Underdevelopment and African Literature
Emerging Forms of Reading

A study of the emergence of new forms of reading in English in African cities.

Sarah Brouillette (Author)

9781108713788, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 January 2021

82 pages
18 x 12.5 x 0.5 cm, 0.8 kg

'… a synthetic and comparative overview of reading cultures in English-speaking Africa in several countries from the 1970s onwards.' Raphael Thierry, Publishing Research Quarterly

People looking for works in cities are immersed in English as the lingua franca of the mobile phone and the urban hustle – more effective instigations to reading than decades of work by traditional publishers and development agencies. The legal publishing industry campaigns to convince people to scorn pirates and plagiarists as a criminal underclass, and to instead purchase copyrighted, barcoded works that have the look of legitimacy about them. They work with development industry officials to 'foster literacy' – meaning to grow the legal book trade as a contributor to national economic health, and police what and how the newly literate read. But harried cash-strapped audiences will read what and how they can, often outside of formal economies, and are increasingly turning to mobile phone platforms that sell texts at a fraction of the price of legally printed books.

1. Introduction
2. English as Immiseration
3. How Europe Underdeveloped African Literature
4. 'Nuance,' or: The Contemporary High-Literary Scene
5. To 'Nurse Ambition'
6. The Demotic Picaresque
7. Bildung and Picaresque
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literature: history & criticism [DS]