African literature in transition. Volume 5, Genres of African literature, 1900-2020 / edited by Moradewun Adejunmobi.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Adejunmobi, Moradewun, 1959- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African literature--20th century--History and criticism.

African literature.

African literature--21st century--History and criticism.

Literary form.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 344 pages) : illustrations (black and white), digital, PDF file(s)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Genres of African literature, 1900-2020

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

This volume offers literary histories and analyses of a wide range of genres in African literature and verbal arts. It provides a holistic and accessible presentation of African literary history that incorporates different types of texts, different regions of the continent, and different languages (English, French, Swahili, Hausa). Both genres with a longer history and those with more recent histories in Africa receive attention. The genres covered include memoirs, travelogues, Shairi, protest poetry, activist theatre, dictator novels, child soldier narratives, prison writing, speculative fiction, market literature, environmental literature, graphic narrative, and queer writing. The resource overviews other genres such as campus narrative, crime fiction, and romance. Genres belonging to popular culture, as well as those associated with high literary forms, are discussed.

Contents:

Introduction / Moradewun Adejunmobi

Micro-Histories of Genres

The African Dictator Novel / Gĩchingiri Ndĩgĩrĩgĩ

Endless war: African Child Soldier Narratives / Joya Uraizee

The Human, the Nonhuman, and Socio-ecological Justice: A Historical Survey of African Environmental Literature / Emmanuel Egya

Waves of Fury: South African Protest Poetry Since 1950 / Tom Penfold

Francophone West African Activist Theatre in Transition / Heather Jeanne Denyer

A Treatise on Zimbabwean Theatre Genres: Domestic Drama and Protest Theatre / Samuel Ravengai

Genres in Transition

African Travel Writing / Maureen Amimo

Parallel Existences and Manifold Ancestries: The Multiplicity of the Swahili Shairi Genre / Clarissa Vierke

African Prison Writings / Isaac Ndlovu

Autobiographical Genres in French Language Writing from Africa / Susanne Gehrmann

Queer as a Genre in African Literatures / Gibson Ncube

Market Literature: From Onitsha Origins to Ghanaian Progeny / Esther de Bruijn

Experiments with Genre

The Graphic Narrative as Site of Cultural Negotiation / Charlotta Salmi

Experimental Writing: Language, Genre, Text / Alena Rettová

The Reemergence of African Science and Speculative Fiction (ASF) / Peter J. Maurits

Genre in African Online Creative Writing / Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang

Indigenous Hausa Fiction and Transmediality in Northern Nigeria / Umma Aliyu Musa.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 5, 2026).

ISBN:

1-009-69467-7

1-009-69466-9

1-009-69468-5