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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Popular literature for an African elite
Author:Lindfors, BernthISNI
Year:1974
Periodical:Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:12
Issue:3
Pages:471-486
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:literature
English language
popular literature
Onitsha market literature
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/159945
Abstract:Although the emergence of a literature in English in Nigeria is usually described as a rap-id post-war phenomenon, it is possible to argue that this literature is actually much older and that Nigerians were writing creatively in the colonial tongue long before World War II. Many of the most famous authors began their literary careers in the secondary school or university magazine. The article studies what they wrote as a special kind of popular literature - that is, as a distinctive body of ephemeral writings produced in low-circulation mass media by groups of students for the amusement and instruction of their peers. In the school and university publications a modern literary movement was started. Notes.
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