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FOR SALE IN AFRICA ONLY Investigates what literary strategies
African writers adopt to convey the impact of climate
transformation and environmental change. This special issue
examines the ways fiction and poetry engage with environmental
consciousness, and how African literary criticism addresses the
implications of global environmental transformations. Does
environmentalist literature offer new possibilities for critical
thinking about the future? What constitutes environmentalist
fiction and poetry? What kind of texts, themes and topics does
climate writing include? Does any text in which the environment
features become available to environmentalist criticism? In their
engagement with the diverse genres, themes and frameworks through
which contemporary African writers address topics including
urbanisation, cross-species communication, nature and climate
change, contributors to this special issue help to define African
environmental writing. They look at the literary strategies adopted
by creative writers to convey the impact of environmental
transformationin narratives that are historically informed by a
century of colonialism, nationalist political activism,
urbanisation and postcolonial migration. How does environmental
literature intervene in these histories? Can creative writers, with
their powerfully post-human and cross-species imaginations, carry
out the ethical work demanded by contemporary climate science? From
Tanure Ojaide's and Helon Habila's attention to environmental
decimation in the Niger Delta through to Nnedi Okorafor's and Kofi
Anyidoho's imaginative cross-species encounters, the special issue
asks how literature mediates the specificities of climate change in
an era of global capitalism and technological transformation, and
what the limits of creative writing and literary criticism are as
tools for discussing environmental issues. Guest Editors: Cajetan
Iheka (Associate Professor of English, Yale University) and
Stephanie Newell (Professor of English, Yale University) Series
Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu (Professor of Africana Studies at the
University of Michigan-Flint) Reviews Editor: Obi Nwakanma (Fellow,
Department of English University of Central Florida)
Investigates what literary strategies African writers adopt to
convey the impact of climate transformation and environmental
change. This special issue examines the ways fiction and poetry
engage with environmental consciousness, and how African literary
criticism addresses the implications of global environmental
transformations. Does environmentalist literature offer new
possibilities for critical thinking about the future? What
constitutes environmentalist fiction and poetry? What kind of
texts, themes and topics does climate writing include? Does any
text in which the environment features become available to
environmentalist criticism? In their engagement with the diverse
genres, themes and frameworks through which contemporary African
writers address topics including urbanisation, cross-species
communication, nature and climate change, contributors to this
special issue help to define African environmental writing. They
look at the literary strategies adopted by creative writers to
convey the impact of environmental transformationin narratives that
are historically informed by a century of colonialism, nationalist
political activism, urbanisation and postcolonial migration. How
does environmental literature intervene in these histories? Can
creative writers, with their powerfully post-human and
cross-species imaginations, carry out the ethical work demanded by
contemporary climate science? From Tanure Ojaide's and Helon
Habila's attention to environmental decimation in the Niger Delta
through to Nnedi Okorafor's and Kofi Anyidoho's imaginative
cross-species encounters, the special issue asks how literature
mediates the specificities of climate change in an era of global
capitalism and technological transformation, and what the limits of
creative writing and literary criticism are as tools for discussing
environmental issues. This volume also includes a Literary
Supplement. Guest Editors: Cajetan Iheka (Associate Professor of
English, Yale University) and Stephanie Newell (Professor of
English, Yale University) Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu
(Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint)
Reviews Editor:Obi Nwakanma (Fellow, Department of English
University of Central Florida)
Examines the representations of migration in African literature,
film, and other visual media, with an eye to the stylistic features
of these works as well as their contributions to debates on
migration This essay collection examines the representations of
migration in African literature, film, and other visual media.
Inspired by the proliferation of texts focused on this theme and
the ongoing migration crises, essays in the volume probe the ways
in which African cultural productions shape and are shaped by the
migration debates, the contributions these productions make to an
understanding of globalization, and the stylistic features of the
works. The texts analyzed here include important recent writings
and films that have yet to receive considerable scholarly
attention, by artists such as Chimamanda Adichie, Teju Cole, Leila
Aboulela, Noo Saro-Wiwa, and Marzek Allouache. Current scholarship
on migration largely focuses on the journey from Third World spaces
to the First World, thereby radically limiting our understanding of
migratory flows. This project works against this lopsided analysis
ofmigration and considers narratives of return as central to
migratory flows. The book also invests in underanalyzed and
underrepresented diasporas on the continent including the Lusophone
and Indian diasporas. Unlike much scholarship on migration in
African cultural studies, which tends to focus primarily on a genre
(literature), a region, or a specific language, the current book
emphasizes Africa's geographical and linguistic diversity by being
attentive to Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone areas, as well
as an array of texts encompassing various genres.
The problem of environmental degradation on the African continent
is a severe one. In this book, Cajetan Iheka analyzes how African
literary texts have engaged with pressing ecological problems in
Africa, including the Niger Delta oil pollution in Nigeria,
ecologies of war in Somalia, and animal abuses. Analyzing
narratives by important African writers such as Amos Tutuola,
Wangari Maathai, J. M. Coetzee, Bessie Head, and Ben Okri, Iheka
challenges the tendency to focus primarily on humans in the
conceptualization of environmental problems, and instead focuses on
how African literature demonstrates the interconnection and
'proximity' of human and nonhuman beings. Through this, Iheka
ultimately proposes a revision of the idea of agency based on human
intentionality in African literary studies and postcolonialism:
that texts yoke the exploitation of Africans to the despoliation of
the environment, and they recommend responsibility toward human and
nonhuman beings as crucial for ecological sustainability and
addressing climate change.
The problem of environmental degradation on the African continent
is a severe one. In this book, Cajetan Iheka analyzes how African
literary texts have engaged with pressing ecological problems in
Africa, including the Niger Delta oil pollution in Nigeria,
ecologies of war in Somalia, and animal abuses. Analyzing
narratives by important African writers such as Amos Tutuola,
Wangari Maathai, J. M. Coetzee, Bessie Head, and Ben Okri, Iheka
challenges the tendency to focus primarily on humans in the
conceptualization of environmental problems, and instead focuses on
how African literature demonstrates the interconnection and
'proximity' of human and nonhuman beings. Through this, Iheka
ultimately proposes a revision of the idea of agency based on human
intentionality in African literary studies and postcolonialism:
that texts yoke the exploitation of Africans to the despoliation of
the environment, and they recommend responsibility toward human and
nonhuman beings as crucial for ecological sustainability and
addressing climate change.
In African Ecomedia, Cajetan Iheka examines the ecological
footprint of media in Africa alongside the representation of
environmental issues in visual culture. Iheka shows how, through
visual media such as film, photography, and sculpture, African
artists deliver a unique perspective on the socioecological costs
of media production, from mineral and oil extraction to the
politics of animal conservation. Among other works, he examines
Pieter Hugo's photography of electronic waste recycling in Ghana
and Idrissou Mora-Kpai's documentary on the deleterious
consequences of uranium mining in Niger. These works highlight not
only the exploitation of African workers and the vast scope of
environmental degradation but also the resourcefulness and
creativity of African media makers. They point to the
unsustainability of current practices while acknowledging our
planet's finite natural resources. In foregrounding Africa's
centrality to the production and disposal of media technology,
Iheka shows the important place visual media has in raising
awareness of and documenting ecological disaster even as it remains
complicit in it.
Taking up the idea that teaching is a political act, this
collection of essays reflects on recent trends in ecocriticism and
the implications for pedagogy. Focusing on a diverse set of
literature and media, the book also provides background on
historical and theoretical issues that animate the field of
postcolonial ecocriticism. The scope is broad, encompassing not
only the Global South but also parts of the Global North that have
been subject to environmental degradation as a result of colonial
practices. Considering both the climate crisis and the crisis in
the humanities, the volume navigates theoretical resources,
contextual scaffolding, classroom activities, assessment, and
pedagogical possibilities and challenges. Essays are grounded in
environmental justice and the project to decolonize the classroom,
addressing works from Africa, New Zealand, Asia, and Latin America
and issues such as queer ecofeminism, disability, Latinx literary
production, animal studies, interdisciplinarity, and working with
environmental justice organizations.
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