Rethinking African Cultural Production

Frieda Ekotto, Kenneth W. Harrow, and an international group of scholars set forth new understandings of the conditions of contemporary African cultural production in this forward-looking volume. Arguing that it is impossible to understand African cultural productions without knowledge of the structures of production, distribution, and reception that surround them, the essays grapple with the shifting notion of what "African" means when many African authors and filmmakers no longer live or work in Africa. While the arts continue to flourish in Africa, addressing questions about marginalization, what is center and what periphery, what traditional or conservative, and what progressive or modern requires an expansive view ofcreative production.

Frieda Ekotto, Kenneth W. Harrow, and an international group of scholars set forth new understandings of the conditions of contemporary African cultural production in this forward-looking volume. Arguing that it is impossible to understand African cultural productions without knowledge of the structures of production, distribution, and reception that surround them, the essays grapple with the shifting notion of what "African" means when many African authors and filmmakers no longer live or work in Africa. While the arts continue to flourish in Africa, addressing questions about marginalization, what is center and what periphery, what traditional or conservative, and what progressive or modern requires an expansive view of creative production.

Introduction: Rethinking African Cultural Production Frieda Ekotto and Ken Harrow

1. The Critical Present: Where Is "African Literature"? Eileen Julien
2. African Writers Challenge Conventions of Postcolonial Literary History Olabode Ibironke
3. Provocations: African Societies and Theories of Creativity Moradewun Adejunmobi
4. In Praise of the Alphabet Patrice Nganang
5. African Cultural Studies: Of Travels, Accents, and Epistemologies Tejumola Olaniyan
6. Le Freak, C'est Critical and Chic: North African Scholars and the Conditions of Cultural Production in Post 9/11 U.S. Academia Lamia Benyoussef
7. Reading 'Beur' Film Production Otherwise: The Poetics of the Human and the Transcultural Safoi Babana-Hampton
8. Revealing the Past, Conceptualizing the Future on Screen: The Social, Political and Economic Challenges of Contemporary Filmmaking in Morocco Valérie K. Orlando
9. Theorizing New African Dramaturgies in France Mária Minich Brewer
10. Island Geography as Creole Biography: Shenaz Patel's Mauritian Literary Production
Magali Compan

List of Contributors
Index

Frieda Ekotto, Kenneth W. Harrow, and an international group of scholars set forth new understandings of the conditions of contemporary African cultural production in this forward-looking volume. Arguing that it is impossible to understand African cultural productions without knowledge of the structures of production, distribution, and reception that surround them, the essays grapple with the shifting notion of what "African" means when many African authors and filmmakers no longer live or work in Africa. While the arts continue to flourish in Africa, addressing questions about marginalization, what is center and what periphery, what traditional or conservative, and what progressive or modern requires an expansive view ofcreative production.