This volume provides a selection of critical responses to the work of the anglophone West African novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah. The essays deal with such topics as narrative technique, symbolism and metaphor, mythology, literary ancestry, historical background and sociopolitical vision.
Poet, activist, teacher, and scholar, Dennis Brutus is an influential figure in African literature. Exploring his life and writings, this volume looks at Brutus's childhood, university days, his arrest and imprisonment, and his eventual return to South Africa in 1991.
This landmark volume brings together a very rich harvest of forty critical essays on Cameroon literature by Cameroon literary scholars. The book is the result of the Second Conference on Cameroon Literature which took place at the University of Buea in 1994. The Buea conference was motivated by a determination to look at Cameroon literature straight into its face and criticize it using literary criteria of the strictest kind. Gone were the times when the criticism was complacent because it was believed that a nascent literature could easily be stifled by application of rather strict cannons of literary criticism. Both writers and critics had a lot to say. Subjects dealt with ranged from general topics on literature, survival and national identity, through specialized articles on prose, poetry, drama, translation, language, folklore, children's literature, Journalism and politics. It is the hope of the volume editors that the publication of these papers will instigate the kind of actions that were recommended and that the prolific nature of Cameroon literature will equally give rise to a prolific and robust criticism.
Critical Perspectives on J.M. Coetzee is one of the first collections of critical essays on this major contemporary writer. The essays, written by an international cast of contributors, adopt a variety of approaches to Coetzee's often controversial work, taking care to place that work within its wider cultural context. Contributions include essays of more general import, ranging across Coetzee's oeuvre, as well as essays that analyse in more detail individual Coetzee novels. The collection also includes a preface by Coetzee's fellow South African, the internationally acclaimed writer Nadine Gordimer.
Distinguished scholars analyze the plays, poetry, and prose of Wole Smoyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Essays trace his career and place his work in the general context of African literature.
A beginners' guide to the fundamentals of the Dru meditation technique, a method for soothing the mind and relaxing the emotions. The programme includes six short guided meditations designed to instill a sense of profound stillness, quieten and calm a stressed mind and reconnect with the important aspects of life. Each nine-minute meditations is based on one of the elements: Earth, Water, Light, Air and Sky.
This compilation was inspired by an international symposium held on the Legon campus in September 2003. Hosted by the CODESRIA African Humanities Institute Programme, the symposium had the theme 'Canonical Works and Continuing Innovation in African Arts & Humanities'.