Complicity and Responsibility in Contemporary African Writing: The Postcolony Revisited

This book explores how contemporary African fiction reflects on themes of responsibility and complicity during the postcolonial period, focusing on the novels of Ayi Kwei Armah, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nuruddin Farah, Michiel Heyns, and J. M. Coetzee. It examines how these texts represent uncomfortable experiences of being implicated in harm done to others and challenges Western amnesia concerning responsibility for historical and present-day violence in African countries. It proposes new reading habits based on an awareness of readerly complicity and responsibility.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive book delves into the rich tapestry of contemporary African fiction, exploring the profound ways in which it has reflected on themes of responsibility and complicity during the postcolonial era. Spanning the works of acclaimed authors such as Ayi Kwei Armah, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nuruddin Farah, Michiel Heyns, and J. M. Coetzee, the book contextualizes each writer's novels within their respective cultural and literary landscapes, seeking to uncover similarities and differences in their fictional approaches to individual complicity in politically unstable situations. Through a focused examination of these texts' representations of unsettling experiences of being implicated in harm done to others, the study aims to demonstrate that it is precisely during times of political crisis that questions of moral responsibility and implicatedness in compromised conduct become more pronounced. Moreover, the study challenges the longstanding western amnesia concerning responsibility for historical and present-day violence in African countries, juxtaposing this denial of responsibility with the western literary readership's consumption of narratives of African "suffering." Instead, it proposes a fresh perspective, one rooted in an awareness of readerly complicity and responsibility. Drawing upon insights from diverse fields of political philosophy and literary theory, this book holds immense appeal to scholars and researchers engaged in the study of African literature, postcolonial studies, and peace and conflict studies. Its profound insights and thought-provoking analysis will undoubtedly contribute to our understanding of the complex interplay between individual actions, societal dynamics, and the enduring legacies of colonialism in contemporary Africa.

Weight: 390g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367766658