Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Ordeal of the African Writer

The Ordeal of the African Writer

Larson, Charles R.

Paperback

Fiction AnthologiesGeneral World History

ISBN10: 1856499316
ISBN13: 9781856499316
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: Aug 1 2001
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.52
Height: 0.39 Width: 5.52 Depth: 8.42
Language: English

The literatures of the English language experienced an extraordinary transformation in the second half of the 20th century as a result of the creative energy released by decolonization. But as this book demonstrates, only a small number of African writers - Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, Nuruddin Farah and Wole Soyinka - have become known outside their own continent. They also face - and this is the subject of this book - enormous obstacles within Africa getting their work published, let alone supporting themselves financially from their writing.

Charles R. Larson has followed African literature for nearly 40 years. Here he combines writers' own testimony, pen portraits of their lives, and factual investigation in order to explore the dimensions of the problem. Who is the readership in Africa? In what language should an African writer write? What obstacles do African publishing houses face and how do they treat their authors? What has been the response of publishing houses in Europe and America? How does economic crisis and political repression make the situation more difficult? And, most importantly, can anything be done to build a more supportive environment in which the Continent's new writers can produce and publish their work?

This book takes the reader into the little-known human reality of what it is like to be an African writer.

Also from

Larson, Charles R.

View All

Also in

Fiction Anthologies

View All