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 and can be checked out from the general stacks of Butler Library or 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.

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)
     
  • 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)
     
  • The Cambridge guide to African and Caribbean theatre. Edited by Martin Banham, Errol Hill, and George Woodyard. (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
     
  • 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 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)

  • 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)

  • 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)

  • 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. Edited by Simon Gikandi. (New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016])
    --See also: The Oxford history of the novel in English ; vol. 11.

  • Owomoyela, Oyekan. The Columbia guide to West African literature in English since 1945. (New York: Columbia University Press, c2008)

  • 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)

  • 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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  • The Chicago manual of style. 18th ed. E-book. (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024)

  • Columbia University: Citation Management Software (Zotero, EndNote, & Mendeley)

  • Hacker, Diana. The Bedford handbook. 5th ed. Boston : Bedford Books, c1998.
    --See also: 6th ed.

  • How to Cite Internet Resources
    (Columbia University Libraries--African Studies)

  • MLA handbook for writers of research papers. 8th edition. New York : The Modern Language Association of America, [2016]

  • Walker, Janice R. and Todd Taylor. The Columbia Guide to Online Style. (2006) E-book. New York: Columbia University Press.

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