African Languages And Literatures In The 21st Century

This edited book examines the crucial role still played by African languages in pedagogy and literatures in the 21st century, generating insights into how they effectively serve cultural needs across the African continent and beyond. Boldly positioning African languages as key resources in the 21st century, chapters focus on themes such as language revolt by marginalized groups at grassroots level, the experience of American students learning African languages, female empowerment through the use of African languages in music, film and literary works, and immigration issues. The contributions are written by scholars of language, literature, education and linguistics, and the book will be of interest to students and scholars in these and related areas.

Against All Odds: African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century

We live in a world that sees and also contesting ideas of Eurocentrism in the interpretation of various issues, including African literatures and cultures. This book seeks to engage readers into a critical examination of the meaning, history, ambiguity, status and perceptions surrounding African languages and literature. It presents current shifts in form and practice surrounding regional, national, and "e;postcolonial"e; models towards "e;world literature"e; by focusing on African literature as a focal point for understanding perceptions of the world towards African languages and literature. The book shows the importance of wrestling with issues of global aftermaths of slavery, audience, readership, diasporic and transnational connections, as well as digital and social media without undermining the conflicts that literature presents in and on its own merit.

Although African literatures in English and French are widely known outside Africa, those in the African languages themselves have not received comparable attention. In this book a number have been selected for survey by fourteen specialist writers, providing the reader with an introduction to this very wide field and a body of reference material which includes extensive bibliographies and biographical information on African authors. Theoretical issues such as genre divisions are discussed in the essays and the historical, social and political forces at work in the creation and reception of African literature are examined. Literature is treated as an art whose medium is language, so that both the oral and written forms are encompassed. This book will be of value not only to readers concerned with the cultures of Africa but to all those with an interest in the literary phenomena of the world in general.

In this work, African literatures are presented in a new perspective focusing on the dialogue between languages and literatures. An historical overview provides new insights into the literatures of Africa, both oral and written.

In 28 essays selected from the proceedings of the XXII International Congress of FILLM held at Assumption University, Bangkok, scholars and teachers of languages and literatures have noted, bemoaned and analyzed the waning influence of the humanities to varying degrees. They have raised questions, offered solutions and vigorously defended their languages and literatures, often in no uncertain terms - not as a politically correct thing to do, but as a human obligation. The papers presented here are true to the spirit of the Congress from the moment of the keynote address to what followed in a spontaneous outbreak of voices from scholars of more than 70 universities throughout the world. For the first time, in an international congress, scholars have described with great sensitivity many languages and literatures often considered the periphery, in a sincere attempt to understand 'the other', thus making a passionate plea for inclusion in the umbrella of the world's languages and literatures. With contributions by keynote speaker and authority on Comparative Literature Gayatri Spivak, USA and plenary speakers Vridhagiri Ganeshan, India; Roger Sell, Finland; Antoine Compagnon, France; and Chetana Nagavajara, Thailand this volume is of immense interest to scholars and teachers of languages and literatures the world over.