Melakneh Mengistu

Post-colonialism and Mainstream Anglophone African Novel: Thematic and Stylistic Intertextuality Melakneh Mengistu

The production, mediation and reception of Modern African Literature was bound with the Eurocentric framework until the emergence of Salman Rushdie?s The Empire Writes Back (1989). The Orientalists? defiance of Western cultural hegemony thus ushered in a paradigm shift from dogmatic universalism to post-colonialism. This book sheds light on the post- colonial trajectories with which African writers grapple to decolonize their minds. It dwells upon the socio-historical matrix of and critical issues in African Literature, the development of the African novel in a historical continuum, the canons of post-colonialism, a critical analysis of representative novels from mainstream Anglophone Africa against the comparative model of post- colonial theory to determine their thematic and stylistic intertextuality. This monograph is an indispensable read not only for graduate students of African Studies in the Orient but also Eurocentric readers confounded with the ordeals of African writers and the typology of African Literature. Highly recommended!