iyasere
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of English, California State College, Bakersfield

Extract

Criticism of African creative works by both African and western scholars has become a major intellectual activity. Many articles have been published on African writers and their works, and, in recent years, several journals have appeared which are devoted exclusively to the discussion of African literature. This surge of interest is further reflected in the fact that a number of book-length studies have been produced, and African writers such as Wole Soyinka (a dramatist) and Yambo Ouologuem (a novelist) have received international accolades. In short, African literature is now recognised as a vital element in the corpus of world literature.

Type
Africana
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 323 note 1 Finnegan, Ruth, Oral Literature in Africa (Oxford, 1970), pp. 1011.Google Scholar

page 323 note 2 Ibid. p. 11.

page 323 note 3 Ibid.

page 324 note 1 Solomon O. Iyasere, ‘The Murder of Adesua’, unpublished manuscript.

page 325 note 1 Mbiti, John S., Akamba Stories (Oxford, 1966), p. 22.Google Scholar

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page 328 note 2 Cf. Tucker, Martin, Africa in Modern Perspective (New York, 1967), p. 262:Google Scholar ‘for the purpose of critical assessment of modern fiction about Africa, it is difficult to detect the presence of a specifically neo-African development or trend. The opposite seems to be the case. African writers have followed European models at the very moment they assail them.’ Tucker here seems unable to perceive the nuances of African literature, ironically those aspects that give it life and vitality – a commentary on the limitations of the Eurocentric approach.

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