Books in the Cambridge Studies in African and Caribbean Literature series

Dominic Head discusses Nadine Gordimer's novels in the contexts of events and situations of the real world, and of Gordimer's own development as a writer. Her work is seen as a distinctive contribution to twentieth-century fiction, and to the creation of a literature that challenges apartheid.

This 1998 study, Dominic Head shows how Coetzee's work addresses some of the key issues of the twentieth century: the relationship between postmodernism and postcolonialism, the role of history in the novel, and how the author can combine a political consciousness with a commitment to the novel as fiction.

The novelist and poet Edouard Glissant has recently also emerged as a major theorist in Caribbean studies and post-colonial literature. In this first full-length study of his work J. Michael Dash examines Glissant's poems, novels, plays and essays in the context of the diverse nature of Caribbean cultural politics.

Fawzia Mustafa gives a critical overview of the major fictional and non-fictional works of V. S. Naipaul from 1950 to the present day. The main concern is with the literary, but historical, political, and cultural questions are also addressed with comparative references to other postcolonial works, writers and critics.

Aime Cesaire is arguably the best-known poet in the French Caribbean. Gregson Davis examines Cesaire's extraordinary dual career as writer and elected politician. Cesaire, the acknowledged inventor of the famous term 'negritude', has been a hugely influential figure in shaping the contemporary discourse on the postcolonial predicament.

Elaine Savory's study, first published in 1999, is a critical reading of Rhys's entire oeuvre and is informed by Rhys's own manuscripts. Designed both for the serious scholar and those unfamiliar with Rhys's writing, Savory offers a comprehensive account of this most complex and enigmatic of writers.

Simon Gikandi's study, first published in 2000, offers a comprehensive analysis of all the works of the influential Kenyan dramatist, novelist and critic, Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Gikandi provides fresh insight into the historical and cultural context of Ngugi's work, tracing his literary career through to his imprisonment and exile in the 1980s.

Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott is one of the Caribbean's most famous writers. His unique voice in poetry, drama and criticism is shaped by his position at the crossroads between Caribbean, British and American culture and by his interest in hybrid identities and diaspora. Edward Baugh's Derek Walcott analyses and evaluates Walcott's entire career over the last fifty years. Baugh guides the reader through the continuities and differences of theme and style in Walcott's poems and plays. Walcott is an avowedly Caribbean writer, acutely conscious of his culture and colonial heritage, but he has also made a lasting contribution to the way we read and value the western literary tradition. This comprehensive survey considers each of Walcott's published books, offering a guide for students, scholars and readers of Walcott. Students of Caribbean and postcolonial studies will find this a perfect introduction to this important writer.

Jeyifo examines the connections between the innovative and influential writings of Wole Soyinka and his radical political activism. Jeyifo carries out detailed analyses of Soyinka's most ambitious works, relating them to the controversies generated by Soyinka's use of literature and theatre for radical political purposes.