Phyllis Taoua
Biographic Data
| ID | 82234 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Phyllis Taoua |
| GIVEN NAMES | Phyllis |
| FAMILY NAME | Taoua |
| SIGNATURE | TAOUA P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6912-2418 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Of freedom and literature in Africa and the diaspora
This introduction to a special issue on freedom presents a set of original essays that reflect critically on the idea of freedom in relation to specific literary texts from Africa and the African diaspora. Read together, the essays presented in this introduction make up a rich tapestry, offering a set of reflections that map out the complex geo-histories of freedoms in Africa and an array of creative representations of this generative idea across…
Of writing and freedom in Sony Labou Tansi’s novel Life and a Half
This essay offers a critical re-reading of Sony Labou Tansi’s début novel Life and a Half that was both formally innovative and conceptually challenging. As a point of departure, I consider Tansi’s statements about his vocation as a writer and the interpretive questions they raise. One such question is why the novel’s critical reception has tended to focus on its representation of dictatorship, while not engaging as productively with its existent…
In praise of cultural comparisons: Abiola Irele’s contributions as a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual Africanist
This essay examines Abiola Irele's career as a multi-lingual cosmopolitan intellectual. This eminent Nigerian literary critic is shown to have bridged some cultural gaps between francophone and anglophone language spheres. The span of his work as a critic is considered from his early work written in West Africa to his later essays written in the United States
African Freedom: How Africa Responded to Independence
The push for independence in African nations was ultimately an incomplete process, with the people often left to wrestle with a partial, imperfect legacy. Rather than settle for liberation in name alone, the people engaged in an ongoing struggle for meaningful freedom. Phyllis Taoua shows how the idea of freedom in Africa today evolved from this complex history. With a pan-African, interdisciplinary approach, she synthesizes the most significant …
Timbuktu —The Controversy - Abderrahmane Sissako, Director. Timbuktu. Original Title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux . 2014. 97 minutes. In French, Bambara, Songhay, Tamashek, Arabic, and English. F…
TIMBUKTU—THE CONTROVERSY - Abderrahmane Sissako, director. Timbuktu. Original title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux. 2014. 97 minutes. In French, Bambara, Songhay, Tamashek, Arabic, and English. France/Mauritania. Worso Films. - Volume 59 Issue 3
Jean-Pierre Bekolo, director. Mudimbe’s Things and Words. Original title: Les Choses et les Mots de Mudimbe . 2013. In French (with English subtitles). U.S/France/Cameroon. Jean-Pierre Bekolo Sarl. €1…
Jean-Pierre Bekolo, director. Mudimbe’s Things and Words. Original title: Les Choses et les Mots de Mudimbe. 2013. In French (with English subtitles). U.S/France/Cameroon. Jean-Pierre Bekolo Sarl. €19.99. - Volume 58 Issue 1
Jean-Marie Teno, director. Leaf in the Wind. Original title: Une feuille dans le vent . 2013. 55 minutes. In English and French (with subtitles in French, English, Spanish and German). Cameroon/France…
Jean-Marie Teno, director. Leaf in the Wind. Original title: Une feuille dans le vent. 2013. 55 minutes. In English and French (with subtitles in French, English, Spanish and German). Cameroon/France. Raphia Films. €25.00. - Volume 58 Issue 1
Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu and Its Controversial Reception - Abderrahmane Sissako, Director. Timbuktu. Original Title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux.2014. 97 minutes. In French, Tamashek, Bamb…
ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO’S TIMBUKTU AND ITS CONTROVERSIAL RECEPTION - Abderrahmane Sissako, director. Timbuktu. Original title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux.2014. 97 minutes. In French, Tamashek, Bambara, Songhay, and Arabic (with subtitles in English and French). France/Mauritania. Worso Films. - Volume 58 Issue 2
Of Prisons and Freedom: Liberation in the Work of Assia Djebar
The Arab Spring may have destroyed the perception that Arab cultures are inherently incompatible with democracy and the values of freedom, but writers of Muslim extraction who are politically and culturally progressive have been wrestling with the thorny question of freedom for many decades
Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France
Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France. By Phyllis Taoua. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2002. Pp. xxv, 268. $24.95 paper. In a rich, well-researched essay, Phyllis Taoua examines discourses of liberation by writers from France and the former colonies throughout the twentieth century. Critics tend to tie African and Caribbean writers' political commitment and use of realism during colonialism and ea…
Of Natives and Rebels: Locating the Surrealist Revolution in French Culture
As the Surrealist group began to articulate a position of dissidence in opposition to bourgeois metropolitan culture, laying claim to a realm of primitive otherness proved to be integral to the process. In 1925, the Surrealists contributed to a political tract entitled La Rdvolution d'abord et toujours! which expressed support for the anti-colonial rebellion under way in Morocco since 1921.1 The authors describe themselves as des Barbares in a ge…
Nation-Building, Propaganda, and Literature in Francophone Africa
The Anti-Colonial Archive: France and Africa's Unfinished Business
A few years ago, Ania Loomba explored a number of critical approaches to the vigorously debated relationship between the local and the global in her book Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998). Since then, her work on the interface between colonial and postcolonial discourses has become a new reference point in what remains an ongoing exchange on this local/global question in postcolonial theory. 1 Loomba, in her conclusion to the chapter "Challengin…
As the Crow Flies
In Search of New Skin: Michel Leiris's L'Afrique fantôme
À la recherche d’une nouvelle personnalité : L’Afrique fantôme de Michel Leiris. – Michel Leiris s’embarqua pour l’Afrique en surréaliste déçu, à la recherche d’une nouvelle personnalité. Il fuyait ses ennuis métropolitains, emportant avec lui un primitivisme d’avant-garde qui obscurcissait sa perception de l’Afrique, de ses peuples et de ses cultures. Incapable de se débarrasser de son obsession pour Breton et éprouvant le manque de femmes bien …
Sony Labou Tansi a Lome en 1988
Performing identity: Nations, cultures and African experimental novels
General trends in post-colonial African literature and criticism are explored with a particular focus on the Congolese writer and activist, Sony Labou Tansi. The compromizes entailed in his publication of novels in Paris are discussed in terms of institutional constraints and the surreptitious nature of multi-layered texts, both symptoms and acts of resistance, which are produced in response. The aesthetic innovation of Sony's experimental novels…
Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France
Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France. By Phyllis Taoua. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2002. Pp. xxv, 268. $24.95 paper. In a rich, well-researched essay, Phyllis Taoua examines discourses of liberation by writers from France and the former colonies throughout the twentieth century. Critics tend to tie African and Caribbean writers' political commitment and use of realism during colonialism and ea…
In Search of New Skin: Michel Leiris's L'Afrique fantôme
À la recherche d’une nouvelle personnalité : L’Afrique fantôme de Michel Leiris. – Michel Leiris s’embarqua pour l’Afrique en surréaliste déçu, à la recherche d’une nouvelle personnalité. Il fuyait ses ennuis métropolitains, emportant avec lui un primitivisme d’avant-garde qui obscurcissait sa perception de l’Afrique, de ses peuples et de ses cultures. Incapable de se débarrasser de son obsession pour Breton et éprouvant le manque de femmes bien …
In praise of cultural comparisons: Abiola Irele’s contributions as a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual Africanist
This essay examines Abiola Irele's career as a multi-lingual cosmopolitan intellectual. This eminent Nigerian literary critic is shown to have bridged some cultural gaps between francophone and anglophone language spheres. The span of his work as a critic is considered from his early work written in West Africa to his later essays written in the United States
Nation-Building, Propaganda, and Literature in Francophone Africa
Performing identity: Nations, cultures and African experimental novels
General trends in post-colonial African literature and criticism are explored with a particular focus on the Congolese writer and activist, Sony Labou Tansi. The compromizes entailed in his publication of novels in Paris are discussed in terms of institutional constraints and the surreptitious nature of multi-layered texts, both symptoms and acts of resistance, which are produced in response. The aesthetic innovation of Sony's experimental novels…
Sony Labou Tansi a Lome en 1988
Performing identity: Nations, cultures and African experimental novels
General trends in post-colonial African literature and criticism are explored with a particular focus on the Congolese writer and activist, Sony Labou Tansi. The compromizes entailed in his publication of novels in Paris are discussed in terms of institutional constraints and the surreptitious nature of multi-layered texts, both symptoms and acts of resistance, which are produced in response. The aesthetic innovation of Sony's experimental novels…
As the Crow Flies
In Search of New Skin: Michel Leiris's L'Afrique fantôme
À la recherche d’une nouvelle personnalité : L’Afrique fantôme de Michel Leiris. – Michel Leiris s’embarqua pour l’Afrique en surréaliste déçu, à la recherche d’une nouvelle personnalité. Il fuyait ses ennuis métropolitains, emportant avec lui un primitivisme d’avant-garde qui obscurcissait sa perception de l’Afrique, de ses peuples et de ses cultures. Incapable de se débarrasser de son obsession pour Breton et éprouvant le manque de femmes bien …
Of Natives and Rebels: Locating the Surrealist Revolution in French Culture
As the Surrealist group began to articulate a position of dissidence in opposition to bourgeois metropolitan culture, laying claim to a realm of primitive otherness proved to be integral to the process. In 1925, the Surrealists contributed to a political tract entitled La Rdvolution d'abord et toujours! which expressed support for the anti-colonial rebellion under way in Morocco since 1921.1 The authors describe themselves as des Barbares in a ge…
Nation-Building, Propaganda, and Literature in Francophone Africa
The Anti-Colonial Archive: France and Africa's Unfinished Business
A few years ago, Ania Loomba explored a number of critical approaches to the vigorously debated relationship between the local and the global in her book Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998). Since then, her work on the interface between colonial and postcolonial discourses has become a new reference point in what remains an ongoing exchange on this local/global question in postcolonial theory. 1 Loomba, in her conclusion to the chapter "Challengin…
Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France
Forms of Protest: Anti-Colonialism and Avant-Gardes in Africa, the Caribbean, and France. By Phyllis Taoua. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2002. Pp. xxv, 268. $24.95 paper. In a rich, well-researched essay, Phyllis Taoua examines discourses of liberation by writers from France and the former colonies throughout the twentieth century. Critics tend to tie African and Caribbean writers' political commitment and use of realism during colonialism and ea…
Of Prisons and Freedom: Liberation in the Work of Assia Djebar
The Arab Spring may have destroyed the perception that Arab cultures are inherently incompatible with democracy and the values of freedom, but writers of Muslim extraction who are politically and culturally progressive have been wrestling with the thorny question of freedom for many decades
Jean-Pierre Bekolo, director. Mudimbe’s Things and Words. Original title: Les Choses et les Mots de Mudimbe . 2013. In French (with English subtitles). U.S/France/Cameroon. Jean-Pierre Bekolo Sarl. €1…
Jean-Pierre Bekolo, director. Mudimbe’s Things and Words. Original title: Les Choses et les Mots de Mudimbe. 2013. In French (with English subtitles). U.S/France/Cameroon. Jean-Pierre Bekolo Sarl. €19.99. - Volume 58 Issue 1
Jean-Marie Teno, director. Leaf in the Wind. Original title: Une feuille dans le vent . 2013. 55 minutes. In English and French (with subtitles in French, English, Spanish and German). Cameroon/France…
Jean-Marie Teno, director. Leaf in the Wind. Original title: Une feuille dans le vent. 2013. 55 minutes. In English and French (with subtitles in French, English, Spanish and German). Cameroon/France. Raphia Films. €25.00. - Volume 58 Issue 1
Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu and Its Controversial Reception - Abderrahmane Sissako, Director. Timbuktu. Original Title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux.2014. 97 minutes. In French, Tamashek, Bamb…
ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO’S TIMBUKTU AND ITS CONTROVERSIAL RECEPTION - Abderrahmane Sissako, director. Timbuktu. Original title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux.2014. 97 minutes. In French, Tamashek, Bambara, Songhay, and Arabic (with subtitles in English and French). France/Mauritania. Worso Films. - Volume 58 Issue 2
Timbuktu —The Controversy - Abderrahmane Sissako, Director. Timbuktu. Original Title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux . 2014. 97 minutes. In French, Bambara, Songhay, Tamashek, Arabic, and English. F…
TIMBUKTU—THE CONTROVERSY - Abderrahmane Sissako, director. Timbuktu. Original title: Timbuktu, le chagrin des oiseaux. 2014. 97 minutes. In French, Bambara, Songhay, Tamashek, Arabic, and English. France/Mauritania. Worso Films. - Volume 59 Issue 3
In praise of cultural comparisons: Abiola Irele’s contributions as a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual Africanist
This essay examines Abiola Irele's career as a multi-lingual cosmopolitan intellectual. This eminent Nigerian literary critic is shown to have bridged some cultural gaps between francophone and anglophone language spheres. The span of his work as a critic is considered from his early work written in West Africa to his later essays written in the United States
African Freedom: How Africa Responded to Independence
The push for independence in African nations was ultimately an incomplete process, with the people often left to wrestle with a partial, imperfect legacy. Rather than settle for liberation in name alone, the people engaged in an ongoing struggle for meaningful freedom. Phyllis Taoua shows how the idea of freedom in Africa today evolved from this complex history. With a pan-African, interdisciplinary approach, she synthesizes the most significant …
Of freedom and literature in Africa and the diaspora
This introduction to a special issue on freedom presents a set of original essays that reflect critically on the idea of freedom in relation to specific literary texts from Africa and the African diaspora. Read together, the essays presented in this introduction make up a rich tapestry, offering a set of reflections that map out the complex geo-histories of freedoms in Africa and an array of creative representations of this generative idea across…
Of writing and freedom in Sony Labou Tansi’s novel Life and a Half
This essay offers a critical re-reading of Sony Labou Tansi’s début novel Life and a Half that was both formally innovative and conceptually challenging. As a point of departure, I consider Tansi’s statements about his vocation as a writer and the interpretive questions they raise. One such question is why the novel’s critical reception has tended to focus on its representation of dictatorship, while not engaging as productively with its existent…
Art (13 works) · African history and culture studies (11 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · History (8 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · History (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Literature (5 works)