Nigerian Literary Imagination and the Nationhood Project

Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Book
Praise for Nigerian Literary Imagination and the Nationhood Project
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
Chapter 1: The Nation as Fiction/Fictionalizing the Nation
	Introduction
Part I: Colonial Phase
	Chapter 2: Literature and the Colonized Nation
		Introduction
		Self Against the Other: Tutuola, Achebe, Soyinka, Others Against Colonialism
		The Fate of Women in the Literature of the Colonized
		Classics as Reflections of Nigerian Culture and a Counter-Discourse
		Post-Independence Literature
		Conclusion
	Chapter 3: Literary Founding Fathers and Ideas of Nationhood
		Introduction
		Nationhood and Nationalism
		Ethnic Nationality: The Threat to Nationhood
		The Quest for Nationhood in Chinua Achebe’s Works
		Violence in the Journey to Nationhood
		National Character in the Writings of Nigerian Literary Founding Fathers
		Conclusion
	Chapter 4: Women Writers and the (Post)colony: (Writing) the Colony in Nigerian Women’s Literature
		Introduction
		Women’s Writing: Its Origin, Definition, and Periodization in Nigeria
		Women Writers
		The First Generation of Women’s Writers in Nigeria
		The Representation of Postcolonial Nigeria in Women’s Writings
		Androcentricism in the (Post)colony: Writing as the “Other” in the Post (Colony)
		The (Post)colony as Slave to the Colonial Master: Suppressed and Castrated Male Figures
		The (Post)colony and the Colonialists’ Religion: Religious and Cultural Domination
		Rape as a Metaphor for the Possession and Colonization of the (Post)colony
		The Empire and the Colony: Power Relations Between the Nation and Nigerian Women
		The (Post)colony and Women’s Liberation Struggle
		The Marginalization of the (Post)colony and the Female Child
		Sexism and Gendered (Post)colony
		The (Post)colony and Class Consciousness
		In a Man’s World: Domination and Control of the Female Body in the Colony
		Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the (Post)colony
		The Dissonance with Colonial Nigeria and Marginalization of Women in Politics
		Living in a Hybrid Society: The Woman in the (Post)colony
		The Politics of Gender, Culture, and Colonialism in the (Post)colony
		Representation of the (Post)colony in Female Writers’ Thematic Preoccupation
		Spatio-temporal Setting as Symbolization of Suppressed (Post)colony
		Conclusion
Part II: Postcolonial Phase
	Chapter 5: Postcolonial Modernity and Literary Imagination
		Introduction
		Themes and Motifs
			The Empire Writes Back to the Center
			Morality and Utilitarianism
			Defense of African Culture
			Spiritualism
			Law and Justice
			African Orality
			The Empire Writes to Itself
			Literary Imagination and Postcolonial Modernity
		Conclusion
	Chapter 6: Contemporary Women Writers and the Imagining of Postcolonial Nigeria
		Introduction
		Literary Periods/Generations
		Contemporary Women Writers
		Military Regimes and Repression
		Religious Bigotry and Intolerance
		A Country of Corrupt and Profligate Leaders
		Sex and Sexual Liberty
		The Crude Oil Era and Its Impacts
		A State of Lawlessness and Criminality
		A Failed Nation and Alienated Citizens
		A Country of Terrorism
		Feminists and Women’s Activism
		The Civil War in Nigeria
		Infant Country in Search of Growth and Identity
		Social Realistic Portrayal of Nigeria
		Spatial and Temporal Settings
		Characterization as Metaphor
		Conclusion
	Chapter 7: Literature and Nigeria in the Digital Age
		Introduction
		Fan Fiction as a Digital Phenomenon in Nigeria
		Literature on the Go: Social Media and Literary Blogs
		Themes and Topical Issues in the Literature of Nigerian Digital Platforms
		Orality Reincarnated
		Emojis: Metaphors Redefining the Digital Age
		Conclusion
Part III: Concluding Thoughts
	Chapter 8: Shifts and Ambiguities: Unstable Literature or Unstable Nation?
		Introduction
Bibliography
Index