An African popular literature : a study of Onitsha market pamphlets
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
An African popular literature : a study of Onitsha market pamphlets
Cambridge University Press, 1973
- : paper bound
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Note
Includes three pamphlets in facsimile: Our modern ladies character towards boys, by Highbred Maxwell; Elizabeth, my lover, by Okenwa Olisah; and What women are thinking about men, no. 1, by J.O. Nnadozie
Bibliography: p. [237]-244
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This 1973 text was the first detailed study of that phenomenon of the African literary scene, Onitsha market literature. Pen names and pamphlet titles adopted by Onitsha authors have often been the subject of amused comment, but it took a long time for Onitsha writing to be recognised for what it is: a genuinely popular literature, unique on Africa, written in English by Africans for an exclusively African audience. What are the origins of this literature? Why did it start in Onitsha? Why do certain themes recur? Where have the writer acquired their unconventional attitudes to love, marriage, sex? What influences have shaped the robust and unorthodox language they use? Dr Obiechina answers these questions and asks what we can learn from the Onitsha authors about social change in Nigeria - how do they attempt to reconcile the traditional rural community and the aggressive individualistic urban society with alien values?
Table of Contents
- Foreword Chinua Achebe
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Literature for the masses
- 3. Passport to the happy life
- 4. Romantic love: its sources for West Africa
- 5. Daughters and fathers
- 5. The love of love
- 7. The reign of Shakespeare: style
- 8. The newspaper and the cinema
- 9. Religion and morals
- 10. Conclusion
- Appendix
- A bibliography of the pamphlet literature
- Index.
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