Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Armah, Ayi Kwei (Vol. 136) - Leif Lorentzon （essay date 1994）

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Leif Lorentzon （essay date 1994）

SOURCE: “Story and Narrative in the Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah,” in Critical Theory of African Literature Today, Vol. 19, 1994, pp. 53-63.

[In the following essay, Lorentzon discusses the differences between narrative structures in Armah's novels.]

Readers of Ayi Kwei Armah's five novels invariably agree they are novels of great diversity. It is particularly between the first three and the last two where the change is most noticeable. One critic even goes so far as to talk about the early and the late Armah.¹ When other critics more acutely instead stress the homogeneity between the five novels, it is predominantly theme and imagery that is considered. Yet most readers would insist that the novels are remarkably dissimilar for a single author's works. I believe this largely has to do with a change of narrative strategy.

Narratology is the discipline with which we can study this...

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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