This volume is based on essays presented at the international conference on D.O. Fa?gu?nwa? held in Akure, Nigeria, in August 2013. It situates Fa?gu?nwa?'s work in broad intellectual and disciplinary contexts, viewing literary creation as both a distillation of a variety of disciplines and an ongoing conversation with them. Born 1903 in Òkè-Igbó, Ondo State, to Christian convert parents, Fa?gu?nwa? is universally recognised as one of the most well-known figures in the pioneering generation of African writers, although he did not write extensively in any of the African Europhonic languages employed by other famous writers. A visionary author and intellectual, Fa?gu?nwa? was concerned with making a ‘special contribution to the literary history of the world’.
‘Taken together, the essays collected in this book create a veritable interdisciplinary scholarly discourse on the works of (Fa?gu?nwa?), an important pioneer of printed literature in the Yoruba language. I greatly enjoyed reading…this book!’
–Rita Nnodim, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
‘This volume of essays, written by seventeen foremost Africanist scholars (will)…be attractive nationally and internationally to teachers and students of African literature, African-language literature, translation, and creative writing. The language of the writing is consistently available to the general public, and suitable for scholarly interrogations. The contributors maintain a recurrent pattern of presentation, enabling a fluid movement from chapter to chapter, thus demonstrating an editorial integrity that gives a holistic dimension to the work.’
–AkintundeAkinyemi, University of Florida.
