African literary texts can be approached in a variety of ways. They may be examined in isolation as verbal artifacts that have a unique integrity. They may be studied in relation to other texts that preceded and followed them. Or they may be seen against the backdrop of the time, traditions and circumstances that helped to shape them. In this book, all these approaches have been utilized, sometimes singly, sometimes in combination.

Included among those authors whose texts are discussed in detail are Peter Abrahams, Chinua Achebe, Ayi Kwei Armah, Mongo Beti, John Bruin, Mbongeni Ngema, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Okot .'Bitek, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Ansuyah R. Singh, and Amos Tutuola.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BERNTH LINDORS is professor of English and African Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Former editor of the journal Research in African Literature, he has written and edited more than thirty books on African Literatures, including Popular Literartures in Africa (AWP 1991), (with James Gibbs) Research on Wole Soyinka (AWP 1995), Long Drums and Canons: Teaching and Researching African Literatures (AWP 1995), and Loaded Vehicles: Studies in African Literary Media (AWP 1996).

CATEGORY
Literary Criticism, Cultural Studies/AFRICA