It shall be of jasper and coral : a song-novel
Werewere-Liking Gnepo
Bok Engelsk 2000
| Annen tittel | |
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| Medvirkende | Jager, Marjolijn De (oversetter)
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| Utgitt | University of Virginia Press , 2000
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| Omfang | 288 s.
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| Opplysninger | The West African writer, painter, playwright, and director Werewere Liking is considered one of the best literary interpreters of the postcolonial condition in Africa. At once dramatic, lyrical, satirical, and epistolary, "It Shall Be of Jasper and Coral (Journal of a Misovire)," subtitled "A Song-Novel," introduces the "misovire"--literally defined as a man-hater but seen by Liking as the figure of a time when gender differentiation will be irrelevant to discovering the fullness of what it means to be human. The misovire recounts the story of the inhabitants of Luna, a squalid fictional village in Africa. The novel's action occurs on two levels, as the misovire contemplates writing a journal, and through that heralds the creation of a new race. Instead of holding the daily entries of a conventional diary, this journal is to be composed of nine "pages," each dedicated to a specific theme, from creativity and art criticism to friendship and the importance of raising children to be balanced human beings. The misovire's musings, interspersed with the dialogue of two comical characters named Babou and Grozi, bring together a powerful polyphony of modern Africa. While bitterly critical, it ends on a hopeful note, as the misovire prophesies the birth from the sea of a new African who "shall be made of jasper and coral." In addition to illustrating the formal innovations for which Liking is increasingly known and celebrated in Africa and the francophone world, the novel establish a discourse with icons of African literature such as L opold S dar Senghor and Cheikh H. Kane, debunking many myths about the continent that produced them. With Liking's refreshingly iconoclastic writing driving their message, "It Shall Be of Jasper and Coral" introduces a fascinating African literary voice to the English-speaking world.
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| ISBN | 9780813919430(h.) : Nkr 219.00
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