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Palgrave Macmillan
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Remapping African Literature

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Olabode Ibironke

    1. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

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  • Challenges current approaches to African book history by setting up a dialogue between literary production and the texts themselves
  • Covers previously unexamined material from the African Writers Series
  • Provides an interdisciplinary study of African literature and history

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities (AHAM)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 1-20

  3. The Commonwealth Impresario

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 21-52

  4. The Literary Scramble for Africa: Selection and the Practice of Hierarchies

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 53-87

  5. The Seeds of the Series: Chinua Achebe and the Educational Publisher

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 89-184

  6. Wole Soyinka: The Pan-African Literary Practice

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 185-234

  7. Ngugi: Language, Publics, and Production

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 235-281

  8. Postcolonialism: Dialectic of Autonomy and Determinism

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 283-303

  9. Conclusion: The Auto-Heteronomy of African Literature

    • Olabode Ibironke
    Pages 305-313

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 315-336
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Keywords

About this book

This book is an exploration of the material conditions of the production of African literature. Drawing on the archives of Heinemann’s African Writers Series, it highlights the procedures, relationships, demands, ideologies, and counterpressures engendered by the publication of three major authors: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiongo. As a study of the history and techniques of African literary texts, this book advances a theory of reciprocity of effects - what it terms 'auto-heteronomy' - to describe the dynamic of formalist activism by which texts anticipate and shape the forces of literary production in advance. It serves as a departure from the 'death of the author' thesis by reconsidering the role of the author in African literature and culture industry, as well as the influence of African publics on writers’ aesthetic choices, and on the overall processes of production. This work is a major contribution to African literary history, literary criticism, and book history.

Reviews

“What is exciting about Ibironke’s approach, and is something shared by Wa Ngugi, is that, refreshingly, these publishing histories are integrally linked to literary analysis and used to open up new close readings of African literary texts. Another strength of the study is in its dialectical approach to cartography and knowledge production … .” (Kate Wallis, Wasafiri, Vol. 34 (3), 2019)


“Remapping African Literature makes a significant contribution to the decolonizing discourse in African literature … . It is noteworthy that this observation of the dialectical relation of authorial decolonizing responses reproduced in the process of constraining imperial schemes remains a valid entry-point for a wide range of postcolonial literary experiences.” (Henry Obi Ajumeze, African Studies Review, Vol. 62 (3), September, 2019)



“Given the astounding amount of intellectual labour expended and the remarkable historiographic and archival nous displayed in the book, Remapping African Literature recommends itself to both the expert and the neophyte in the burgeoning field of African literature, both in its creative and critical spheres.” (Chris Anyokwu, The Nation, thenationonlineng.net, July 20, 2019)


Authors and Affiliations

  • Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Olabode Ibironke

About the author

Olabode Ibironke is Assistant Professor of English at Rutgers University, USA.

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