Distance between you and your home: the estrangement of postcolonial writing

Smith, A. (2005) Distance between you and your home: the estrangement of postcolonial writing. Sociological Review, 53(2), pp. 275-293.

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Abstract

This essay argues that the writing of postcolonial migrant authors has been critically deployed in such a way that it appears to vindicate a long standing romantic ideology of artistic detachment. In order to present an alternative account, the field of Nigerian anglophone fiction is examined here and the experiences of two aspiring authors offered as case-studies. It is argued that their experience, and the wider circumstances of Nigerian cultural production, demonstrate that postcolonial migrant writing is not an expression of 'aesthetic alienation', but of the estrangement that Marx recognised as a subjective consequence of capitalism

Item Type:Articles
Keywords:Oral Tradition, African, Nigeria
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Smith, Professor Andrew
Authors: Smith, A.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
Journal Name:Sociological Review
ISSN:0038-0261

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