Overview
- Takes an original approach by analysing the use of the idea of childhood by contemporary writers
- Opens up the textual archive of African literature
- Examines a range of widely-read and studied African novels
Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities (AHAM)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
This book examines the representation of figures, memories and images of childhood in selected contemporary diasporic African fiction by Adichie, Abani, Wainaina and Oyeyemi. The book argues that childhood is a key framework for thinking about contemporary African and African Diasporic identities. It argues that through the privileging of childhood memory, alternative conceptions of time emerge in this literature, and which allow African writers to re-imagine what family, ethnicity, nation means within the new spaces of diaspora that a majority of them occupy. The book therefore looks at the connections between childhood, space, time and memory, childhood gender and sexuality, childhoods in contexts of war, as well as migrant childhoods. These dimensions of childhood particularly relate to the return of the memory of Biafra, the figures of child soldiers, memories of growing up in Cold War Africa, queer boyhoods/sonhood as well as experiences of migration within Africa, North America and Europe.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Reviews
“The book’s arguments are lucidly presented and clearly demonstrated in the literary analyses across the chapters.” (Daniel Chukwuemeka, The Black Scholar, Vol. 51 (4), 2021)
“A very detailed historiography of childhood in African literature. … The book is not only an important addition to African literary childhood scholarship, it is also a much-needed contribution to memory studies in and on Africa. … Childhood in Contemporary Diasporic African Literature: Memories and Futures Past is an important work; it is an excellent addition to African literary scholarship.” (Sakiru Adebayo, Research in African Literatures, Vol. 51 (2), 2020)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Christopher E W Ouma is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Cape Town. He holds a PhD from the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand. Christopher has co-edited The Spoken Word project: Stories Travelling Through Africa. He is also currently editor of Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Childhood in Contemporary Diasporic African Literature
Book Subtitle: Memories and Futures Past
Authors: Christopher E. W. Ouma
Series Title: African Histories and Modernities
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36256-0
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) 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-36255-3Published: 28 February 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-36258-4Published: 28 February 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-36256-0Published: 27 February 2020
Series ISSN: 2634-5773
Series E-ISSN: 2634-5781
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 202
Topics: African Literature, Contemporary Literature, Postcolonial/World Literature, African History, African Culture, African Politics