Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-285) and index
The African imagination -- Orality, literacy, and African literature -- African letters: the making of a tradition -- Dimensions of African discourse -- Study in ambiguity: Amadou Hampaté Bâ's The fortunes of Wangrin -- Narrative, history and the African imagination: Ahmadou Kourouma's Monnè, outrages et défis -- The crisis of cultural memory in Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart -- Return of the native: Edward Kamau Brathwaite's Masks -- A national voice: the poetry and plays of John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo -- Parables of the African condition: the new realism in African fiction