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  3. China in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century African Literature
  • Cited by 22
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2023
Print publication year:
2023
Online ISBN:
9781009300315
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009300315
Subjects:
Literature, Area Studies, African Studies, African and Caribbean Literature, Literary Theory, European and World Literature: General Interest
Series:
Cambridge Studies in World Literature
Information

Book description

China in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century African Literature unpacks the long-standing complexity of exchanges between Africans and Chinese as far back as the Cold War and beyond. This scope encompasses how China, which emerged as a main engine of the world economy by the end of the twentieth century, has transformed patterns of globalization across the continent. In this ground-breaking work on cultural representations, Duncan M. Yoon examines the controversial symbol of China in African literature. He reads acclaimed authors like Kofi Awoonor, Henri Lopes, and Bessie Head, as well as contemporary writers, including Ufrieda Ho, Kwei Quartey, and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Each chapter focuses on a genre such as poetry, detective fiction, memoir, and the novel, drawing out themes like resource extraction, diaspora, gender, and race. Yoon demonstrates how African creative voices grapple with and make meaning out of the possibilities and limitations of globalization in an increasingly multipolar world.

Awards

Winner, 2025 First Book Award, African Literature Association

Reviews

‘Focusing on China's imaginaries in African literature, Yoon's new monograph powerfully recalibrates African literary criticism, postcolonial studies, and world literature. The resulting work is brilliantly argued and conceptually innovative. With his signal concept-alluvial form-Yoon compellingly demonstrates the value of the humanities and cultural forms for understanding and reimagining Africa-China relations. This book is delightful as it is impactful.'

Cajetan Iheka - Professor of English, Yale University

‘Duncan Yoon has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the relationship between Africa and China, arguing convincingly that literature ‘stands front and center’ in the mutual world-making of Africans and Chinese. Tightly organized sections give historical context for each literary text, making this book critical reading not only for humanists but for all those interested in African experiences and cultural expressions of Africa-China.’

Jamie Monson - Michigan State University

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