Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Armah, Ayi Kwei (Vol. 136) - Edward Sackey （essay date Autumn 1991）

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Edward Sackey （essay date Autumn 1991）

SOURCE: “Oral Tradition and the African Novel,” in Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3, Autumn, 1991, pp. 389-407.

[In the following essay, Sackey analyzes the innovative use of traditional African oral poetics in the structure, theme, and style of novels by Armah, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Ama Ata Aidoo, and Kofi Awoonor.]

In the growth and development of modern African literature, African traditional oral poetics is playing a very significant role. This is seen in modern African poetry, modern African drama, and the modern African novel. Indeed, it is at the center of the on-going experiments and innovations in modern African literature. The African writer has found in the sources of the African oral heritage a new enrichment, a new revitalization of contemporary African writing. Now African oral literature invites communal participation so that I do not see anything intriguing about its...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. S. Nyamfukudza （review date 7 March 1980）
   2. Kofi Owusu （essay date Spring 1988）
   3. Ahmed Saber （essay date 1989）
   4. Taban lo Liyong （essay date 1991）
   5. Derek Wright （essay date 1991）
   6. Edward Sackey （essay date Autumn 1991）
   7. Adewale Maja-Pearce （essay date 1993）
   8. Ode S. Ogede （essay date April 1993）
   9. B. M. Ibitokun （essay date Spring/Fall 1993）
   10. Leif Lorentzon （essay date 1994）
   11. K. Damodar Rao （essay date July 1994）
   12. Chinyere Nwahunanya （essay date 1995）
   13. Paul R. Petrie （essay date Summer 1997）
   14. Samuel A. Dseagu （essay date 1998）
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. African Literature