African city textualities
African city textualities
The stereotype of Africa as a predominantly 'natural' space ignores the existence of vibrant and cosmopolitan urban environments on the continent. Far from merely embodying backwardness and lack, African cities are sites of complex and diverse cultural productions which participate in modernity and its dynamics of global flows and exchanges. This volume merges the concerns of urban, literary and cultural studies by focusing on the flows and exchanges of texts and textual elements. By analysing how texts such as popular and canonical fiction, popular music, self-help pamphlets, graffiti, films, journalistic writing, rumours and urban legends engage with the problems of citizenship, self-organisation and survival, the collection shows that despite all the problems of Africa, its cities continue to engender forward-looking creativity and hope. The texts collected here belong to several different genres themselves, and they are authored by both distinguished and younger scholars, based in and outside of Africa. The volume explores the textualities emerging from the cities of Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Above all, it calls for an end to disabling hierarchical categorisations of both texts and cities.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: City, text, future Ranka Primorac 2. A city that keeps a country going: In praise of Dakar Donal Cruise O’Brien 3. Corresponding with the city: Self-help literature in urban West Africa Stephanie Newell 4. Philly Lutaaya: Popular music and the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda Joel Isabirye 5. Remapping urban modernities: Julie Ward’s death and the Kenyan grapevine Grace A. Musila 6. The modern city and citizen efficacy in a Zambian novel Ranka Primorac 7. Lusaka Laura Miti-Banda 8. The urban palimpsest: Re-presenting Sophiatown Meg Samuelson 9. Myth and legend in urban oral memory: Bulawayo, 1930–60 Terence Ranger 10. Ivan Vladislavic and the possible city James Graham 11. City, identity and dystopia: Writing Lagos in contemporary Nigerian novels Rita Nnodim 12. Afterword: Modernity and transformation in African cities Jennifer Robinson.
africa, cities, urban, culture, senegal, ghana, nigeria, uganda, kenya, zimbabwe, zambia, south africa, modernity
9780415481557
Primorac, Ranka
8e175d18-8ea8-4228-8637-671427202b10
20 July 2010
Primorac, Ranka
8e175d18-8ea8-4228-8637-671427202b10
Primorac, Ranka
(ed.)
(2010)
African city textualities
,
London, GB.
Routledge, 128pp.
Abstract
The stereotype of Africa as a predominantly 'natural' space ignores the existence of vibrant and cosmopolitan urban environments on the continent. Far from merely embodying backwardness and lack, African cities are sites of complex and diverse cultural productions which participate in modernity and its dynamics of global flows and exchanges. This volume merges the concerns of urban, literary and cultural studies by focusing on the flows and exchanges of texts and textual elements. By analysing how texts such as popular and canonical fiction, popular music, self-help pamphlets, graffiti, films, journalistic writing, rumours and urban legends engage with the problems of citizenship, self-organisation and survival, the collection shows that despite all the problems of Africa, its cities continue to engender forward-looking creativity and hope. The texts collected here belong to several different genres themselves, and they are authored by both distinguished and younger scholars, based in and outside of Africa. The volume explores the textualities emerging from the cities of Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Above all, it calls for an end to disabling hierarchical categorisations of both texts and cities.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: City, text, future Ranka Primorac 2. A city that keeps a country going: In praise of Dakar Donal Cruise O’Brien 3. Corresponding with the city: Self-help literature in urban West Africa Stephanie Newell 4. Philly Lutaaya: Popular music and the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda Joel Isabirye 5. Remapping urban modernities: Julie Ward’s death and the Kenyan grapevine Grace A. Musila 6. The modern city and citizen efficacy in a Zambian novel Ranka Primorac 7. Lusaka Laura Miti-Banda 8. The urban palimpsest: Re-presenting Sophiatown Meg Samuelson 9. Myth and legend in urban oral memory: Bulawayo, 1930–60 Terence Ranger 10. Ivan Vladislavic and the possible city James Graham 11. City, identity and dystopia: Writing Lagos in contemporary Nigerian novels Rita Nnodim 12. Afterword: Modernity and transformation in African cities Jennifer Robinson.
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Published date: 20 July 2010
Additional Information:
This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.
Keywords:
africa, cities, urban, culture, senegal, ghana, nigeria, uganda, kenya, zimbabwe, zambia, south africa, modernity
Organisations:
English
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 79464
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/79464
ISBN: 9780415481557
PURE UUID: e671ac48-346f-4b2d-8609-3ace8df018e5
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Date deposited: 17 Mar 2010
Last modified: 23 Jul 2022 01:59
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