The most comprehensive reference work on African literature to date, this book covers all the key historical and cultural issues in the field. The Encyclopedia contains over 600 entries covering criticism and theory, African literature's development as a field of scholarship, and studies of established and lesser-known writers and their texts. While the greatest proportion of literary work in Africa has been a product of the twentieth century, the Encyclopedia also covers the literature back to the earliest eras of story-telling and oral transmission, making this a unique and valuable resource for those studying social sciences as well as humanities. This work includes cross-references, suggestions for further reading, and a comprehensive index.
The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English Since 1945 challenges the conventional belief that the English-language literary traditions of East Africa are restricted to the former British colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Instead, these traditions stretch far into such neighboring countries as Somalia and Ethiopia. Simon Gikandi and Evan Mwangi assemble a truly inclusive list of major writers and trends. They begin with a chronology of key historical events and an overview of the emergence and transformation of literary culture in the region. Then they provide an alphabetical list of major writers and brief descriptions of their concerns and achievements. Some of the writers discussed include the Kenyan novelists Grace Ogot and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ugandan poet and essayist Taban Lo Liyong, Ethiopian playwright and poet Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, Tanzanian novelist and diplomat Peter Palangyo, Ethiopian novelist Berhane Mariam Sahle-Sellassie, and the novelist M. G. Vassanji, who portrays the Indian diaspora in Africa, Europe, and North America. Separate entries within this list describe thematic concerns, such as colonialism, decolonization, the black aesthetic, and the language question; the growth of genres like autobiography and popular literature; important movements like cultural nationalism and feminism; and the impact of major forces such as AIDS/HIV, Christian missions, and urbanization. Comprehensive and richly detailed, this guide offers a fresh perspective on the role of East Africa in the development of African and world literature in English and a new understanding of the historical, cultural, and geopolitical boundaries of the region.
Several hundred A-Z entries cover Achebe's major works, important characters and settings, key concepts and issues, and more. Though best known as a novelist, Achebe is also a critic, activist, and spokesman for African culture. This reference is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to his life and writings. Included are several hundred alphabetically arranged entries. Some of these are substantive summary discussions of Achebe's major works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Entries are written by expert contributors and close with brief bibliographies. The volume also provides a general bibliography and chronology. Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is widely regarded as the most important of the numerous African novelists who gained global attention in the second half of the 20th century. Achebe is certainly the African writer best known in the West, and his first novel, Things Fall Apart, is a founding text of postcolonial African literature and regarded as one of the central works of world literature of the last 50 years. Though best known as a novelist, Achebe is also a critic, activist, and spokesman for African culture. This reference is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to his life and writings. Included are several hundred alphabetically arranged entries. Some of these are substantive summary discussions of Achebe's major works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Other topics include all of his major fictional characters and settings, important concepts and issues central to his writings, historical persons, places, and events relevant to his works, and influential texts by other writers. Entries are written by expert contributors and close with brief bibliographies. The volume also provides a general bibliography and chronology.
This volume highlights the people and scientific developments in military medicine through the ages, concentrating on medical advances that changed both warfare and societies at home. Thanks to advances in field medicine and improved mobility and efficiency of medical units, the death rate of soldiers injured during battle has dramatically declined in the last 100 years. Nowadays, with forward medical stations operating close to battle lines and medical transports (ground and air) at hand, injured soldiers survive their battle wounds. Military Medicine: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century provides expert coverage of the key role medical advances and practices have played in the evolution of warfare, and how many of those advances and practices have been put to work saving and improving civilian lives as well. Military Medicine surveys the development of military medicine from its prehistoric origins through modern threats and practice. That coverage is followed by over 200 of alphabetically organized entries with special emphasis placed on those areas with the most dramatic applications to civilian medicine, including triage and trauma management, treatment for infections, emergency surgical procedures, and more.
The final volume, an annotated world bibliography, identifies and supplys full bibliographic documentation on significant theatre materials published world-wide since 1945, plus an index to key names throughout all six volumes.
Now a firmly established part of world literature course offerings in many general education curricula, African literature is no longer housed exclusively with African Studies programs, and is often studied in English, French, Portuguese, Women's Studies, and Comparative Studies departments. This book helps fill the great need for research materials on this topic, presenting the best resources available for 300 African writers. These writers have been carefully selected to include both well-known writers and those less commonly studied yet highly influential. They are drawn from both the Sub-Sahara and the Maghreb, the major geographical regions of Africa. The study of Africa was introduced into the curriculum of institutions of higher learning in the United States in the 1960s, when the Black Consciousness movement in the United States and the Cold War and decolonization movements in Africa created a need for the systematic study of other regions of the world. Between 1986 and 1991, three Africans won Nobel literature prizes: Soyinka, Mahfouz, and Gordimer, and the visibility of African writers increased. They are now a firmly established part of world literature courses in many general education curricula throughout North America. African Writers is meant to serve as a resource for introductory material on 300 writers from 39 countries. These writers were selected on the basis on two criteria: that there is material on them in an easily available reference work; and that there is some information of research value on free Web sites. Each writer is from the late-19th or 20th century, with the notable exception of Olaudah Equiano, an 18th-century African whose slave narrative is generally considered the first work of African literature. All entries are annotated.
Project Report from the year 2012 in the subject Literature - Africa, grade: 1,0, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, language: English, abstract: The academic discourse on African postcolonial literature is characterized by a continuous process of debates on a variety of issues, reassessments of theories and redefinitions of terms. The term African postcolonial literature refers to writings produced after the political independence of various African states which were formerly subject to European colonial rule. Most of this literature written by African authors in their home countries or in diaspora deals with issues of colonial experience or decolonization. However, as Graham Huggan points out, the term African literature is a problematic concept, because “it conveys a fiction of homogeneity” and ignores the cultural variety existing on the African continent. Gikandi explains that the foundations of modern African literature have been laid by the process of colonization, e.g through education in Christian schools which have enabled today’s forms of literature. Gikandi emphasizes the irony of this fact: “[W]hile the majority of African writers were the products of colonial institutions, they turned to writing to oppose colonialism.” This leads to various problems when dealing with African writings, especially when applying the viewpoint of postcolonial criticism, which has been trying to theorize African writings since the 1980s. As Huggan points out, postcolonial criticism has been criticized “as subscribing to the very binaries (e.g. ‘Europe and its Others’) it seeks to resist.” This paper contains an annotated bibliography which considers various issues regarding African postcolonial literature that have been discussed in the past 20 years. Here, the term African postcolonial literature is understood in a temporal way (referring to the postcolonial era in Africa) and in an academic way (referring to the postcolonial discourse). The articles, collections of essays and monographs listed in the bibliography only provide glimpses at the extensive and elaborate discourses on African postcolonial writings. However, the entries in the bibliography have been categorized in order to cast a light on the main issues and problems discussed in this field. In the following, introductory works and texts dealing with the two main genres of African literature will be presented first. Works referring to postcolonial theory and consequential problems and debates (e.g. on language) take the major part of the bibliography.
