Subversive Traditions

"In a work of remarkably original insight that brilliantly characterizes the French colonial dilemma, Repinecz demonstrates unparalleled command of West African literature, both oral and written. This could become a classic of literary criticism, consulted by future generations of students and academic specialists in multiple disciplines."
—David C. Conrad, Professor Emeritus of African History, State University of New York at Oswego, and editor and translator of Sunjata: A New Prose Version

"Subversive Traditions is a compelling and carefully researched study of West African oral traditions as critical, reflexive texts that act on politics and culture today. Working across a wide range of critical debates, Repinecz provokes us to consider the category of tradition as radically open and malleable, generating new histories and knowledges of modernity in Africa."
—Justin Izzo, Assistant Professor of French Studies, Brown University, and author of Experiments with Empire: Anthropology and Fiction in the French Atlantic
 

"An insightful exploration of the subversive powers of both oral and written texts from West Africa. Repinecz argues that epics and novels possess a shared critical reflexivity—by deploying supposedly traditional registers, they question the authority of the traditional and clear space for reimagining the present."
—Tobias Warner, Associate Professor of French, Department of French and Italian, University of California, Davis, and author of The Tongue-Tied Imagination: Decolonizing Literary Modernity in Senegal