Contemporary Literary Criticism | Special Commissioned Essay on Modern African Literature, Pauline Dodgson

CRITICAL RESPONSES TO AFRICAN LITERATURE

In the Francophone tradition, literary criticism of African literature developed with the rise of négritude. In 1947, the influential journal Présence africaine was founded in Paris by the Senegalese writer Alioune Diop who later founded a publishing house with the same name. The journal had an editorial board that included Sartre and other French writers, and among its supporters were Césaire and Senghor. Présence africaine sponsored the first Conference of Negro Writers and Artists in Paris in 1956.

In Anglophone Africa, the development of literary magazines was also influential in promoting both African creative writing and criticism. In 1957, Black Orpheus, which took its title from Sartre's preface to Senghor's 1948 poetry anthology, was founded in Nigeria by two German academics, Ulli Beier and Janheinz Jahn. The magazine's contents included creative writing in English by African,...

Contemporary Literary Criticism | Special Commissioned Essay on Modern African Literature, Pauline Dodgson - Critical Responses To African Literature

CRITICAL RESPONSES TO AFRICAN LITERATURE

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