The Contemporary Francophone African Intellectual

1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4438-4859-6
Verlag: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 205 Seiten

The Contemporary Francophone African Intellectual examines the issues with which the contemporary African intellectual engages, the fields s/he occupies, her/his residence and perspective, and her/his relations with the State and the people. In an increasingly economically deprived Africa, in which some states are ruled by dictators, what chances do people have of becoming intellectuals, using their critical faculties to challenge hegemony, enacting the transformative power of ideas in a public forum? Do intellectuals who remain in Africa run the risk of being swallowed into a vortex of hagiography? What is the responsibility of the intellectual in the face of an event such as the Rwandan genocide? What influence does religion have upon the contemporary intellectual’s work? Is migration one of the only paths available for African intellectuals, a number of whom have been critiquing their continent from within Europe?

This volume focuses on the intellectual’s engagement across literature, philosophy, journalism and cultural criticism. It contains studies of established writers and philosophers as well as new voices. An African writer and public intellectual describes her own experience in and out of Africa in one chapter; a Philosophy Professor discusses his intellectual trajectory in another. Overall, this timely volume, which includes analysis of the work of intellectuals from North, East, West and Central Africa, problematizes our current understandings of the intellectual legacy of Africa and opens up new avenues into this understudied area.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hogarth, Christopher

Edwards, Natalie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Romanische Literaturen Französische Literatur Postkoloniale Literaturen in Französisch, Französische Literatur außerhalb Europas
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Journalismus & Presse

Über Autor(innen)

Christopher Hogarth is Lecturer in French at the University of South Australia, where he specializes in African literature written in French and Italian.

Natalie Edwards is Lecturer in French at the University of Adelaide, where she specializes in French and Francophone women’s writing and autobiography.