Détails de l’article

Auteur.e.s : Komenan Janvion KOUAKOU,  Kouamé Kan KOUAKOU.

Titre : Narratives of Reclamation: Deconstructing Misrepresentation of Africa and Africans in selected British Novels through African Literary Perspectives

Résumé
Racial stereotyping, colonial ideology, and Western epistemological hegemony have significantly influenced the portrayal of Africa and Africans in British literature. Colonial novels, particularly those by authors such as Joseph Conrad (1899), have contributed to the construction of Africa as a dark, mysterious, and barbaric continent. This depiction has been strongly challenged by postcolonial African writers, most notably Chinua Achebe (1958), who critiques such representations as racist, distorted, and ideologically motivated to justify imperial domination. Drawing on postcolonial theory, especially the concept of the “colonial library” developed by V. Y. Mudimbe (1988), this study examines the evolution of Western misrepresentations of Africa from the colonial period to the present. It also explores the counter-discourses produced by postcolonial African authors who seek to challenge, subvert, and reframe these inherited colonial images. By analysing selected works of both British and African literature, our study highlights the enduring power of colonial discourse and the literary strategies employed to resist it.

Publié dans le numéro 4 le (02 – 2026), 04/02/2026