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“In an African context”: Eustace Palmer’s critical studies of African women’s writing

Abstract Eustace Palmer’s volumes of criticism on African literature have provided a continually updated introduction to major African novelists and perceptive analyses of their works. In Of War and Women, Oppression and Optimism: New Essays on the African Novel (2008), Palmer recognized the growing number of women’s voices as one of the new trends in the African novel. He offered readings of several landmark works by women that emphasized the cultural matrices within which they had been created and placed them in the context of African feminisms. This article explores Palmer’s approaches to African women’s writing in the volume, focusing on his presentation of So Long a Letter by the Senegalese author Mariama Bâ and relating his criticism of Bâ’s narrative to other interpretations of her work. Finally, it references the response of critics to Palmer’s treatment of African women’s writing, illustrating the impact of his Africa-centered scholarship within the discipline.