The Novel in Africa: Home
Introduction
This research guide contains citations for print and electronic resources available at Columbia University in support of a Spring 2025 course on "The Novel in Africa". The focus of this bibliographic guide is African literature in English.
With a few exceptions, all books listed here are located on campus: some can be checked out from the general stacks of Butler Library, a "Scan" requested, or others may be consulted in the African Studies Reading Room, 607 Butler Library.
For a more global perspective, see also: African Diaspora & African Literatures guide to resources at Columbia.
- The novels featured in the Spring 2025 course at Columbia include:
Chris Abani, GraceLand . (Nigeria, 2004)
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart . (Nigeria, 1996)
-- See also: E-text (1962)
-- See other editions: 2009 Norton ed. ; 2001 ; 1994 ; 1992 ; 1983 ; 1959Ama Ata Aidoo. Out Sister Killjoy, or, Reflections from a black-eyed squint. (New York, 1979)
--See also: London, 1977 ; 2000Ayi Kwei Armah. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. (Ghana, 1988)
--See also: 1968 ed.J. M. Coetzee. Disgrace. (South Africa, 1999, 2000)
--See also: 2000 ed.Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions . (Zimbabwe, 1988, 2001)
-- See other editions: 1989 ; 2004Cyprian Ekwensi, People of the City. (Nigeria, 1968)
-- See also: 1963 ed.
-- See also: E-text (1963)Nuruddin Farah. Gifts. (London, 1992)
--See also: 1993 ; 2000Nadine Gordimer. July's People. (South Africa, 1981)
-- See also: E-book
--Plus: 1982 ed.A. C. Jordan. The wrath of the ancestors. (South Africa, 1980) English translation from the Xhosa: Ingqumbo yeminyanya.
--See also: 2004 ed.Zakes Mda. Ways of dying. (South Africa, 1995, 2002)
--See also: 1995 ed.Phaswane Mpe. Welcome to our Hillbrow : a novel of postapartheid South Africa. (South Africa, 2001, 2011)
--See also: 2001 ed.Es'kia Mphahlele. Down Second Avenue. (South Africa, 1959, 1984)
--See also: 1971 ed.Thomas Mofolo, Chaka. (Lesotho, 1931 translation,1981)
Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon. (USA, 2015)
--See other editions: 2014 ; 2016
--See also: E-book (2015)Alan Paton. Cry, the beloved country. (South Africa, 1948, 2003)
--See also: 1948 ; 1967Sol. T. Plaatje. Mhudi. (South Africa, 1930, 1975)
--See also other editions: 1970 ; 1978
--Plus: E-book (1930 ed.)Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Matigari. (Kenya, 1990)
-- See other editions: 1987, 1989 ; 1998Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town. (Nigeria, 1953)
-- See other editions: 1952 (copy 1) ; 1952 (copy 2) ; 1961 (Butler Reserves) ; 1961 ; 1970 (Barnard) ; 1984Yvonne Vera, Without a Name. (Zimbabwe, 1994)
-- See other editions: 1995 ; 2002 (with Under the Tongue )
-- See also: E-text (1994)
Reference: Bibliographies, Critical Essays, Encyclopedias, & Handbooks
- African literature: an anthology of criticism and theory. Edited by Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson. (Malden, MA ; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2007)
- African writers. 2 vols. Edited by C. Brian Cox. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, c1997)
--See also: E-book
- Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African-American experience. 5 vols. Edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005)
See also at Columbia: Oxford African American studies center
- Booker, M. Keith. The African novel in English : an introduction. (Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann ; Oxford : James Currey, 1998)
- Amuta, Chidi. The theory of African literature : implications for practical criticism. (London ; Atlantic Highlands, N.J., USA : Zed Books, 1989)
-- See also: 2017 reprint
- The Cambridge companion to the African novel. Edited by F. Abiola Irele. (Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009)
--See also: E-book
- The Cambridge history of African and Caribbean literature. Edited by F. Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi. 2 vols. (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
-- See also at Columbia: Cambridge Histories (Online) - The Cambridge history of South African literature. Edited by David Attwell and Derek Attridge. (Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012)
--See also: E-book - A companion to African literatures. E-book. Ed. by Olakunle George. Hoboken, NJ : Wiley-Blackwell, [2020]
- The companion to African literatures. Edited by Douglas Killam, Ruth Rowe. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000)
- A companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Edited by Ernest N. Emenyonu. (Woodbridge, Suffolk : James Currey, an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2017)
- Dictionary of African biography. 6 vols. Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors in chief. (Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2012)
- Dictionnaire des oeuvres littéraires négro-africaines de langue française des origines à 1978. Sous la direction d'Ambroise Kom. (Sherbrooke, Quebec: Naaman, 1983)
- Dictionnaire des oeuvres littéraires de langue française en Afrique au sud du Sahara, v. 2. [par Ambroise Kom ; de 1979 à 1989.] (San Francisco: International Scholars Publications, 1996)
- Encyclopedia of African literature. Edited by Simon Gikandi. (London; New York: Routledge, 2003)
--See also: E-book - Essays in African writing.. 2 vols. Edited by Abdulrazak Gurnah. (Oxford, England ; Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, 1993-)
--See also: 2nd copy in African Studies Reading Room, 607 Butler - Essays in honor of Bernth Lindfors. 2 vols. Edited by Toyin Falola & Barbara Harlow. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, c2002)
[V. 1. Palavers of African literature ; v. 2. African writers and their readers.]
- Gikandi, Simon and Evan Mwangi. The Columbia guide to East African literature in English since 1945. (New York: Columbia University Press, c2007)
--See also: E-book - Heywood, Christopher. A history of South African literature. (Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004)
--See also: E-book - Kesteloot, Lilyan. Black writers in French: a literary history of negritude. Translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy. (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1991)
- Kesteloot, Lilyan. Histoire de la littérature négro-africaine. (Paris: Karthala, c2001)
- Killam, Douglas and Alicia L. Kerfoot. Student encyclopedia of African literature. E-book. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, c2008.
- Limb, Peter and Jean-Marie Volet. Bibliography of African literatures. (Lanham, M.D.: Scarecrow Press, c1996)
- Lindfors, Bernth. Black African literature in English: a guide to information sources. (Detroit: Gale Research Co.; New York: Africana Pub. Co., ; London ; Oxford: Hans Zell, c1979-2003)
-- See Supplements: 1977-1981 ; 1982-1986 ; 1987-1991 ; 1992-1996 ; 1997-1999. - Moser, Gerald M. and Manuel Ferreira. A new bibliography of the lusophone literatures of Africa = nova bibliografia das literaturas africanas de expressão portuguesa. 2nd completely rev. and exp. ed. (London ; New York : H. Zell Publishers, 1993)
- Moudileno, Lydie. Littératures africaines francophones des années 1980 et 1990. (Dakar, Senegal : Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique (CODESRIA), c2003)
-- See also: E-book - Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ. The rise of the African novel : politics of language, identity, and ownership. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2018]
--See also: E-book - New novels in African literature today : a review. African literature today ; no. 27. Edited by Ernest N. Emenyonu ... [et al.] (Ibadan, Nigeria : HEBN ; Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY : James Currey, 2010)
- The novel in Africa. African literature today ; no. 5. Edited by Eldred Durosimi Jones. (London : Heinemann ; New York : African Publishing Corp., 1971)
- The novel in Africa and the Caribbean since 1950. Oxford history of the novel in English ; vol. 11. Edited by Simon Gikandi. (New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016])
--See also: Oxford history of the novel in English - Owomoyela, Oyekan. The Columbia guide to West African literature in English since 1945. (New York: Columbia University Press, c2008)
- Postcolonial African writers : a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Edited by Pushpa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima Jagne. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998)
--See also: E-book - The post-colonial literature of Lusophone Africa. Compiled by Patrick Chabal with Moema Parente Augel...[et al]. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press; London: Hurst & Company, 1996)
- Recent trends in the novel : a review. African literature today ; no. 13. Edited by Eldred Durosimi Jones, with Eustace Palmer. (London : Heinemann ; New York : Africana, 1983)
- Ricard, Alain. The languages & literatures of Africa: the sands of Babel. Translated from the French by Naomi Morgan. (Oxford [England]: James Currey; Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004)
- Roscoe, Adrian A. The Columbia guide to Central African literature in English since 1945. (New York: Columbia University Press, c2008)
--See also: E-book - Routledge handbook of African literature. Edited by Moradewun Adejunmobi and Carli Coetzee. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019.
See also at Columbia: E-book - Teaching the African novel. Edited by Gaurav Desai. (New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2009)
- Twentieth-century Caribbean and Black African writers. First series. Edited by Reinhard Sander and Bernth Lindfors. Dictionary of literary biography, v. 117. (Detroit, Michigan: 1992)
See also at Columbia: Dictionary of literary biography - Twentieth-century Caribbean and Black African writers. Second series. Edited by Bernth Lindfors and Reinhard Sander. Dictionary of literary biography, v. 125. (Detroit, Michigan: 1993)
See also at Columbia: Dictionary of literary biography - Twentieth-century Caribbean and Black African writers. Third series. Edited by Bernth Lindfors and Reinhard Sander. Dictionary of literary biography, v. 157. (Detroit, Michigan: c1996)
See also at Columbia: Dictionary of literary biography - Zell, Hans M. Publishing, books & reading in Sub-Saharan Africa : a critical bibliography. 3rd ed. (Lochcarron : H. Zell Pub., 2008)
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--See also: 6th ed.
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