The global literary canon and minor African literature

Pascale Casanova (World Republic of Letters 2004), invokes Pierre Bourdieu's concept of a metaphoric literary field (xii) to emphasise the literary world as a `material' and charged political domain where individual writers compete against each other and collectively embody the cultural dominance or subordination of individual countries within an international "literary space" (13). That modern literary space began its formation in 16th century Europe (11) and has since expanded to form a "world republic of letters.".;This dissertation examines the global "politics of literature" (Valery Labaurd qtd. in Republic of Letters 10) as it relates to the struggles of a "dominated" (83) African writing. I investigate global canon-formation as a function of African literature's marginalisation within a `powerful' Eurocentric global literary canon. I maintain that African writing is minor in global canonical terms even if it might appear more visible due to the prominence of African writers like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o or Ben Okri. I explore the minor status of modern African literature by investigating global literary validating mechanisms and canon-forming processes in relation to a newer corpus of Nigerian writing. I conclude that while Africa represents a "dominated literary space" (83) within the global canon, some contemporary African writers find unique ways to subvert the power dynamics at the centre and become consecrated.;My approach is interdisciplinary, encompassing book history and globalisation theory within the tensions of the postcolonial and the postmodern. Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch's approach to the reading of history and socio-cultural change emphasises "the role of media production technology, the impact of the printing industry, reading habits, editorial theory and practice, the socio-economic dynamics of publishing, and the survival of books in relation to change in social structure" (Ibironke African Writers and Heinemann Michigan State U: PhD Thesis 2008: 3). An analysis of metropolitan reading practices, local and international editorial processes and global market dynamics will provide answers to the question contained in my initial proposition: why is modern African literature in the global margins?...