Theory of African Literature: Implications for Practical Criticism

Description

This groundbreaking work was one of the first to challenge the conventional critical assessment of African literature, and, it remains as highly influential on our understanding of African literature as when it was first published. In it, Chidi Amuta argues that African literature is best approached within the wider framework of the dismantling of colonial rule and Western hegemony in Africa. Amuta draws upon both classical Marxist aesthetics and the theories of African culture espoused by Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral, and Ngugi  wa Thiong'o in order to establish a new language of criticism, which he then applies to a diverse array of works by modern African writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ousmane Sembène, Agostinho Neto, and Dennis Brutus.    Amuta’s highly original and innovative approach remains relevant not only as a way to assess the literature of developing countries, but for Marxist and postcolonial theories of literary criticism more generally. Theory of African Literature is a distinguished and lasting contribution to debates around cultural expression in post-colonial Africa. Cover About the Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Foreword by Biodun Jeyifo Preface Introduction 1. Ideological Formations in the Criticism of African Literature Criticism, Ideology and Society: A Dialectical Overview The Class Position of the Critic Aspects of Bourgeois Criticism Notes 2. Traditionalism and the Quest for an African Literary Aesthetic The Intellectual Climate An African World View: Illusion or Reality? Pitfalls of Traditionalist Aesthetics Notes 3. Marxism and African Literature Marxist Aesthetics: An Open-ended Legacy Politics and Ideology in African Literature African Literature and the National Question The Class Question: African Literature or Literature of the African People? Beyond Orthodox Marxism: The Framework for a Post-Marxist Theory of African Literature and Culture Notes 4. A Dialectical Theory of African Literature: Categories and Springboards Dialectics and Cultural Theory Categories for a Dialectical Theory of African Literature Springboards for a Dialectical Theory of African Literature and Culture Notes 5. Issues and Problems in African Literature: A Dialectical Revision African Literature: Beyond Definition African Literature and its Audience The Language Question Commitment and Alignment Continuities from the Past Aesthetics and Critical Values The Limits of Literature Implications for Practical Criticism Notes 6. History and the Dialectics of Narrative in the African Novel Problems in the Sociology of the African Novel The Materialism of Cultural Nationalism: Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God Proletarian Consciousness and the Anti-Colonial Struggle: Ousmane's God's Bits of Wood Class Struggle and the Socialist Vision: Ngugi's Petals of Blood Notes 7. Drama and Revolution in Africa Politics and Ideology in Contemporary African Drama: Theoretical Observations Historical Reconstruction and Class Struggle in Anti-Imperialist Drama: The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and I Will Marry When I Want Contemporary Contradictions and the Revolutionary Alternative: Once Upon Four Robbers and Morountodun Notes 8. Poetry and Liberation Politics in Africa Poetry and Politics: The Dialectic of Commitment The Poetic Essence of National Liberation: Agostinho Neto's Sacred Hope Poetry as Political Polemic: Odia Ofeimun's The Poet Lied Notes 9. Beyond Decolonization Select Bibliography Index