CALL FOR PAPERS

Research in African Literatures seeks submissions for a future special
issue on the third generation Nigerian novel. Third generation writing
in Nigeria – produced mostly by writers born after political
independence in 1960 – was dominated by poetry in the decade 1985-1995.
The current prominence of the third generation novel dates from about
2000 and is owing partly to the enthusiastic international reception of
works such as Helon Habila's Waiting for an Angel, Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, and Chris Abani's Graceland. Other writers
who have contributed to a renewed efflorescence of the novel in Nigeria
include Biyi Bandele, Ike Oguine, Okey Ndibe, Akin Adesokan, Seffi Atta,
Unoma Azuah, Chuma Nwokolo, Maik Nwosu, and Uzodinma Iweala. Some of
these have also made an inroad into the postcolonial curricular machine
of the North American academy. Although the most visible third
generation novelists are now based in Euro-America, a significant number
of writers based in Nigeria have also returned to the novel and the
corpus of domestically published works in the last five years is
significant.
Given these important developments, it has become necessary to engage
the phenomenon at this critical phase of its development with a view to
establishing preliminary theoretical grids for apprehending the
multifarious issues the novels raise. Contributions could be informed by
the following broad, but not necessarily exhaustive considerations:

*Historiography and the beginnings of a literary tradition: when is a
generation?

*Textual strategies: Themes, plot, characterization, etc.

*Postcoloniality, location, and canonization: diaspora, translocation,
exile, hybridity, and metissage. To what extent do these issues inform
the unfolding pattern the pattern of canonization?

*Representations of postcolonial urbanity and identity in the new
novels.

*Third generation fiction and the Academy: modalities of inclusion and
exclusion

*Distinctive strategies in women's writing.

Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2006.

Guest Editors

Pius Adesanmi, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Penn State
University.
e-mail: piusadesanmi_at_fastmail.fm

Chris Dunton, Professor of English and Dean, Faculty of the Humanities,
The National University of Lesotho.
e-mail: c.dunton_at_nul.ls
**********************************
**********************************
Pius Adesanmi, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature
The Pennsylvania State University
311 Burrowes Building
University Park, PA 16802
USA

814 863 4933 (office)

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Received on Mon Nov 21 2005 - 16:35:24 EST