James Olney demonstrates that autobiography, because it provides the most direct narrative enactments of the ways, motives, and beliefs of a culture, is an excellent way to approach African literature. After a general discussion of the African ethos, each chapter takes up the "autobiographical" literature of a specific group in African society and treats it as both an expression of a personal vision and as a revelation of a permeating social reality.
Originally published in 1974.
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