CAMLIT · PERPETUATING CAMEROON ANGLOPHONE LITERATURE: A CRITICAL READING OF SELECTED WORKS

PERPETUATING CAMEROON ANGLOPHONE LITERATURE: A CRITICAL READING OF SELECTED WORKS

In addition to seven published articles plus three further, forthcoming articles and interviews, Dr. Charles Teke completed the manuscript of a monograph. Examining some eighteen Cameroon Anglophone writers from interdisciplinary critical perspectives, this study is original and innovative. It presents a literary tradition which has not gained deserving international attention, and is therefore ground-breaking. Its relevance in the European Union is very evident. It has met all its objectives with regard to the work packages (WP1 - WP4) and various tasks under each work package. The manuscript is ready for publication as a monograph, as the best means of disseminating Cameroon Anglophone writing in the international literary and cultural community. The study substantially demonstrates that Cameroon Anglophone literature is a postcolonial literature which contributes enormously to contemporary questions of cultural nationalism and global interconnectivities, dynamics of political power, representations of gender complexities, and articulations of existentialist positions. The structure of the work is as follows. The study comprises an introduction, five chapters and a conclusion. The introduction is an impressive effort at a review of research, at charting the field, and at introducing a valid new approach to a wider selection of texts. With regard to critical paradigms, various approaches to postcolonial literary criticism have been noted, which revolve around historiography, culture and transculturality, poststructuralism/deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, philosophy and language. In line with this conviction the theoretical framework of the present study is guided by the different critical concerns of the works analysed. Current critical discourses characterise the way theory would be handled, unless in cases where received and unchallenged concepts are imperative for use. It is worthwhile to note that the study has been structured in such a way that the reader does not necessarily need to follow a chronological order of discourse regarding the different sections. Apart from the detailed introduction the reader can begin with any part of their choice. The unity of the work is not disrupted because its entity consists of several trajectories of construing and critically analysing Cameroon Anglophone literature. The analyses are as follows: LMU has the most equipped library of texts on Cameroon Anglophone Literature, including primary texts and critical material. Its interdisciplinary project on Cameroon English Language and Literature is ambitious and inviting to any scholar interested in the field. My expertise in the field has boosted interest in the literature. The University, which is Germany’s best, provides excellent working and research conditions. It promotes excellence and encourages expansion into new avenues for research to both national and international scholars. CAMLIT has played a significant role in this light LMU is very conscious of its contribution to the goals of the European Union regarding mutual exchanges in higher education and international academic/cultural synergies. CAMLIT clearly exemplifies this perspective.

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