Africa Writes Back to Self: Metafiction, Gender, Sexuality Contributor(s): Mwangi, Evan M. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1438426828 ISBN-13: 9781438426822 Publisher: State University of New York Press OUR PRICE: $35.10 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2010 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | African - Social Science | Gender Studies |
Dewey: 823.914 |
Physical Information: 0.76" H x 6.1" W x 8.96" (1.10 lbs) 360 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The profound effects of colonialism and its legacies on African cultures have led postcolonial scholars of recent African literature to characterize contemporary African novels as, first and foremost, responses to colonial domination by the West. In Africa Writes Back to Self, Evan Maina Mwangi argues instead that the novels are primarily engaged in conversation with each other, particularly over emergent gender issues such as the representation of homosexuality and the disenfranchisement of women by male-dominated governments. He covers the work of canonical novelists Nadine Gordimer, Chinua Achebe, Ngu gi wa Thiong'o, and J. M. Coetzee, as well as popular writers such as Grace Ogot, David Maillu, Promise Okekwe, and Rebeka Njau. Mwangi examines the novels' self-reflexive fictional strategies and their potential to refigure the dynamics of gender and sexuality in Africa and demote the West as the reference point for cultures of the Global South. |