Africa and Gutenberg: Exploring Oral Structures in the Modern African Novel

The present investigation attempts to throw light on the modern African novel in English (Tutuola, Achebe, Armah, Okara) as a synthesis of an oral sensibility with a literate form. It tries to analyse and interpret how the traditionally oral Africa - perhaps its orality even newly reinforced by the influence of the electronic media - carries on and integrates its heritage in a world shaped by the combined alphabetic and Gutenberg revolutions.