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

75 pages
18 x 12.5 x 0.5 cm, 0.8 kg

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]