ANA-FUNAI: CONFERENCE THEME
Expanding Frontiers: Nigeria’s Creative Writing in the 21st Century
Each age demands different things from
literature, so our criticism, from age to age, will reflect the things that the
age demands. (T.S Eliot)
The twenty-first century in Nigeria has witnessed
an avalanche of creative writing in all the genres of literature and beyond.
More than ever before, this period has shown that creative writing and critical
practices offer greater possibilities for social re-engineering and meaningful
mediation in public spaces. This expansion is witnessed in the steady growth of
the list of names of Nigerians associated with national and international
acclaim. Equally expanding, are the writers’ use of neo-stylistic techniques in
the pursuit of diverse visionary goals as well as re-conceptualizations of the
ideas of the state of the Nigerian nation, nationhood, politics, migration,
governance, leadership, gender, sex, sexuality, new technologies, the new
media, internet and the environment. Also pertinent to the vision of
contemporary Nigerian writers is the re-assessment of the meaning and
construction of relationships between individuals (from the same country) when
found outside their country, as well as the different needs for interacting
with various nations around the globe. These have led to re-definition,
re-negotiations and re-construction of new identities of the self and the
nation.
The “Expanding Frontiers” conference provides scholars the opportunity to articulate as well as interrogate these new trends and the stylistic evolutions of Nigerian literature in the 21st century. Specifically, the conference aims to answer questions such as (but not limited to):
The “Expanding Frontiers” conference provides scholars the opportunity to articulate as well as interrogate these new trends and the stylistic evolutions of Nigerian literature in the 21st century. Specifically, the conference aims to answer questions such as (but not limited to):
- In what ways do the thematic preoccupations of the new literatures of the 21st century (both in the indigenous and foreign languages) differ from the previous generations of creative writing in Nigeria or Africa?
- In what ways do the styles, and methodologies of Nigeria’s literatures of the 21st century differ from literary practices of the past?
- How have the new technologies and new media affected the practices, reception and disseminations of literary practices in Nigeria and beyond?
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