03142cam a2200313 i 4500 on1178869237 OCoLC ta 200717s2021 nju b 001 0 eng 9780691186443 (hardcover) 0691186448 (hardcover) 9780691186450 (paperback) 0691186456 (paperback) (OCoLC)1178869237 IEN/DLC eng rda DLC OCLCO YDX BDX OCLCF SLV UKMGB YDX PR9344 .J33 2021 Jackson, Jeanne-Marie. The African novel of ideas : philosophy and individualism in the age of global writing / Jeanne-Marie Jackson. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2021. xi, 223 p. Includes bibliographical references and index. Introduction: Disaggregating Liberalism -- National Horizons -- Ethiopia Unbound as Afro-Comparatist Novel: The Case for Liberated Solitude -- Between the House of Stone and a Hard Place: Stanlake Samkange's Philosophical Turn -- Global Recessions -- A Forked Path, Forever: Kintu between Reason and Rationality -- Bodies Impolitic: African Deaths of Philosophical Suicide -- Epilogue: Speculations on the Future of African Literary Studies. "This study focuses on the role of the philosophical novel-a genre that favors abstract concepts, or "thinking about thinking," over style, plot, or character development-and the role of philosophy more broadly in the intellectual life of the African continent. As philosophy over the past century of African intellectual life has evolved from the mainstream to the fringe, the African novel has gained in global market share and cachet. If postcolonial African writers of the 1950s to the 1980s were enshrined as voices of resistance to colonial regimes, the celebrated new wave of African writing now leads efforts to represent the immediacies of African experience: Africa is no longer a concept or cause but a complex web of real places, histories, and lives. The African Novel of Ideas examines philosophy in the African novel from the Gold Coast, to Zimbabwe, through Burundi, Uganda, and South Africa. By tracing the ways in which African writers such as J. E. Casely-Hayford, Stanley Samkange, Ama Ata Aidoohave, and Jennifer Makumbi have sought to reconcile a hunger for deep contemplation with the demands of their social situation as its canvas expands, Jackson offers a new way of reading and understanding African literature. As she examines the relationship between literary history and narrative technique, Jackson argues that the "postcolonial" African novel is an intermediate form between colonialism and new forms of African fiction more concerned with regional political and philosophical debates than to the traditions and narratives of European literary history" African fiction (English) 20th century History and criticism. African fiction (English) 21st century History and criticism. Philosophy in literature. Thought and thinking in literature. lcc BK 0 0 0 0 PNLIB PNLIB GEN 2021-06-17 PR9344 .J33 2021 PNLIB21061125 2021-06-17 2021-06-17 BK 1311 1311