The people's right to the novel : war fiction in the postcolony / Eleni Coundouriotis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coundouriotis, Eleni, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African fiction (English)--History and criticism.

African fiction (English).

African fiction (French)--History and criticism.

African fiction (French).

War in literature.

Literature and society--Africa.

Literature and society.

Africa--In literature.

Africa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (350 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study offers a literary history of the war novel in Africa. Coundouriotis argues that this genre, aimed more specifically at African readers than the continent’s better-known bildungsroman tradition, nevertheless makes an important intervention in global understandings of human rights. The African war novel lies at the convergence of two sensibilities it encounters in European traditions: the naturalist aesthetic and the discourse of humanitarianism, whether in the form of sentimentalism or of human rights law. Both these sensibilities are present in culturally hybrid forms in the African war novel, reflecting its syncretism as a narrative practice engaged with the colonial and postcolonial history of the continent. The war novel, Coundouriotis argues, stakes claims to collective rights that contrast with the individualism of the bildungsroman tradition. The genre is a form of people’s history that participates in a political struggle for the rights of the dispossessed.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Naturalism, Humanitarianism, and the Fiction of War

1. “No Innocents and No Onlookers”: The Uses of the Past in the Novels of Mau Mau

2. Toward a People’s History: The Novels of the Nigerian Civil War

3. “Wondering Who the Heroes Were”: Zimbabwe’s Novels of Atrocity

4. Contesting the New Authenticity: Contemporary War Fiction in Africa

Afterword

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8232-6635-4

0-8232-6235-9

0-8232-6236-7

OCLC:

889302791