Disobeying Monoversal Literary Canonism: Africanizing Global Literature and Globalizing African Literature

Abstract

Abstract: Drawing examples from pioneering, established, and emerging African writers’ works, this article advocates an enrichment of global literature through Western and African writers’ and critics’ acknowledgement and celebration of the existence of a plurality of literary canons. It limns the Africanization of global literature and the globalization of African literature by arguing that African literature has unduly suffered from biased comparisons and subsequent denigrations by Western critics, who often uncritically dub Western literature the canon that needs to be sheepishly emulated by African writers who wish to enjoy global or universal acclaim. The article concludes that both global and African literatures would be enormously fecundated if their writers and critics were to acknowledge the existence of regional canons and masterpieces, thereby encouraging literary communities to nurture and celebrate their own canons and masterpieces, alongside the canons and masterpieces of other societies, in a spirit of creative complementarity.