Relocating agency : modernity and African letters / Olakunle George.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

George, Olakunle.

Series:

SUNY series, explorations in postcolonial studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Achebe, Chinua--Criticism and interpretation.

Achebe, Chinua.

Fagunwa, D. O--Criticism and interpretation.

Fagunwa, D. O.

Soyinka, Wole--Criticism and interpretation.

Soyinka, Wole.

Tutuola, Amos--Criticism and interpretation.

Tutuola, Amos.

African literature (English)--History and criticism.

African literature (English).

Literature and society--Africa--History--20th century.

Literature and society.

Agent (Philosophy) in literature.

Decolonization in literature.

Poststructuralism--Africa.

Poststructuralism.

Postcolonialism--Africa.

Postcolonialism.

History.

Criticism and interpretation.

Africa.

Nigeria--In literature.

Nigeria.

Physical Description:

xx, 227 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2003]

Summary:

Combining a sustained critical engagement of Anglo-American theory with focused close-readings of major African writers, this book performs a long-overdue cross-fertilization of ideas among poststructuralism, postcolonial theory, and African literature. The author examines several influential figures in current theory such as Habermas, Althusser, Laclau and Mouffe, as well as the theorists of postcolonialism, and offers an extended reading of the Nigerian writers D.O. Fagunwa, Wole Soyinka, Amos Tutuola, and Chinua Achebe. He argues that contrary to what the purism and voluntarism common to postcolonial theory might suggest, one lesson of African letters is that significant agency can result from acts that are blind to their determinations. For George, African letters offer an instance of "agency-in-motion, " as opposed to agency in theory.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Issues and Context: On Knowledge as Limit 1

Chapter 2 Contemporary Theory and the Demand for Agency 29

Chapter 3 The Logic of Agency in African Literary Criticism 73

Chapter 4 D. O. Fagunwa as Compound of Spells 105

Chapter 5 Wole Soyinka and the Challenge of Transition 145.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-221) and index.

ISBN:

0791455416

0791455424

OCLC:

48964693