{"product_id":"the-tongue-tied-imagination-decolonizing-literary-modernity-in-senegal-9780823284290","title":"The Tongue-Tied Imagination: Decolonizing Literary Modernity in Senegal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner, 2021 African Literature Association First Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShould a writer work in a former colonial language or in a vernacular? The language question was one of the great, intractable problems that haunted postcolonial literatures in the twentieth century, but it has since acquired a reputation as a dead end for narrow nationalism. This book returns to the language question from a fresh perspective. Instead of asking whether language matters, \u003ci\u003eThe Tongue-Tied Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e explores how the language question itself came to matter. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFocusing on the case of Senegal, Warner investigates the intersection of French and Wolof. Drawing on extensive archival research and an under-studied corpus of novels, poetry, and films in both languages, as well as educational projects and popular periodicals, the book traces the emergence of a politics of language from colonization through independence to the era of neoliberal development. Warner reads the francophone works of well-known authors such as Léopold Senghor, Ousmane Sembène, Mariama Bâ, and Boubacar Boris Diop alongside the more overlooked Wolof-language works with which they are in dialogue. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRefusing to see the turn to vernacular languages only as a form of nativism, \u003ci\u003eThe Tongue-Tied Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e argues that the language question opens up a fundamental struggle over the nature and limits of literature itself. Warner reveals how language debates tend to pull in two directions: first, they weave vernacular traditions into the normative patterns of world literature; but second, they create space to imagine how literary culture might be configured otherwise. Drawing on these insights, Warner brilliantly rethinks the terms of world literature and charts a renewed practice of literary comparison.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Tobias Warner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Fordham University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/05\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.14lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.79d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780823284290","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42710588293257,"sku":"9780823284290","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_ea879026-84d2-4db5-a305-3b7cb3683b00.jpg?v=1719539186","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-tongue-tied-imagination-decolonizing-literary-modernity-in-senegal-9780823284290","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}