State of the Field African Literary Studies

Abstract

This article considers the history and current status of African literary studies in the anglophone academy, especially in the United States. While African literary production has been valorized and validated in recent years, African literary studies lacks the recognition it deserves.  In the US, African literary studies has always struggled to gain a foothold, tending to be marginalized within the marginalized. In African/Africana studies programs, literary studies can play second fiddle to political science, anthropology, history, and environmental studies. In language/literature departments, African literature courses—if taught at all—are likely to be infrequently offered electives. Outside of the big Title VI universities, the chances of finding an African literature specialist are slim—and those specialists are likely to be expected to teach a range of more general courses such as introductory surveys and upper-level courses in “rest-of-the-world”/postcolonial/Global South literature.  African literary specialists have frequently expressed suspicion of the generalizing tendencies of literary theories, including postcolonial theory. Questions about the validity and applicability of postcolonial theory in the study of African literature still persist, but for grad students starting PhD programs since the mid 2000s what has dominated their experience has been the explosion not only of new primary texts and forms and modes of circulation, but the proliferation of ways of reading. Moving well beyond concerns with authenticity, tradition and modernity, language questions, questions about formalist or political approaches, contemporary scholars and their students are offering radically new kinds of readings, offering hope that the same kind of prominence enjoyed by Africa’s creative writers in recent years may yet be enjoyed by African literary scholars.