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Preface
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The Cameroonian Novel of English Expression: An Introduction xiii Preface Initially considered something of a black sheep within the Anglophone Cameroon literary genres, the Anglophone novel has gradually grown to carve out a respectable niche for itself in the Anglophone Cameroon subsystem , imposing itself in a way that makes it impossible for critics to ignore it. Now a vibrant genre, it even threatens to overtake drama and poetry, both of which have enjoyed more critical attention. The current impressive fictional output by Anglophone Cameroonians deserves more than just the kind of sporadic, albeit, interesting critical comments or reviews one reads about it in our newspapers, notably The Post. It is for this reason that this work has been written. In addition, having read my earlier critical works, Education of the Deprived (2003), and The Dregs of Humanity (2005), some lovers of Cameroon Anglophone literature have expressed the wish to see me produce another critical text, this time, on Anglophone Cameroonian fiction. I hope the publication of this study satisfies the desire of those readers. The critical perspective applied in the text, the Socio-Artistic Approach, concerned with both a text’s thematic, moral, cultural or ideological issues, on the one hand, and its central literary analysis, on the other, is essentially an orthodox approach to literary criticism. We believe that since ours is a young and emerging literature with little attendant criticism, it makes sense, to be able to implant a viable critical culture in our young people, to begin from the known to the unknown, to start with the traditional before moving on to more complex theoretical issues. That is why we have formulated this eclectic approach in the hope that other literary scholars will then seize the critical baton, providing the necessary constructive criticism before moving onto more sophisticated formulations with appropriate practical application. This will then provide our young crop of critics with a sound theoretical base. They will then know whence they are coming and where they are heading; otherwise to start them off with only current critical isms that have become buzzwords, without a clear sense of tradition, would be to invite from many of them garbled and often confused critical responses. There are critical voices, already emerging within the Anglophone Cameroonian literary circles, calling for rigorous teaching and practice of theory in the interpretation of literary works, setting in motion a critical discourse. Such a call is salutary, and we welcome it. Those university Shadrach A. Ambanasom xiv lecturers whose responsibility it is to teach theoretical courses should take this call very seriously, moving from theory to hands-on practice. What I have done in this book is my modest contribution to that critical debate. Shadrach A. Ambanasom Bambili – Bamenda Cameroon ...