Structural Models and African Poetics

Towards a Pragmatic Theory of Literature

Sunday O. Anozie

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781134860463
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

In this pioneering work, first published in 1981, Sunday O. Anozie examines the relevance of structuralism and semiology to literary criticism in general and to African poetics in particular. Behind the growing body of African literature lies an immense reservoir of oral tradition for which the proper tools of analysis and interpretation have yet to be found. This book represents the first comprehensive full-scale exposition, analysis and critique of structuralism by a non-Western and non-European scholar. From an African viewpoint, it examines the roles to be played by structuralism and post-structuralism in the development of the general principles governing poetics and literary creativity in Africa. This title will be of interest to students of literature and literary theory.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: From Structuralism to Semiology
• 2 The Structuralist Perspective
• 3 The Concept of Time in Africa
• 4 Diachrony and Synchrony
• 5 Aspects of Senghor’s Poetic Theory
• 6 The Poetics of the Mask
• 7 Roman Jakobson and Structural Poetics
• 8 A Structural Analysis of Senghor’s ‘Le Totem’
• 9 Roland Barthes’ Semiotic Criticism
• 10 Some Post-Structuralist Theories and Developments
• 11 Conclusion: Towards a Poetic of the Novel in Africa
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index of Names
• Index of Subjects