This groundbreaking work, first published in 1989, was one of the first to challenge the conventional critical assessment of African literature, and remains highly influential today.Amuta's key argument is that African literature can be discussed only within the wider framework of the dismantling of colonial rule and Western hegemony in Africa. In exploring the possibility of a dialectical, alternative critical base, he draws upon both classical Marxist aesthetics and the theories of African culture espoused by Fanon, Cabral and Ngugi. From these explorations, Amuta derives a new language of criticism, which is then applied to works by modern African writers as diverse as Achebe, Ousmane, Agostinho Neto and Dennis Brutus.Amuta's highly original and innovative approach remains relevant not only for assessing the literature of developing countries, but for Marxist and postcolonial theories of literary criticism more generally. The author's elegance of argument and clarity of exposition makes this a distinguished and lasting contribution to debates around cultural expression in postcolonial Africa.

Features a new foreword by Buidun Jeyifo, Professor of African Literature at Harvard University.

PrefaceIntroduction1. Ideological Formations in the Criticism of African Literature2. Traditionalism and the Quest for an African Literary Aesthetic3. Marxism and African Literature4. A Dialectical Theory of African Literatures: Categories and Springboards5. Issues and Problems in African Literature: A Dialectical Revision6. History and the Dialetics of Narrative in the African Novel7. Drama and Revolution in Africa8. Poetry and Liberation Politics in Africa9. Beyond DecolonizationSelect Bibliography