Wednesday, 3 February 2021

A MASK DANCING. By Adewale Maja-Pearce

 LITERARY CRITICISM




What a work! A literary tour de force. This book encompasses robust intellectual eclectic criticism of major African writers over the decades.

No writer is spared, no matter their achievements or corpus of awesome works (only perhaps Wole Soyinka). The peerless Chinua Achebe does not come out too well, though the critic is only too aware of his global reputation.

Pearce inter alia writes: "But this is hardly surprising when one considers the paucity of his (Achebe's) understanding of the contemporary society he portrayed...". The great T M Aluko, and many others are criticised in this vein too.

The towering Ngugi wa Thiong'o? He "...has at least applied with characteristic thoroughness in his more recent work, with disastrous results"... and of course Okara's celebrated work, The Voice, is a "disaster " too. As for Ekwensi's Jagua Nana's Daughter, which many of us felt was vivid and thrilling, the critic assures us it is an "unmitigated disaster".


We wince when the exalted critic continually refers to the "inept prose/writing" or "appalling style/prose" of Africa's best writers, then he proceeds to quote such examples from their work. Alas, for we mere mortals such quotes often look superb and well written!

One would have thought that our critic would laud Ben Okri, who at barely 20 years old had already published two world class novels, Flowers and Shadows; and The landscapes Within. But though Pearce acknowledges the achievement of this (now) all time great writer, he still does not believe that the works are a "success", including Okri's The Famished Road, which won the prestigious Booker Award!

The impression one would finally get probably is that the critic here expects the very highest of literary standards and enjoys evaluating the best of African writing even if they always somewhat fall short as far as he is concerned!

- R. Mokoena

8 comments:

  1. Criticism of the highest order, no doubt...but as a bibliophile friend of mine would say, Do we want to scare both writers and readers from literature?? lol

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  2. And does the great critic 'approve' of African female writers?

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  3. At least by focusing his heightened critical lenses on the writers, it is a tribute of a kind !

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  4. No wonder many dismiss 'critics' as 'failed writers'...

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  5. It has never ceased to amaze me how the critics can suddenly declare that one work has ‘failed’ or ‘succeeded’ , ‘is a disaster’, ‘lacks so and so’…especially since other eminent critics might state the very opposite, laud a book which another critic has pulled down! Or let us look at it simply, critics are supposed to be writers themselves… how can a critic who has never produced any memorable work of fiction attack a novelist like Achebe whose works have sold millions around the world, the books loved in virtually every country in the world with countless translations into other languages being brought out? If the critic is so good, why can’t he/she produce such a work too? After all, it is much easier to destroy than to build. I have no grouse with Adewale Maja Pearce, he is a man of great intellect; however the first
    time I really took notice of him was when Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka angrily took aim at him (Pearce) and dismissed him in wholesale fashion. I think most writers would feel like this about a critic too quick to pull down all they’ve built art-wise, when such a critic has never come close to bringing out anything as good as what he or she is condemning. Anyway, does a critic have to focus on needless negativity?

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  6. I guess most writers are scared of critics anyway! One should just view them as complements to Literature, and they often draw attention to a work, and their views can even be used for record/scholarly purposes

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  7. Actually I love books which focus on literary interpretation, evaluation etc...obviously such works should ideally not be too negative or 'provocative'

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  8. Interesting views. It does on the surface looks disrespectful for Africa's top writers to be given short shrift, or condemned. Shouldn't we be encouraging them?

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