The African palimpsest : indigenization of language in the West African europhone novel /

The African palimpsest : indigenization of language in the West African europhone novel /

Uniting a sense of the political dimensions of language appropriation with a serious, yet accessible linguistic terminology, The African Palimpsest examines the strategies of 'indigenization? whereby West African writers have made their literary English or French distinctively 'African?. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Zabus, Chantal J.
Edition:2nd enl. ed.
Imprint:Amsterdam ; New York, NY : Rodopi, 2007.
Description:1 online resource (xix, 261 pages).
Language:English
Series:Cross/cultures, 0924-1426 ; 4
Cross/cultures ; 4.
Subject:Sociolinguistics -- Africa, West.
West African fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
West African literature -- History and criticism.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Linguistics -- Sociolinguistics.
Sociolinguistics.
West African fiction.
West African literature.
West Africa.
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Electronic books.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11162164
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781435611818
1435611810
9042022248
9789042022249
9789042022249
9042022248
Digital file characteristics:data file
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Print version record.
Summary:Uniting a sense of the political dimensions of language appropriation with a serious, yet accessible linguistic terminology, The African Palimpsest examines the strategies of 'indigenization? whereby West African writers have made their literary English or French distinctively 'African?. Through the apt metaphor of the palimpsest? a surface that has been written on, written over, partially erased and written over again? the book examines such well-known West African writers as Achebe, Armah, Ekwensi, Kourouma, Okara, Saro?Wiwa, Soyinka and Tutuola as well as lesser-known writers from francophone and anglophone Africa. Providing a great variety of case-studies in Nigerian Pidgin, Akan, Igbo, Maninka, Yoruba, Wolof and other African languages, the book also clarifies the vital interface between Europhone African writing and the new outlets for African artistic expression in (auto- )translation, broadcast television, radio and film. Hailed as a classic in the 1990s, The African Palimpsest is here reprinted in a completely revised edition, with a new Introduction, updated data and bibliography, and with due consideration of more recent theoretical approaches.?A very valuable book? a detailed exploration in its concern with language change as demonstrated in post-colonial African literatures? Bill Ashcroft, University of New South Wales?Apart from its great documentary value, The African Palimpsest provides many theoretical concepts that will be useful to scholars of African literatures, linguists in general? as well as comparatists who want to gain fresh insights into the processes by which Vulgar Latin once gave birth to the Romance languages.? Ahmed Sheikh Bangura, University of California, Santa Barbara?As Zabus? book suggests, it is the area where the various languages of a community meet and cross-over? that is likely to provide the most productive site for the generation of a new literature that is true to the real linguistic situation that pertains in so much of contemporary urban Africa.? Stewart Brown, University of Birmingham.
Other form:Print version: Zabus, Chantal J. African palimpsest. 2nd enl. ed. Amsterdam ; New York, NY : Rodopi, 2007 9789042022249 9042022248

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