In this Book

summary

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.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. i-iv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-vi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Figures
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. ix-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction: Naturalism, Humanitarianism, and the Fiction of War
  2. pp. 1-33
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. “No Innocents and No Onlookers”: The Uses of the Past in the Novels of Mau Mau
  2. pp. 34-97
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Toward a People’s History:The Novels of the Nigerian Civil War
  2. pp. 98-151
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. “Wondering Who the Heroes Were” : Zimbabwe’s Novels of Atrocity
  2. pp. 152-219
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Contesting the New Authenticity: Contemporary War Fiction in Africa
  2. pp. 220-260
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Afterword
  2. pp. 261-274
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 275-310
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Works Cited
  2. pp. 311-330
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 331-336
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.