1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787537103321

Autore

Newell Stephanie <1968->

Titolo

The power to name : a history of anonymity in colonial West Africa / / Stephanie Newell

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Athens, Ohio : , : Ohio University Press, , [2013]

©2013

ISBN

0-8214-4449-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (266 p.)

Collana

New African histories series

Disciplina

079.6609

Soggetti

African newspapers - Africa, West - History - 19th century

African newspapers - Africa, West - History - 20th century

Anonymous writings - History - 19th century

Anonymous writings - History - 20th century

Literary forgeries and mystifications

Books and reading - Africa, West - History - 19th century

Books and reading - Africa, West - History - 20th century

Africa, West Intellectual life 19th century

Africa, West Intellectual life 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: anonymity, pseudonymity, and the question of agency in colonial West African newspapers -- Part 1. Newspapers in colonial West Africa -- The "fourth and only estate" : defining a public sphere in colonial West Africa -- Articulating empire: newspaper networks in colonial West Africa -- Part 2. Case studies from the Colonial Office -- The view from afar : the Colonial Office, imperial government, and pseudonymous African journalism -- Part 3. Case studies from West African newspapers -- Trickster tactics and the question of authorship in newspaper folktales -- Printing women : the gendering of literacy -- Nominal ladies and "real" women writers : female pseudonyms and the problem of authorial identity in the cases of "Rosa" and "Marjorie Mensah" -- Conclusion. "New visibilities" : African print subjects and the birth of the (postcolonial) author -- Appendix: I. T. A. Wallace-



Johnson in court.

Sommario/riassunto

Between the 1880's and the 1940's, the region known as British West Africa became a dynamic zone of literary creativity and textual experimentation. African-owned newspapers offered local writers numerous opportunities to contribute material for publication, and editors repeatedly defined the press as a vehicle to host public debates rather than simply as an organ to disseminate news or editorial ideology. Literate locals responded with great zeal, and in increasing numbers as the twentieth century progressed, they sent in letters, articles, fiction, and poetry for publication in English- and A