Transgression in Swahili Narrative Fiction and Its Reception

"This book remarkably analyses the development of recent Swahili prose narrative. The main thesis is that since the 90s, Swahili literature has developed to go beyond aspects that had hitherto conditioned literature in African languages (local, popular and didactic) and has opened itself to global, sophisticated and subversive perspectives. Remi Tchokothe uses the leitmotif of transgression as the unifying thread to render an account of this evolution of the Swahili narrative fiction towards the disruption of narrative linearity, an increase in intertextual references, an awareness of globalisation in political analysis and a shift to magical realism. The finishing touch to the analysis is a meticulously conducted reception survey which highlights editorial ambiguities that go with the transgressive turn." -- Xavier Garnier, U. Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 (Series:Contributions to Research on Africa / Beitrage zur Afrikaforschung - Vol. 56)