Critical Imagination in African Literature

In African studies, the “Echeruoan ideal” is understood as an intervention or intellectual engagement characterized by a broadness of vision as well as a depth of analysis. The essays gathered in this volume celebrate that ideal and honor Echeruo’s contribution to the African intellectual tradition.Editors Nwosu and Obiwu explore the driving forces in the literature of Africa and the African diaspora. Contributors examine such themes as migration and exile, trauma and repression, violence and rebellion, and gender and human rights. Showcasing a rich diversity of cultural and academic backgrounds, this volume inaugurates a new paradigm for further examination of African literature as world literature and for analysis of African literature through the lens of psychoanalytic semiotics. While varied in modes of inquiry, the essays are unified in their ambition to explore new theoretical directions, reinvigorating the conversation around how African literature is read and studied.

The editors and contributors, having managed to capture Professor Echeruo's unmatchable breadth and depth of knowledge, his tough but also careful and deliberative way of using and interpreting language, and his completely respectful way of treating the cultural artifacts of Africa and elsewhere, have provided readers with a wonderful example of how knowledge and scholarship can be both profound as well as fun to read. This is the way to honor a fine and generous mind!-- "Abioseh Michael Porter, Drexel University"

Maik Nwosu is associate professor of English at the University of Denver, USA. He is the author of Markets of Memories: Between the Postcolonial and the Transnational. Obiwu is assistant professor of English at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, USA. He is the author of several poetry volumes, including Tigress at Full Moon.