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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The African historical novel and the way forward |
Author: | Webb, Hugh |
Year: | 1980 |
Periodical: | African Literature Today |
Issue: | 11 |
Pages: | 24-38 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | novels history |
Abstract: | Each work of art arises out of the particular alternatives of its time. In the modern African historical novel the attempted dynamic rendering of these alternatives (by giving a total picture of a society in motion) is an important motivating formal principle. African novelists proceed from this principle to create literary works that, in their shaping and ordering, give significant insights into the potentialities of a fictional treatment of historical material. In the African historical novel, the articulation of socio-political alternatives is well under way, as indicated by an examination of the following works: 'Behind the rising sun' by S.O. MEZU; 'The trial of Christopher Okigbo' by Ali MAZRUI; and 'Two thousand seasons' by Ayi Kwei ARMAH. Notes. |