The People's Right to the Novel: War Fiction in the Postcolony

Author:   Eleni Coundouriotis
Publisher:   Fordham University Press
ISBN:  

9780823262335


Pages:   352
Publication Date:   15 September 2014
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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The People's Right to the Novel: War Fiction in the Postcolony


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Overview

This study offers a literary history of the war novel in Africa. Coundouriotis argues that this genre, aimed more specifically at African readers than the continent's better-known bildungsroman tradition, nevertheless makes an important intervention in global understandings of human rights. The African war novel lies at the convergence of two sensibilities it encounters in European traditions: the naturalist aesthetic and the discourse of humanitarianism, whether in the form of sentimentalism or of human rights law. Both these sensibilities are present in culturally hybrid forms in the African war novel, reflecting its syncretism as a narrative practice engaged with the colonial and postcolonial history of the continent. The war novel, Coundouriotis argues, stakes claims to collective rights that contrast with the individualism of the bildungsroman tradition. The genre is a form of people's history that participates in a political struggle for the rights of the dispossessed.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eleni Coundouriotis
Publisher:   Fordham University Press
Imprint:   Fordham University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.612kg
ISBN:  

9780823262335


ISBN 10:   0823262332
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   15 September 2014
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

"List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Naturalism, Humanitarianism, and the Fiction of War 1. ""No Innocents and No Onlookers"": The Uses of the Past in the Novels of Mau Mau 2. Toward a People's History: The Novels of the Nigerian Civil War 3. ""Wondering Who the Heroes Were"": Zimbabwe's Novels of Atrocity 4. Contesting the New Authenticity: Contemporary War Fiction in Africa Afterword Notes Works Cited Index"

Reviews

The People's Right to the Novel combines a clear thesis with a painstaking and perceptive discussion of the individual authors and their works. -- -Wendy Griswold In powerful readings of a vast literature of war in Africa, with impeccable scholarship and painstaking attention to historical detail, Eleni Coundouriotis has reconstructed a history of the African novel from below, a history that puts the people and their political and literary claims of rights to representation--both in the postcolonial state and its national literature--at the center of the story. The book adds vital new perspectives on the interdependent developments of humanitarian thinking and Naturalism, adding necessary nuance to our understanding of the relationships among literature, human rights, and humanitarianism. -- -Joseph R. Slaughter The People's Right to the Novel offers an extraordinarily rich and original way of shifting the ground of Africanist criticism, and it is certain to be an influential addition to the field. Not only does it open up a broad frame of inquiry to be explored in further detail, but it demands fresh thinking about the relationship between authors, critics, and the people of the postcolony. By elegantly combining ideology critique with aesthetic analysis, it revitalizes both. Eleni Coundouriotis's latest book so exudes theoretical newness that one reads even the bibliography with pencil at the ready. Tackling the difficult and urgent issue of wars in Africa and their representation by insider-authors, Coundouriotis's text will provoke debate and raise interest in a rich but still under-researched field of study by means of wide ranging, trenchant analyses. -- -Annie Gagiano


Tackling the difficult and urgent issue of wars in Africa and their representation by insider-authors, Coundouriotis's text will provoke debate and raise interest in a rich but still under-researched field of study by means of wide ranging, trenchant analyses. -Annie Gagiano, Professor Emeritus, Stellenbosch University The People's Right to the Novel combines a clear thesis with a painstaking and perceptive discussion of the individual authors and their works. -Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University In powerful readings of a vast literature of war in Africa, with impeccable scholarship and painstaking attention to historical detail, Eleni Coundouriotis has reconstructed a history of the African novel from below, a history that puts 'the people' and their political and literary claims of rights to representation--both in the postcolonial state and its national literature--at the center of the story. The book adds vital new perspectives on the interdependent developments of humanitarian thinking and Naturalism, adding necessary nuance to our understanding of the relationships among literature, human rights, and humanitarianism. --Joseph R. Slaughter, Columbia University


Tackling the difficult and urgent issue of wars in Africa and their representation by insider-authors, Coundouriotis's text will provoke debate and raise interest in a rich but still under-researched field of study by means of wide ranging, trenchant analyses. -Annie Gagiano, Professor Emeritus, Stellenbosch University The People's Right to the Novel combines a clear thesis with a painstaking and perceptive discussion of the individual authors and their works. -Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University In powerful readings of a vast literature of war in Africa, with impeccable scholarship and painstaking attention to historical detail, Eleni Coundouriotis has reconstructed a history of the African novel from below, a history that puts 'the people' and their political and literary claims of rights to representation--both in the postcolonial state and its national literature--at the center of the story. The book adds vital new perspectives on the interdependent developments of humanitarian thinking and Naturalism, adding necessary nuance to our understanding of the relationships among literature, human rights, and humanitarianism. --Joseph R. Slaughter, Columbia University


GCGBPThe PeopleGCOs Right to the Novel combines a clear thesis with a painstaking and perceptive discussion of the individual authors and their works.GC[yen] GCoWendy Griswold, Northwestern University Tackling the difficult and urgent issue of wars in Africa and their representation by insider-authors, Coundouriotis's text will provoke debate and raise interest in a rich but still under-researched field of study by means of wide ranging, trenchant analyses. -Annie Gagiano, Professor Emeritus, Stellenbosch University The People's Right to the Novel combines a clear thesis with a painstaking and perceptive discussion of the individual authors and their works. -Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University In powerful readings of a vast literature of war in Africa, with impeccable scholarship and painstaking attention to historical detail, Eleni Coundouriotis has reconstructed a history of the African novel from below, a history that puts 'the people' and their political and literary claims of rights to representation--both in the postcolonial state and its national literature--at the center of the story. The book adds vital new perspectives on the interdependent developments of humanitarian thinking and Naturalism, adding necessary nuance to our understanding of the relationships among literature, human rights, and humanitarianism. --Joseph R. Slaughter, Columbia University


Author Information

Eleni Coundouriotis is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut.

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