The Gong and the Flute: African Literary Development and Celebration

About the Book

A collection of 11 chapters by Nigerian professors, this book covers such issues as the dignity of intellectual labor; how colonial writings on Africa helped Africans decide to become the interpreters of their cultures; what Nigerian playwrights and poets have in common with authors from other parts of the world; the need to write literature in indigenous Nigerian languages; and critical examinations of the themes of victimization, bad governance, and Igbo social behavior as they are handled in select African and Nigerian literary texts. In discussing the issues, the contributors maintain a historical perspective which allows them to examine very critically the achievements of the founding fathers of Modern African Literatures, and the progress made in the development of African literatures. Also, they suggest what needs to be done to develop the national and ethnic literatures of Africa, as well as indigenous African languages that not only promote further development of the literatures, but also make it easier for Africans to read and appreciate their literatures more fully. Because of its content and developmental perspectives, The Gong and the Flute is a useful reference book for teachers and students of African literatures, and for research institutes and libraries interested in African, Nigerian, and Igbo Studies.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments
Some Sources of Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson by Ben Obumselu
"I, Okigbo, Town-Crier": The Transition from Mythopoeic Symbolism to a Revolutionary Aesthetic in Path of Thunder by Chukwuma Azuonye
The Ogun Consciousness in Modern Creative Man: A Reading of Wole Soyinka's "Idanre" by Edward C. Okwu
Nigerian Drama and the Theatre of the Absurd by Chinyere Nwahunanya
The Burden of the Dramatic Experience: A Synoptic and Comparative Analysis by Afam Ebeogu
Literature in Indigenous Nigerian Languages by Ernest N. Emenyonu
From Dialectal Dichotomy to Igbo Standard Development by Donatus I. Nwoga
Genetic Discontinuity in Achebe's No Longer at Ease by Nnadozie F. Inyama
Of Governance, Revolutions, and Victims: Achebe and Literary Activism in Anthills of the Savannah by Kalu Ogbaa
The Theme of Victimization in Select African Plays and Novels by Emmanuel Obiechina
The Dignity of Intellectual Labor: A Fiftieth Birthday Tribute by Isidore Okpewho
Index

About the Author :
KALU OGBAA is currently Associate Professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, where he teaches Africana and Commonwealth literatures. He is a member of the distinguished Scholars Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, U.S.A., and a Fellow of the International Biographical Association, Cambridge, England. Dr. Ogbaa is the author of Gods, Oracles, and Divination: Folkways in Chinua Achebe's Novels (1992) and numerous articles on Black and Commonwealth Literatures.

Review :
"Ogbaa...takes us to African sources for our comprehension of some of the most important work written in this century. Within this context, we can see through the eyes of the Other how the literature of Otherness impacts on its own society....The essays collected...represent two generations of Nigerian scholarship....Ogbaa has knitted together Nigerian scholars, teachers, and writers in the grand sounds of The Gong and the Flute."-O.R. Dathorne Professor of English University of Kentucky "These essays, written by a talented team of Nigerian scholars, take us into the very heart of modern African expressive culture, revealing literary and linguistic subtleties known best to insiders."-Bernth Lindfors Professor of English and African Literature University of Texas at Austin ?This book has more than a little for anyone with some background in African literature, and a lot for those with considerable background. General; undergraduate and up.?-Choice "This book has more than a little for anyone with some background in African literature, and a lot for those with considerable background. General; undergraduate and up."-Choice