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Palgrave Macmillan

Re-Reading Tragic Africa

Development, Neoliberalism and Contemporary Fiction

  • Book
  • Jul 2024

Overview

Authors:
  1. Amy Rushton

    1. School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

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  • Marks a substantial advance in understanding tragedy and development in African fiction
  • Explores how world-systemic analysis speaks to literary approaches that prioritise historical and cultural specificity
  • Offers close readings of three widely discussed novels across postcolonial studies and African literary scholarship

Part of the book series: New Comparisons in World Literature (NCWL)

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Keywords

  • Novel
  • Literature and Postcolonial Studies
  • Global literature
  • World-literary framework
  • Geopolitical
  • Globalisation
  • Tragedy
  • Democracy
  • Decolonial studies
  • Development
  • Conflict
  • Narrative authenticity

About this book

Grounded in world-systemic analysis, this book revisits the literary and social implications of ‘tragedy’ in relation to global narratives about Africa and within fiction by writers from the continent. It argues that working through the full complexity of ‘tragedy’ helps to identify and challenge plots that depict Africa as reaching a tragic impasse. Instead, reconsidering tragedy allows for further, related interventions including the implications of narratives of development, the argument for formally engaging with literary texts that present challenging material, reformulations of African political and cultural agency, and the possibilities to be found in utopian thinking. It claims that contemporary fiction helps to scrutinise the familiar big picture of Africa and create space for discussions about wider political and historical commonalities between the continent and the rest of the world. As such, the novels discussed in this study are not simply ‘about’ Africa: these fictionalnarratives position Africa as a central actor within the global history of late capitalism. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Amy Rushton

About the author

Amy Rushton is Senior Lecturer in English at Nottingham Trent University, UK. They have over a decade of teaching experience and have published numerous articles on African literature, neoliberalism, and contemporary cultural representations of mental distress. Amy is currently Chair of the Board for the National Survivor User Network (NSUN).



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Re-Reading Tragic Africa

  • Book Subtitle: Development, Neoliberalism and Contemporary Fiction

  • Authors: Amy Rushton

  • Series Title: New Comparisons in World Literature

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-50954-4Due: 16 July 2024

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-50957-5Due: 16 July 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-50955-1Due: 16 July 2024

  • Series ISSN: 2634-6095

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-6109

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IV, 232

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