|
African Writers Series (AWS) is a series of books by African writers that has been published by Heinemann since 1962. The series has ensured an international voice to major African writers—including Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, Buchi Emecheta, and Okot p'Bitek. The emphasis is on Anglophone Africa, although a number of volumes were translated into English from French, Portuguese, Zulu, Swahili, Acoli, Sesotho, Afrikaans, Luganda and Arabic.〔("Heinemann African Writers Series" ) at African Studies Centre, Leiden.〕 ==History== Founded in 1962, the AWS created a forum for many post-independence African writers, and provided texts that African universities could use to address the colonial bias then prominent in the teaching of literature. The books were designed for classroom use, printed solely in paperback to make them affordable for African students. They were published by Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) in London and in various African cities. The idea of the series came from Heinemann executive Alan Hill, who "recognised that the nascent post-colonial publishing industry was not supporting the growth of original African literature".〔Akin Ajayi, ("Books Blog: Penguin's African Writers Series is stuck in the past" ), ''The Guardian'', 17 February 2010.〕 The first advisory editor to the series was the Nigerian Chinua Achebe – who became one of Africa's most famous writers. Achebe focused first on West African writers, but soon the series branched out, publishing the works of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in East Africa, and Nadine Gordimer in South Africa. Achebe left the editorship in 1972. James Currey, the editorial director at Heinemann Educational Books in charge of the African Writers Series from 1967 to 1984, has provided a book-length treatment of the series entitled ''Africa Writes Back''.〔Joseph L. Mbele, ("Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series & the Launch of African Literature (review)" ), from ''Comparative Literature Studies'', Vol. 46, No. 2, 2009, pp. 425-428. Excerpted at Project Muse.〕 After a fairly successful beginning, the series faced difficulties that mirrored those that faced the continent. By the mid-1980s, Heinemann published only one or two new titles a year, and much of the back catalogue fell out of print. By the early 1990s, however, the series began to revive—having recently branched into new work, republishing originally locally released texts, and releasing translated works. The AWS was relaunched by Pearson Education in 2011.〔("Pearson revives African Writers Series, calls for submissions" ), Naija Stories, 4 August 2011.〕〔Nicholas Norbrook, ("Publishing Africa Writers Series celebrates 50 years" ), ''The Africa Report'', 29 February 2012.〕〔("A celebrated selection of literature from Africa" ), Pearson.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「African Writers Series」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|