This collection of essays aims at introducing students of African literature to the heritage of the African prose narrative starting from its oral base and covering its linguistic and cultural diversity. The book brings together essays on both the classics and the relatively new in all subgenres of the African prose narrative, including the traditional epic, the novel, the short story, and the autobiography. The chapters are arranged according tothe respective thematic paradigms under which the discussed works fall.
“An Introduction to the African Prose Narrative is a refreshing and thought-provoking collection of essays that are foundational and diversified in themes, innovative in organization and style, and should be very accessible to students. This volume succeeds, in large measure, because it proceeds from the premise that the genealogy and direction of African literature are located within the intersection of African orality and literacy."
-Tom Spencer-Walters
Professor and Chair of Africana Studies Department at California State University, Northridge