READING POSTMODERN INFLECTIONS IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

One problem with contemporary African literary works is that they have become markedlyself-reflexive in the way they rewrite one another, drawing attention to their ownfunctionality and fictionality, thus inviting a new reading that departs from postcolonialphilosophy to reach out for postmodern aesthetics. The objective of this article is to explorehow contemporary critical positions in African literary studies mark off perceptible shiftsfrom issues of primal postcolonialism to a more self-reflexive treatment of postmodernismin contemporary aesthetics. The approach proposed here is a textual analysis sustained bypostmodern theory suggested by Sara Mills (2004). The results show how creative worksdepart from the tradition of “writing back” to the European colonial center by focusingtheir gaze on local forms of oppression that are seen to parallel classical colonialism. Yet,while critics have separately studied postmodernism and self-reflexivity in African texts,the intersection of the two has not been given sufficient attention.The hint of interest of thisanalytical paper then is to decipher postmodernist aesthetics noted in African literaryworks, novels and plays as developed to a higher level of self-consciousness. The specificquestion addressed is, to what extent postmodernism expresses itself as an outgrowth ofmodernism and postcolonialism?