Trauma and Transformation in African Literature

This book interrogates the relevance of trauma for African literatures, arguing that a thoughtful application of trauma theory in relation to African literatures is in fact a productive exercise.

J. Roger Kurtz is professor of English and head of the Department of English and Philosophy at Drexel University in Philadelphia PA. His research interests center on East African literatures and cultures, and he is the author Literature and Trauma (Cambridge University Press), Song of Nyarloka: The Writing of Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye (Mvule Africa Publishers), and Urban Obsessions, Urban Fears: The Postcolonial Kenyan Novel (James Currey Press).

Preface Introduction: Trauma Theory, Going Global Part I - Trauma and African Literature Chapter 1: Trauma, the Thorn in the Spirit Chapter 2: Conceptual Problems in Trauma Chapter 3: Traumatomimesis and the Moral Imagination Chapter 4: Trauma and the African Moral Imagination Part II - Case Studies Chapter 5: A State of Perpetual Emergency: Ngugi wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat Chapter 6: Trauma Tropes in a Nigerian Context: Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus Chapter 7: The Trauma of Failure: The State and the Individual in Nuruddin Farah's Crossbones Bibliography