Dictators, Dictatorship and the African Novel

Fictions of the State under Neoliberalism
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-030-66555-5
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 276 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 488 g

Reihe: New Comparisons in World Literature

This book examines the representation of dictators and dictatorships in African fiction. It examines how the texts clarify the origins of postcolonial dictatorships and explore the shape of the democratic-egalitarian alternatives. The first chapter explains the ‘neoliberal’ period after the 1970s as an effective ‘recolonization’ of Africa by Western states and international financial institutions. Dictatorship is theorised as a form of concentrated economic and political power that facilitates Africa’s continued dependency in the context of world capitalism. The deepest aspiration of anti-colonial revolution remains the democratization of these authoritarian states inherited from the colonial period. This book discusses four novels by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ahmadou Kourouma, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in order to reveal how their themes and forms dramatize this unfinished struggle between dictatorship and radical democracy.  

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Spencer, Robert

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Afrikanische Literaturen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Introduction: The unfinished project of decolonisation.-  Chapter 2: Neoliberalism and the ‘recolonization’ of Africa.- Chapter 3: Performance and power I: Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow.- Chapter 4: Performance and power II: Ahmadou Kourouma’s Waiting for the Wild.- Chapter 5: Allegories of dictatorship in Nigerian fiction: Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.- Chapter 6: Conclusion: The counter-counter revolution. 

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Spencer is Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of Cosmopolitan Criticism and Postcolonial Literature (2011) and the co-author of For Humanism: Explorations in Theory and Politics, with David Alderson (2017), and co-author of Postcolonial Locations: New Directions in Postcolonial Studies, with Anastasia Valassopoulos (2020).