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This essay collection addresses African writing ranging from transcriptions of ancient (Khoikhoi/San) folktales to some of the classic texts of the African English canon as well as more recent writing about urgent contemporary social and gender issues. As the title indicates, Annie Gagiano is fascinated by the way these texts engage with the forces that damage and threaten life and quality of life in various African contexts. She pays tribute by means of carefully argued analyses to the authors political courage and social concern and to their subtle delineations of African characters experiences. Central to her focus is the verbal artistry of these authors memorable and complex representations. Her collection as a whole insists on the philosophical and aesthetic importance of African texts of the kind discussed here to the global reading public as much as to the "real world" of their original contexts.

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Annie Gagiano has taught literature in the English Department of the University of Stellenbosch since 1970, where she is at present a professor emeritus and research associate. Her teaching has focused particularly on African and postcolonial literature, Shakespeare and poetry. Her numerous articles have appeared in academic journals and in edited collections of essays in South Africa, Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. Gagiano´s first book, Achebe, Head, Marechera: On Power and Change in Africa (2000), was published in the United States and Britain by Lynne Rienner. At a more popular level she writes the regular column, "The African Library" on classic and contemporary African texts for the electronic magazine LitNet.

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