African Literature in the World
African Literature in the World
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In African Literature in the World, Simon Gikandi asks: Why do debates on language continue to inform and haunt African writing? What happened when writing replaced orality as the primary form of creative expression? When, how, and why did the novel come to occupy such a dominant role in African literary history? This is a comprehensive study of the histories and theories of African literature in the twentieth century and shows how African writers adopted and transformed the English language and its traditions to account for African identities and experiences. Concerned with writing and reading as forms of mediation, Gikandi provides examples of how imaginative works shaped the public sphere in Africa in relation to decolonization and the politics of language. He explores how the emergence of a modern tradition of African writing has generated new forms of criticism in relation to the form of the novel, modernity, and modernism.
- Covers literature across historical periods and provides a map of the debates that have informed literary culture in Africa, especially in relation to decolonization and the politics of language
- Provides a detailed account of debates on the use of English in African writing and shows how African writers adopted and transformed the colonial language
- Puts African imaginative work and criticism at the centre of post structural and postcolonial debates
Reviews & endorsements
‘This indispensable volume by a preeminent scholar offers fresh ways to think about African writing and literary criticism in the context of world literature. Always alert to the global locations of authors, readers, scholars, and ideas, Simon Gikandi examines the shifting histories of literary genres, questions the limits of postcolonial theory, and reflects on the role of intellectuals in African literary criticism. In the process, he reimagines colonial identity and modernity, and rethinks debates about the language of African literature. The intellectual honesty of this volume rubs off on readers as Gikandi blends cultural history with theory, personal reflections, and close readings.' Stephanie Newell, George M. Bodman Professor of English
‘To read Simon Gikandi's African Literature in the World is to bear witness to a master craftsman at work. The modulation of his critical rhythms, the isolation of examples and then the manner of their embedding in larger patterns of significance, and the absolute clarity of his expression deliver to us African literature and literary history as worthy objects of serious scholarly attention. Superb!' Ato Quayson, Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Stanford University
Product details
- Published: June 2026
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9781009555098
- Length: 332 pages
- Dimensions: 231 × 162 × 26 mm
- Weight: 0.613kg
- Availability: Not yet published - available from July 2026
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: African literature in the world
- Part I. The Criticism of African Literature
- 1. This thing called literature…what work does it do?
- 2. Provincializing English
- 3. The (de)formation of English
- 4. The politics of African literary criticism
- 5. Africa in poststructuralism
- 6. Orality and the writing lesson
- Part II. The Cultural Work of the Novel
- 7. Realism, romance, and the problem of African literary history
- 8. Romance, tragedy, and the narrative of decolonization
- 9. Transporting fiction: the novel in a (post)colonial world
- 10. Cultural translation and the task of writing
- 11. Arrow of God: the novel and the problem of modern time
- Part III. On Modernity/Modernism
- 12. African literature and the colonial factor
- 13. African literature and modernity
- 14. Reading the referent: postcolonialism and the writing of modernity
- 15. On modernism and nationalism: the short African century
- 16. African and the idea of the aesthetic
- Select bibliography
- Index.
- Show more
