Africa World Press
African diasporas; ancestors, migrations and borders.
Cancel (African and comparative literature, U. of California San Diego) and Woodhull (French and cultural studies, U. of California San Diego) focus on encouraging exploration of issues that are central in scholarship on literature and orature while examining new ways of conceiving the relationship between African cultures of the past and present. With contributors from the United States, Europe, and Africa, the book contains thematic sections on the reflections on diasporas, local African sensibilities reaching a global community, racial and intercultural dynamics in subject-formation and social relations, and rethinking religion and politics in Africa today. Portions of the book are published in French without English translation. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The spirit and the word; a theory of spirituality in Africana literary criticism.
Montgomery (English, Clark Atlanta U.) applies a method informed by the ideas and worldview of Ifá, an ancient African spiritual system, to delve deeper levels of meaning in the writing of African peoples. She argues that this Ifá Paradigm can create new sources of knowledge beyond the ken of experts on facts, and can permit African American and Caribbean literature to be read in an entirely new way. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
