ISBN 9789788422365
Pages 270
Dimensions 216 x 140 mm
Published 2010
Publisher Malthouse Press, Nigeria
Format Paperback

Issues in African Literature

by Charles E. Nnolim

The multitudinous nature of African literature has always been an issue but really not a problem, although its oral base has been used by expatriate critics to accuse African literature of thin plots, superficial characterisation, and narrative structures. African literature also, it is observed, is a mixed grill: it is oral; it is written in vernacular or tribal tongues; written in foreign tongues English, French, Portuguese and within the foreign language in which it is written, pidgin and creole further bend the already bent language giving African literature a further taint of linguistic impurity. African literature further suffers from the nature of its "newness" and this created problems for the critic. Because it is new, and because its critics are in simultaneous existence with its writers, we confront the problem of "instant analysis". Issues in African Literature continues the debate and tries to clarify contemporary burning issues in African literature, by focussing on particular areas where the debate has been most concerned or around which it has hovered and been persistent.

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About the Author

Charles E. Nnolim

Charles Nnolim is Professor of English, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, Fellow of the Literary Society of Nigeria, Fellow of the International Biographical Association, and Fellow of the World Literary Academy

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