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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat 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.
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