An African Oral Storytelling Tradition

& the Zimbabwean Novel in English

Maurice T. Vambe

 

Synopsis

This study presents a break with previous literary criticism that has vilified orality, in an effort to understand the interface between orality and the black Zimbabwean novel. It traces the ways in which the African oral story-telling tradition has survived within the black Zimbabwean novel in English. The author critically analyses the works of eight leading Zimbabwean creative writers, revealing how they have used oral story-telling traditions in their literature.

Review

... as Vambe is an extraordinarily ingenious and complex thinker, his book takes the reader on an intellectual adventure trip with astounding turns and twists. - Flora Veit-Wild, Research in African Literatures

Author

Maurice T. Vambe is a Professor at the University of South Africa with a special interest in Diaspora and literary-historical study of representations of genocide in African literature.