Copyright

Some Rights Reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any

part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,

or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

Funded by the Knowledge Unlatched Select 2025 collection, this title is available as an

Open Access ebook under the Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND

First published 2024

James Currey

James Currey is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK

www.jamescurrey.com

and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.

668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA

www.boydellandbrewer.com

ISBN 978-1-84701-391-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-80543-475-7 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-80543-476-4 (ePUB)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs

for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not

guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Previous Next

Details

ALT 42

Stable URL:https://openaccess.boydellandbrewercms.com/?id=-284795

Open Access license

Examines the state of African poetry today, the continuing influence of Africa's pioneer poets, today's new generation of poets, and their work in written poetry and in the spoken word, continuing oral indigenous traditions.

Almost half a century after ALT 6 and thirty-three years after ALT 16, what is the state of poetry and poetics in Africa? This volume of ALT highlights major developments and continuities in the practice of the art of poetry in the continent. Contributions analyse new frontiers in the traditional African epic and the Yoruba <I>oríkì</I> genre and innovations in form and theme, such as 'spoken word poetry' shared on digital media and pandemic poetry in the wake of COVID-19. They compare and contrast the work of Romeo Oriogun, Christopher Okigbo, and Gabriel Okara and of T.S. Eliot and Kofi Anyidoho. Other essays examine the complexities of translation from Ewe into English and the development of oral African poetry, underscoring its dynamism and the centrality of performance. The volume also includes interviews with poets Kofi Anyidoho, Kwame Dawes, and Kehinde Akano and tributes to Ama Ata Aidoo. Altogether, it highlights the richness and vibrancy of contemporary praxis and points to future directions in the field.

PublisherJames Currey

Print publication date Nov, 2024

Print ISBN 9781847013910

EISBN 9781805434764

Base text size -

Copyright

ALT 42

Chapter illustrations ()