عنوان

Cultural identity and the Nigerian novel in the 1950's

شماره

TLets423126

عنوان اصلي

Cultural identity and the Nigerian novel in the 1950's

نام عام مواد

[Thesis]

نام نخستين پديدآور

Whittaker, David George.

نام ناشر، پخش کننده و غيره

Birkbeck (University of London)

تاریخ نشرو بخش و غیره

2005

جزئيات پايان نامه و نوع درجه آن

Ph.D.

کسي که مدرک را اعطا کرده

Birkbeck (University of London)

امتياز متن

2005

متن يادداشت

In this thesis I argue that the development of the Nigerian novel in the 1950'screated an optimistic space within which writers were able to reassert repressedcultural identities, becoming significant participants in the effort to develop viablepost-colonial cultural identities within societies whose histories and cultures hadbeen radically disrupted by colonialism. I focus on a number of significantdebates in contemporary postcolonial cultural theory around the question ofAfrican cultural identity and argue that the Nigerian novels of this era acted asstrategic interventions, in opposition to the denigrating stereotyping of colonialdiscourses, often articulating a profound desire to renew confidence in thelegitimacy of indigenous cultural traditions and values.Nigeria is now recognized as one of the most prolific areas for literary productionin sub-Saharan Africa. My thesis aims to demonstrate that the literature whichfirst emerged there in the 1950's was pivotal not only in the development of oneof Africa's most distinctive and vibrant national literatures, but also for Africanliterature in general. The 1950's was a significant era in Nigerian history as itspanned the last years of British colonial rule and witnessed the optimisticculmination of Nigeria's independence movement. Although the decade endedwith Nigeria's independence in 1960, the legacy of almost a century of Britishimperialism had been profound. Colonialism and the struggle for selfdeterminationand decolonization became crucial issues for Nigerian writers, asthey attempted to articulate a sense of the historical, political, social and culturaltopography of their newly emerging nation.The independence movement in Nigeria was accompanied by an affirmatorycultural nationalism which was manifested in the novels of Amos Tutuola,Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe and T. M. Aluko as a conscious search for newforms of identity, capable of embracing traditional cultures within the context of amodem African nation state. I analyse the impact of European imperialism onnotions of African cultural identity and the various strategies of appropriationand/or resistance adopted by Nigerian novelists in their attempts to delineate asense of their own identities. My thesis defines the nature of these representationsof cultural identity and examines the inherent difficulties and contradictions thesenovelists confronted when articulating Afrocentric identities in Western languagesand literary forms.

مستند نام اشخاص تاييد نشده

Whittaker, David George.

مستند نام تنالگان تاييد نشده

Birkbeck (University of London)

نام الکترونيکي

فرمت انتشار

p

نوع ماده

[Thesis]

کد کاربرگه

276903

سطح دسترسي

a

تكميل شده

Y