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WRITING
AFRICA: COMPARATIVE AFRICAN
AND EUROPEAN PALAVERS AND PERSPECTIVES
June 28 - July 30, 2004 (5 weeks)
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Documents
for Prospective Applicants
NEH Information - NEH Application Instructions & Cover
Sheet
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Application
Information & Introduction
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Seminar
Writers
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African
Writers |
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CHINUA ACHEBE
Albert
Chinualumogu Achebe was born the son of Isaiah Okafo, a
Christian churchman, and Janet N. Achebe November 16, 1930
in Ogidi, Nigeria. He married Christie Chinwe Okoli, September
10, 1961, and now has four children: Chinelo, Ikechukwu,
Chidi, and Nwando. He attended Government College in Umuahia
from 1944 to 1947 and University College in Ibadan from
1948 to 1953. He then received a B.A. from London University
in 1953 and studied broadcasting at the British Broadcasting
Corp. in London in 1956. MORE....
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AMA ATA AIDOO
Ama
Ata Aidoo has since the publication of her first
play in 1964 been an important and vocal figure in
the struggle for Ghanaian national liberation and
self-determination in the context of colonialism
and neo-colonialism, as well as the broader pan-Africanist
struggles against imperialism and racism generally;
at the same time she has been an outspoken proponent
for women's liberation in the national and international
contexts and an avid critic of the corruption and
hypocrisy of the national bourgeoisie in post-independence
Ghana. She has likewise made important contributions
to both the development of African literature and
literary criticism both as a writer and as a scholar. MORE....
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WOLE SOYINKA
Wole
Soyinka is among contemporary Africa's greatest writers.
He is also one of the continent's most imaginative advocates
of native culture and of the humane social order it embodies.
Born in Western Nigeria in 1934, Soyinka grew up in an
Anglican mission compound in Aké. A precocious student,
he first attended the parsonage's primary school, where
his father was headmaster, and then a nearby grammar school
in Abeokuta, where an uncle was principal. Though raised
in a colonial, English-speaking environment, Soyinka's
ethnic heritage was Yoruba, and his parents balanced Christian
training with regular visits to the father's ancestral
home in `Isarà, a small Yoruba community secure
in its traditions. MORE....
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European Writers |
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JOYCE CARY
From
1910 to 1920 he served as an administrator and soldier in
Nigeria. Several of his early works, including Mister Johnson
(1939), reflect his African experiences. Cary is perhaps
best known for his two trilogies. Both these works, full
of humor and compassion, convey a sense of the gradual change
in the social and political structure of modern England.
The first trilogy consists of Herself Surprised (1941), To
Be a Pilgrim (1942), and The Horse's Mouth (1944), the last
book featuring the visionary, iconoclastic painter Gully
Jimson; the second trilogy consists of Prisoner of Grace
(1952), Except the Lord (1953), and Not Honour More (1955).
Cary wrote many other novels, in addition to political studies
and poems. A collection of his short stories, Spring Song,
was published posthumously in 1960. MORE....
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JOSEPH CONRAD
Joseph
Conrad grew up in the Polish Ukraine, a large, fertile plain
between Poland and Russia. It was a divided nation, with four
languages,
four religions, and a number of different classes. A fraction of
the Polish-speaking inhabitants, including Conrad's family, belonged
to the szlachta, a hereditary class below the aristocracy, which
combined qualities of gentry and nobility. They had the political
power, despite their impoverished state. Conrad's father, Apollo
Korzeniowski, belonged to this class. He studied for six years
at St. Petersburg University, which he left before even earning
a degree. Apparently, he was physically unattractive and unpleasant.
Conrad's mother, Eva Bobrowska, was thirteen years younger than
Apollo and the only surviving daughter in a family of six sons.
MORE....
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Seminar
Director: Maureen N. Eke
Office for Institutional Diversity
Warriner 319
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, MI 48859
Phone: 989-774-3700
mailto:eke1mn@cmich.edu
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