TANZANIAN ANGLOPHONE FICTION: A SURVEY
Abstract
Tanzanian Anglophone fiction is extant and bustling. The invisibility of Tanzanian fiction in English is not due to the country ' s inability to produce good- quality Anglophone novels but is related to the challenge in
accessing the texts both within and outside Tanzania. Studies about East African fiction tend to ignore the contribution of Tanzanian Anglophone writers in the region. In Tanzania people know more about other canonical African novelists than their very own Anglophone writers. This article explores the emergence and development of Tanzanian Anglophone fiction, paying particular attention to the emergence of Tanzanian
Anglophone literary canons and how these canons have inspired and continue to inspire the production of Tanzanian fiction. Starting with the novels produced by the inaugural Tanzanian Anglophone writers in the
sixties, and continuing with the most recent works, the paper examines the interface between Swahili and English, translation and self-translation, diasporic writers, universities ' and researchers ' contributions to the
definition of the canon and to the visibility of the fiction in general.
Key words: bilingual writers, literary canon, Diasporan African writers, hyper-canonization, selective canons, Swahili literature, Tanzanian Anglophone fiction
References
Achebe, C. 2000. Home and Exile. New York: Oxford University Press.
Anderson, B. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Arnold, S. 1986. Tanzania. In: European Language Writing in SubSaharan
Africa, (ed.) Albert Gerard. Budapest: Akademia Kiado,
pp. 949-960.
Arnold, S. 1980. Popular Literature in Tanzania: Its Background and Relation to East African Literature. Présence Africaine, Nouvelle Série 115 (3e Trimestre), pp. 156-177.
Eagleton, T. 1976. Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory. London: Verso.
Ede, A. 2013.The Global Literary Canon and Minor African
Literatures.Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Carleton.
Fowler, A. 1979. Genre and the Literary Canon. Literary History 11(1) Autumn: 97-119.
Gerard, A. 1981. Comparative Literature and African Literature. Pretoria: Via Africa Limited.
Gikandi, S. 1984. The Growth of the East African Novel. In: The Writing of East &Central Africa, (ed.) G.D. Killam. London: Heinemann, pp. 231-246.
Gikandi, S and Mwangi, E. 2007. The Columbia Guide to East African Literature in English since 1945. New York: Columbia University Press.
Gromov, M. 2015. Bilingual Literature of Tanzania as a Specific Interliterary Community. Journal of Language, Technology &
Entrepreneurship in Africa 6(1): 1-15.
Gromov, M. 2011. Across the Language Border: The Case of Bilingual Writers in Tanzania. In: Negotiating Afropolitanism: Essays on Borders and Spaces in Contemporary African Literature and Folklore, (eds.) J. Wawrizinek and Justus Makokha. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 283-287.
Gromov, M. 2008. Swahili Popular Literature in Recent Years. Swahili Forum 15: 5-13.
Kolbus, D.E. 2001.Critical Theory and the Literary Canon. Boulder:
Westview Press.
Lindfors, B. 1997. African Textualities: Texts, Pre-texts and Contexts of African Literature. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Lindfors, B. 1979. East African Popular Literature in English. Journal of Popular Culture 13: 106-115.
Liyong, T. 1993. On Translating the €•untranslated €–: Chapter 14 of €•Wer Pa Lawino €– by Okot p ' Bitek. Research in African Literatures
(3): 87-92.
Liyong, T. 1975. East Africa, O East Africa, I Lament thy Literary
Barrenness. Transition 50: 43.
Liyong, T. 1965. Can we Correct Literary Barrenness in East Africa? East Africa Journal 2(8): 5-13.
Mazrui, A. 1971. Cultural Engineering and Nation-Building in East
Africa. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Mbise I. 1984. Writing in English from Tanzania. In: The Writing of East and Central Africa, (ed.) G.D. Killam. London: Heinemann, pp. 55-69.
Mwaifuge, E.S. 2009. Ideology and the Creative: A Study of Tanzanian Prose Fiction in English. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Dar es Salaam.
Nichols, L. 1981. Conversation with African Writers: Interviews with Twenty-Six African Authors. Washington: Voice of America.
Ohly, R. 1990. The Zanzibar Challenge: Swahili Prose in the Years 19751981. Windhoek: African Studies of the Academy of Namibia.
Ping, D. 2015. Canon Formation in Literary Field: A Sociological
Perspective. International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences 3(8): 60-65.
Ruhumbika, G. 1992. The African-Language Policy of Development: African National Languages. Research in African Literatures 23(1): 73-82.
Senkoro, F.E.M.K. 1982. The Prostitute in African Literature. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.
Steiner, T. 2009. Translated People, Translated Texts: Language and Migration in Contemporary African Literature. Manchester: St
Jerome Publishing.
