Emerging Trends in Eastern African Literatures and Cultures

Emerging Trends in Eastern African Literatures and Cultures
Author: Susanne Gehrmann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2020-12-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9783962031404

This book volume engages the emergent ways and exercises of world-making in eastern African literatures and cultures. It also includes how the world comes to eastern Africa as well as how eastern Africa speaks to the world. Writers within the region have come up with novel commentaries on diverse social issues. Artists and other users have invented new forms of expression through digitalization. The structure and content of this literature and cultural conversations, in line with modernity, has exhibited a fluidity that calls for the critical appraisal carried out in this book. Therefore, this book volume centralises the emergence of new patterns of engagement in the literatures and cultures of the region. Taking cue from the cultural transformations, technological advancements and political influences, the volume raises questions on politics, conflict and war, and the evolving genres and canon. The book crosses language barriers beyond English and includes critical attention to texts written in the Swahili and French languages. The chapters aim to give a broad overview of the writings and cultural expressions in the eastern African region, including novels, films, short stories, theatre, poetry, oral, and digital performances. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: An Overview of Trends in Eastern African Literatures and Cultures Oduor Obura Part One: The Evolving Literary Canon Literary Disruptions of the Ugandan Canon in Selected Ugandan Short Stories Edgar Nabutanyi A Discipline under Siege: Interrogating the Place of Literature in English in the Secondary School Curriculum in Tanzania Obala Musumba Cartographies of Killing: Transnational Drones in Eye in the Sky Jana Fedtke Performing in the Cyber Space: The Online Mchongoano Battles Kimingichi Wabende Mobile Phones in the Public Space: Communication as Contextual Cultural Practice in Kenya James Ogone Part Two: Conflict, Politics, and War Narrating Violence in Burundian Genocide and Civil War Literat

Eastern African Literatures

Eastern African Literatures
Author: Russell West-Pavlov
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-06-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0192559990

The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English. This volume offers an overview of contemporary Eastern African writing in English since the mid-twentieth century. It takes a fresh look at what has been an under-represented regional literary tradition within what continues to be an under-represented continental literary tradition. In particular, it broadens the scope of such an overview, complementing the extant monographs on well-known Eastern African writers such as Ngũgĩ to include a host of more recent, less-publicized novelists, dramatists, and poets. It extends the geographical range of existing studies from the familiar triad of Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian traditions of writing in English, to include the lesser-known Somali, Ethiopian, or Sudanese, or Mauritian or Madagascan traditions. Rather than simply addressing national traditions or broad thematic bundles, the volume treats works as literatures of a region: that is, as literatures of place and space. Eastern African Literatures stresses the formative role of space, place and geography in fashioning the fabric of social interaction, whether individual or collective, in generating history, in moulding identities, and as a consequence in defining the shape of the future. The 'spatial' perspectives allow the 'proximate' rather than the 'distant' influence of literary art to come into view. Proximate modes of literary communication, arising out of residual but vibrant traditions of oral communication, blend with contemporary media to produce hybrid genres of proximity specific to Eastern African literary production. In this way, the book also makes a contribution to the ongoing theorization of literary and cultural innovation in the cultures of the Global South.

Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes

Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes
Author: James Ogude
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Africa, East
ISBN: 9781592218868

Bringing together diverse voices, genres and intellectual trajectories, Gikandi and Schirmer attempt to reflect on the state of production of, and engagement with, Eastern African literary cultures. The book revisits established intellectual debates and canonical texts. It also offers a powerful engagement with popular arts and performance, particularly in the manner in which genres such as drama, music and new media offer important insights into everyday life in the region.

The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945

The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945
Author: Simon Gikandi
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2007
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0231125208

The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945 challenges the conventional belief that the English-language literary traditions of East Africa are restricted to the former British colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Instead, these traditions stretch far into such neighboring countries as Somalia and Ethiopia. Simon Gikandi and Evan Mwangi assemble a truly inclusive list of major writers and trends. They begin with a chronology of key historical events and an overview of the emergence and transformation of literary culture in the region. Then they provide an alphabetical list of major writers and brief descriptions of their concerns and achievements. Some of the writers discussed include the Kenyan novelists Grace Ogot and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ugandan poet and essayist Taban Lo Liyong, Ethiopian playwright and poet Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Tanzanian novelist and diplomat Peter Palangyo, Ethiopian novelist Berhane Mariam Sahle-Sellassie, and the novelist M. G. Vassanji, who portrays the Indian diaspora in Africa, Europe, and North America. Separate entries within this list describe thematic concerns, such as colonialism, decolonization, the black aesthetic, and the language question; the growth of genres like autobiography and popular literature; important movements like cultural nationalism and feminism; and the impact of major forces such as AIDS/HIV, Christian missions, and urbanization. Comprehensive and richly detailed, this guide offers a fresh perspective on the role of East Africa in the development of African and world literature in English and a new understanding of the historical, cultural, and geopolitical boundaries of the region.

Women Writing Africa

Women Writing Africa
Author: Amandina Lihamba
Publisher: Feminist Press
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN:

Third installment of major literary and scholarly project exposes East African women's history and culture.

Encyclopedia of African Literature

Encyclopedia of African Literature
Author: Simon Gikandi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1009
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1134582226

The most comprehensive reference work on African literature to date, this book covers all the key historical and cultural issues in the field. The Encyclopedia contains over 600 entries covering criticism and theory, African literature's development as a field of scholarship, and studies of established and lesser-known writers and their texts. While the greatest proportion of literary work in Africa has been a product of the twentieth century, the Encyclopedia also covers the literature back to the earliest eras of story-telling and oral transmission, making this a unique and valuable resource for those studying social sciences as well as humanities. This work includes cross-references, suggestions for further reading, and a comprehensive index.

Decolonising Childhoods in Eastern Africa

Decolonising Childhoods in Eastern Africa
Author: Oduor Obura
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2021-06-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000408000

This book deconstructs Eurocentric narratives and showcases local voices to re-examine childhood in Eastern Africa. Moving away from portrayals of eastern African childhood as characterised by want, the author argues for a differentiated and pluralist nature of the eastern African childhood. Taking a chronological approach, the author provides a multidisciplinary critical reading of Africanist research on childhood in eastern Africa, drawing from anthropological and cultural studies, while examining writings from the pre-imperial and colonial periods. Moving into the contemporary period, the book reveals the continuity, tensions and ruptures of these portrayals in humanitarian, legal, and journalistic discourses, before exploring postcolonial writings on childhood in works by Eastern African novelists. Based on such a multidisciplinary perspective, this book will be of interest to scholars of African literature, eastern African history, critical childhood studies, museums and Africanist epistemologies.

Early East African Writers and Publishers

Early East African Writers and Publishers
Author: Bernth Lindfors
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2011
Genre: Africa, East
ISBN: 9781592217946

Focusing on the early careers of notable East African writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o, David Maillu and Okot p'Bitek, Early East African Writers and Publishers is a collection of essays exploring the emergence of East African multilingual literary production in the mid-20th century. Through rare interviews with the major writers of the region, Professor Lindfors provides rare accounts into the process by which East Africa, once considered the literary desert of the African continent, became central to the creation of a unique literary scene.

Tales of East Africa

Tales of East Africa
Author: Jamilla Okubo
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1452182884

Tales of East Africa is a collection of 22 traditional tales from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Welcome to a world of magical adventure—a place where a boy spares the life of a fearsome monster, a flock of doves brings a girl back from the dead, and a hare wreaks havoc among all the other animals. Translated and transcribed by folklorists and anthropologists in the early 20th century, these stories evoke the distinctive beauty and irresistible humor of East African folklore. • The tales come alive alongside bold, contemporary art in this special illustrated edition. • Each story transports readers to an enthralling world. • Part of the popular Tales series, featuring Tales of Japan, Celtic Tales, and Tales of India Tales of East Africa will enthrall fans of fairytales and captivate those interested in East Africa's rich history and culture. Readers will encounter mischievous animals, plucky heroes and heroines, and monsters, and artist Jamilla Okubo pairs each tale with a bold and vibrant illustration. • A visually gorgeous book that will be at home on the shelf or on the coffee table. • A perfect gift for fairy tale and folklore lovers, fans of East African culture, people of East African ancestry, collectors of illustrated classics, adults and teens alike, and bibliophiles • Add it to the collection of books like The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa by Alexander McCall Smith, Favorite African Folktales by Nelson Mandela, and Indaba My Children: African Folktales by Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa

Foundations of an African Civilization

Foundations of an African Civilization
Author: D. W. Phillipson
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 1847010881

"Focuses on the Aksumite state of the first millennium AD in northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea, its development, florescence and eventual transformation into the so-called medieval civilisation of Christian Ethiopia. This book seeks to apply a common methodology, utilising archaeology, art-history, written documents and oral tradition from a wide variety of sources; the result is a far greater emphasis on continuity than previous studies have revealed. It is thus a major re-interpretation of a key development in Ethiopia's past, while raising and discussing methodological issues of the relationship between archaeology and other historical disciplines; these issues, which have theoretical significance extending far beyond Ethiopia, are discussed in full. The last millennium BC is seen as a time when northern Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea were inhabited by farming peoples whose ancestry may be traced far back into the local 'Late Stone Age'. Colonisation from southern Arabia, to which defining importance has been attached by earlier researchers, is now seen to have been brief in duration and small in scale, its effects largely restricted to ľite sections of the community. Re-consideration of inscriptions shows the need to abandon the established belief in a single 'Pre-Aksumite' state. New evidence for the rise of Aksum during the last centuries BC is critically evaluated. Finally, new chronological precision is provided for the decline of Aksum and the transfer of centralised political authority to more southerly regions. A new study of the ancient churches - both built and rock-hewn - which survive from this poorly-understood period emphasises once again a strong degree of continuity across periods that were previously regarded as distinct."--Publisher's website.