This paper illustrates the ways in which Kezilahabi’s 1985 dissertation makes its own daring contribution to the field of aesthetic criticism through the proposition of a new critical approach to African literature. Kezilahabi’s starting point for the elaboration this new critical approach is the realization of a prevailing tendency among literary critics to read African literature against formal and aesthetic paradigms deeply rooted in the Western literary and philosophical traditions. Opposed to the adoption of interpretative frames that do not acknowledge the philosophical implications involved in literary analysis, Kezilahabi affirms the importance of approaching literary production from within the artistic and philosophical tradition it stems from. Inspired by hermeneutic philosophy, especially in its “ontological turn” embodied by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Kezilahabi’s focus is on literary interpretation as an ontological enterprise aimed at “situating” literature within a horizon of understanding where its proper universe of references can be disclosed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:11858 |
| Date | 06 March 2013 |
| Creators | Lanfranchi, Benedetta |
| Contributors | School of Oriental and African Studies, Universität Leipzig |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Source | Swahili Forum 19 (2012), S. 72-87 |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-107567, qucosa:11865 |
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