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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Kofi Awoonor as critic
Author:Maduakor, ObiISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:African Literature Today
Issue:19
Pages:8-21
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:literature
literary criticism
About person:Kofi N. Awoonor (1935-2013)ISNI
Abstract:The Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor belongs to the first generation of modern African creative writers. He has also distinguished himself as a critic of African literature. Awoonor's critical interests rest in the domain of poetry, both oral and written, and in the relationship between the two. He argues that no critical approach to African writing in English, French or Portuguese can ignore the aesthetics, concepts of time, ontological system and perceptions of the world which most African writers bring to their work. Discussing stylistic devices, Awoonor focuses on the elegy or dirge form as the form that has affected the imagination of the modern poet most profoundly, for his muse is persistently tragic. Although Awoonor is critical of Negritude as a philosophical movement, he appreciates the poetry that has been born of that movement. Dealing with the crucial question of the relationship between art and social/ideological commitment, Awoonor argues that literature cannot not be art and propaganda at the same time. A basic aestheticism inheres in every work of art. A select bibliography of Awoonor's work is included. Notes, ref.
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