Overview
- Explores the importance of identity and the idea of home in Nigerian fiction
- Shows how fictionalized representations of Nigeria give insights into the real history and society of the country
- Surveys a range of notable Nigerian authors and works relating to nationhood, colonialism and postcolonialism
Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities (AHAM)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Concluding Thoughts
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book explores how modern Nigerian fiction is rooted in writers’ understanding of their identity and perception of Nigeria as a country and home. Surveying a broad range of authors and texts, the book shows how these fictionalized representations of Nigeria reveal authentic perceptions of Nigeria’s history and culture today. Many of the lessons in these works of literature provide cautionary tales and critiques of Nigeria, as well as an examination of the lasting impact of colonialism. Furthermore, the book presents the nation as both the framework and subject of its narrative. By conducting literary analyses of Nigerian fiction with historical reference points, this work demonstrates how Nigerian literature can convey profound themes and knowledge that resonates with audiences, teaching Nigerians and non-Nigerians about the colonial and postcolonial experience. The chapters cover topics on nationhood, women’s writing, postcolonial modernity, and Nigerian literature in the digital age.
Reviews
“Professor Toyin Falola has attempted a compelling reflection on the idea of the Nigerian literary tradition with its critique of the potential, achievements, imperfections and the challenges embedded in the complex experience of a cultural imaginary of Nigerian Literature, including the re-production as well as the reception of the literary genius on the African continent and in the diaspora. Literature is held as enervating force and product of the colonial and postcolonial realities of the Nigerian nation. This is a distinguished literary historian’s provocative intervention on the subject of nationhood and the literary tradition.” (Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, Former President, Association of Nigerian Authors)
“This view of Nigerian Literature puts the ideological contentions and contradictions of old in perspective. Toyin Falola, in this effusion, not only charts the course for the reinvention and invention of the Nigerian Nation through its literature but troubles the literary taboos as well as the theoretical postures and leanings in the art of Nigerian literary artists.” (Adedoyin Aguoru, President, African Association for Japanese Studies)
“This fascinating and original piece of scholarship by Nigeria’s most celebrated historian has successfully linked the wide and varied Nigerian literature to the complexities of the nation. The indomitable Toyin Falola maps cogently the cultural, elitist, ideological, feminized and the fetishized aspects of the Nigerian experience. The book masterfully shows us a space that is complicated, inhabited by enigmatic people who see their country as peculiar and unique.” (Bosede Funke Afolayan, University of Lagos, Nigeria, and editor of Nigerian Female Dramatists: Expression, Resistance, Agency)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Nigerian Literary Imagination and the Nationhood Project
Authors: Toyin Falola
Series Title: African Histories and Modernities
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01991-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-01990-6Published: 16 July 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-01993-7Published: 17 July 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-01991-3Published: 14 July 2022
Series ISSN: 2634-5773
Series E-ISSN: 2634-5781
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 286
Number of Illustrations: 21 b/w illustrations
Topics: African Literature, Literature, general, History of North Africa, Imperialism and Colonialism