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Concentrating on issues of power and change, Annie Gagiano's close reading of literary texts by Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, and Dambudzo Marechera teases out each author's view of how colonialism affected Africa, the contribution of Africans to their own malaise, and above all, the creative, progressive, pragmatic role of many Africans during the colonial and postcolonial periods. Gagiano contends that Achebe, Head, and Marechera plays an important part in the necessary reconceptualization by Africans of themselves and their place in the global system. Treating both the consummate verbal art of these writers and their social relevance, she reveals them to be penetrating analysts who convey lucid, convincing evaluations of the failures and prospects of contemporary African societies.

LITERARY CRITICISM / African.

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In The Postcolonial African Genocide Novel, Chigbo Anyaduba examines fictional responses to mass atrocities occurring in postcolonial Africa. Through a comparative reading of novels responding to the genocides of the Igbo in Nigeria (1966-1970) and the Tutsi in Rwanda (1990-1994), the book underscores the ways that literary encounters with genocides in Africa's postcolonies have attempted to reimagine the conditions giving rise to exterminatory forms of mass violence. The book concretizes and troubles one of the apparent truisms of genocide studies, especially in the context of imaginative literature: that the reality of genocide more often than not resists meaningfulness. Particularly given the centrality of this truism to artistic responses to the Holocaust and to genocides more generally, Anyaduba tracks the astonishing range of meanings drawn by writers at a series of (temporal, spatial, historical, cultural and other) removes from the realities of genocide in Africa's postcolonies, a set of meanings that are often highly‐specific and irreducible to maxims or foundational cases. The book shows that in the artistic projects to construct meanings against genocide's nihilism writers of African genocides deploy tropes that while significantly oriented to African concerns are equally shaped by the representational conventions and practices associated with the legacies of the Holocaust.

History / Modern / 20th Century --- Literary Criticism / African --- Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century --- Literature --- History and criticism

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"Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia presents fresh and engaging translations of works that were composed or edited by female scribes and elite women of the ancient Near East. These texts provide insight into the social status, struggles, and achievements of women during the earliest periods of recorded human history (c.2300-540 BCE). In three introductory chapters and a concluding chapter, Charles Halton and Saana Svärd provide an overview of the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia and examine gender by analyzing these different kinds of texts. The translations cover a range of genres, including hymns, poems, prayers, letters, inscriptions, and oracles. Each text is accompanied by a short introduction that situates the composition within its ancient environment and explores what it reveals about the lives of women within the ancient world. This anthology will serve as an essential reference book for scholars and students of ancient history, gender studies, and world literature"-- "These texts provide insight into the social status, struggles, and achievements of women during the earliest periods of recorded human history (ca. 2300 - 540 BCE). In three introductory chapters and a concluding chapter, Charles Halton and Saana Svard provide an overview of the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia and examine gender by analyzing these different kinds of texts. The translations cover a range of genres, including hymns, poems, prayers, letters, inscriptions, and oracles"--

LITERARY CRITICISM / African. --- Assyro-Babylonian literature --- Civilization, Ancient. --- HISTORY / Ancient / General. --- Women authors. --- Iraq --- Civilization --- Ancient civilization --- Akkadian literature --- Babylonian literature

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In The Postcolonial African Genocide Novel, Chigbo Anyaduba examines fictional responses to mass atrocities occurring in postcolonial Africa. Through a comparative reading of novels responding to the genocides of the Igbo in Nigeria (1966-1970) and the Tutsi in Rwanda (1990-1994), the book underscores the ways that literary encounters with genocides in Africa's postcolonies have attempted to reimagine the conditions giving rise to exterminatory forms of mass violence. The book concretizes and troubles one of the apparent truisms of genocide studies, especially in the context of imaginative literature: that the reality of genocide more often than not resists meaningfulness. Particularly given the centrality of this truism to artistic responses to the Holocaust and to genocides more generally, Anyaduba tracks the astonishing range of meanings drawn by writers at a series of (temporal, spatial, historical, cultural and other) removes from the realities of genocide in Africa's postcolonies, a set of meanings that are often highly‐specific and irreducible to maxims or foundational cases. The book shows that in the artistic projects to construct meanings against genocide's nihilism writers of African genocides deploy tropes that while significantly oriented to African concerns are equally shaped by the representational conventions and practices associated with the legacies of the Holocaust.

History / Modern / 20th Century --- Literary Criticism / African --- Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century --- Literature --- History and criticism --- Appraisal of books --- Books --- Evaluation of literature --- Criticism --- Literary style --- Appraisal --- Evaluation

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In this approachable and articulate study, Philip C. Schmitz offers close interpretations of six ancient texts, four previously published Phoenician and Punic inscriptions and two Phoenician inscriptions published for the first time. The author selected the previously known texts because readings of their letters and interpretation of their grammar and syntax are not yet well established. Each of the selected texts stands as an original source concerning Phoenician settlement in the western Mediterranean, Phoenician activity in Egypt, or the economic life and religious beliefs and practices of ancient Carthage.Chapter 1 rapidly surveys the history of Phoenician-Punic epigraphy and offers a limited inventory of recent publications of epigraphic texts. Chapter 2 undertakes a new reading and translation of the Phoenician stele from Nora, Sardinia (CIS I 144). Chapter 3 edits and translates the larger Phoenician inscriptions from Abu Simbel, in Egypt (CIS I 112). Chapter 4 concerns the paleographic analysis of selected Phoenician graffiti from Tell el-Maskhuta. Chapter 5 publishes an overlooked dipinto inscription on an amphora excavated at Carthage. (An appendix by Joann Freed contextualizes the amphora.) Chapter 6 takes a text-critical look at CIS I 6068, an enigmatic Punic inscription on lead, thought since its discovery to be a curse text. Schmitz argues that it is not a curse but a quittance for debt. Chapter 7 is a new reading and translation of CIS I 6000bis, a Punic epitaph from the Hellenistic period of Carthage.Among the features of this book that may interest students and scholars are: new translations and interpretations of important inscriptions the translation and interpretation of which have been disputed; previously unpublished photographs of inscriptions, illustrating difficult readings; author's hand drawings of difficult readings; and grammatical analysis with reference to other known texts and standard reference works.

Inscriptions, Phoenician. --- Inscriptions, Punic. --- Phoenicians --- Civilization, Phoenician --- Phenicians --- Ethnology --- Semites --- Inscriptions, Phoenician --- Inscriptions, Phenician --- Phoenician inscriptions --- Inscriptions, Punic --- Mediterranean Region --- Phoenicians. --- LITERARY CRITICISM / African. --- Mediterranean Region. --- Circum-Mediterranean countries --- Mediterranean Area --- Mediterranean countries --- Mediterranean Sea Region