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Out of Africa: Theory and the Displacement of African Literature

Hetty ter Haar
hettyterhaar@hotmail.com

It is the contention of this paper that a binary approach to comparative literature, as in Theory-Applying Studies, can be detrimental to the study of African literatures, as there is the real danger that Western (literary) theory rather than literature itself becomes the focus of attention. In other words: Theory displaces African literature. A facile poststructuralist perspective is to a large extent responsible for reducing literature and in extreme instances the world itself, to nothing but text. It does not take into account, let alone interrogate, the specificity of African literature, which means that the latter falls victim to the universalising and homogenizing tendencies of theory.
The practice of comparative literature thus conceived is, regrettably, kicking and alive, as this paper will proceed to explicate. It will further argue that the days of poststructuralism may well be numbered post-Katrina and the October/November 2005 events in France. President Chirac defined the latter, in true poststructuralist fashion, as ‘a crisis of meaning’, thus ignoring history and the specificity of the circumstances that led to the outbreaks of violence. It is precisely this disregard for the specific that results in the displacement of African literature.