(Maik
Nwosu and Obiwu, eds., The
Critical Imagination in African Literature: Essays in Honor of Michael J C
Echeruo [New York: Syracuse University, 2015, 304pp, US$34.95/£21.31, pbk])
Description
In African studies,
the “Echeruoan ideal” is understood as an intervention or intellectual
engagement characterized by a broadness of vision as well as a depth of
analysis. The essays gathered in this volume celebrate that ideal and honor
Echeruo’s contribution to the African intellectual tradition.
Editors Nwosu and Obiwu explore the driving
forces in the literature of Africa and the
African diaspora. Contributors examine such themes as migration and exile,
trauma and repression, violence and rebellion, and gender and human rights.
Showcasing a rich diversity of cultural and academic backgrounds, this volume
inaugurates a new paradigm for further examination of African literature as
world literature and for analysis of African literature through the lens of
psychoanalytic semiotics. While varied in modes of inquiry, the essays are
unified in their ambition to explore new theoretical directions, reinvigorating
the conversation around how African literature is read and studied.
Authors
Maik Nwosu is associate
professor of English at the University
of Denver. He is the
author of Markets of Memories:
Between the Postcolonial and the Transnational.
Obiwu is assistant
professor of English at Central State University
in Wilberforce, Ohio. He is the author of several poetry
volumes including Tigress at
Full Moon.
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe
