The Literary Fantastic in African and English Literature
Abstract
In her article "The Literary Fantastic in African and English Literature," Terri Ochiagha begins with pointing out that in his Introduction į la literature fantastique, Tzvetan Todorov proposed the theoretical frameworks he believed should be the basis of the identification and analysis of a literary work as fantastic. While Todorov's text is only one of the many treatises on the fantastic in literary scholarship, in most of these African prose is seldom a subject of exemplification or analysis. In the rare instances in which such texts are mentioned, they are often and hastily classified as magic realism. Ochiagha posits whether all African writings can be categorized under this concept and postulates that despite the overbearing influence of Western literature and scholarship, African texts should not be categorized by the "fantastic" imprint. Instead, Ochiagha argues for the inclusion of "other" literary texts in the genre of the literary fantastic with an approach that pays close attention to Western as well as Non-Western conventions in the production of this genre. To illustrate her postulates, Ochiagha focuses on Brontė's Wuthering Heights and Amadi's The Concubine.
Recommended Citation
Ochiagha, Terri. "The Literary Fantastic in African and English Literature." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 10.4 (2008): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol10/iss4/5
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