Title Debt, law, realism : Nigerian writers imagine the state at independence / Neil ten Kortenaar

Published Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2021]

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Description 1 online resource (x, 282 pages) Contents Crediting African literature -- Reciprocity -- Sovereign debt -- Of confidence and markets -- Women and the cowrie zone -- The law's monopoly on violence -- The problem of succession -- Modern debt and the civil service -- Corruption -- Discipline Summary "In the decade before and after independence, Nigerians not only adopted the novel but reinvented the genre. Nigerian novels imagined the new state, with its ideals of the rule of law, state sovereignty, and a centralized administration. Debt, Law, Realism argues that Nigerian novels were not written for a Western audience, as often stated, but to teach fellow citizens how to envision the state. The first Nigerian novels were overwhelmingly realist because realism was a way to convey the understanding shared by all subject to the rule of law. Debt was an important theme used to illustrate the social trust needed to live with strangers. But the novelists felt an ambivalence towards the state, which had been imposed by colonial military might. Even as they embraced the ideal of the rule of law, they kept alive a memory of other ways of governing themselves. Many of the first novelists - including Chinua Achebe - were Igbos, a people who had been historically stateless, and for whom justice had been a matter of interpersonal relations, consensus, and reciprocity, rather than a citizen's subordination to a higher authority. Debt, Law, Realism reads African novels as political philosophy, offering important lessons about the foundations of social trust, the principle of succession, and the nature of sovereignty, authority, and law."-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 17, 2021) Subject Nigerian fiction (English) -- History and criticism Realism in literature. State, The, in literature. Sovereignty in literature. Debt in literature. Politics and literature -- Nigeria -- History -- 20th century LITERARY CRITICISM / African Debt in literature Literature Nigerian fiction (English) Politics and literature Realism in literature Sovereignty in literature State, The, in literature SUBJECT Nigeria -- In literature Subject Nigeria Genre/Form Electronic books Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780228007807 0228007801

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