The state of the Anglophone African novel is not entirely the fault of Chinua Achebe and his multiculturalist enablers. Some of the blame must lie with those conscientious Western critics and readers who should have paid more attention when African writers tried to move beyond the limits Achebe set. It is appalling to think that Soyinka—a man equally at home with Shakespeare, Brecht, and Barthes—should have been forced to give a 1973 lecture at Cambridge University under the auspices of the Department of Social Anthropology because the Department of English wouldnt sponsor him, refusing to believe that an African writer would be literary enough for them. It is dreadful (though amusing) that when Toni Morrison was an editor at Random House, she forwarded the manuscript of Bessie Heads classic The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (1977) to the childrens department. - -Helen Rittelmeyer See more at: claremontinstitute.org/index.php?act=crbArticle&id=114#sthash.sr9bATJ5.dpuf
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 23:08:35 +0000
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