Routledge Handbook of African Literature

The last decade of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed an expansion of critical approaches to African literature. African literature is now being interpreted using frameworks derived from queer theory, disability studies and eco-criticism among others, or for examinations of the representation of food, the humanimal interface and waste ecologies alongside more familiar discussions of postcolonial politics.

The Handbook of African Literature is a one-stop publication bringing together studies of African literary texts that embodying the range of newer critical approaches and subjects of inquiry applied to a wide range of works from many regions and countries. The contributors showcase analytical models that can be applied to African literature in any language, from any region of Africa, and to a variety of literary forms.

The handbook will be divided into seven parts, i) Political Dimensions ii) Geographies, Travels, Identities iii) Settings iv) Society and Sociality v) Bodies, Subjectivities, Affect vi) Genres vii) Literary Relations. Each part will have five chapters addressing the themes of the section from a variety of perspectives in conjunction with analysis of different literary texts. Every chapter will be an original research essay written by scholars with expertise in the subject providing an application of the most recent insights into analysis of particular topics or application of particular critical frameworks to one or more African literary works.

Moradewun Adejunmobi is a professor of African Studies in the African American and African Studies Department at the University of California, Davis. She has published widely on Francophone African literature, multilingualism and translation in African literature and cinema, as well as on Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. She has also recently served as the 2015-2016 President of the African Literature Association, and is on the executive for the African languages and literature forum of the MLA (Modern Language Association of America).

Carli Coetzee is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, United Kingdom and the Editor of the Journal of African Cultural Studies.