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Imagined States: Law and Literature in Nigeria

Imagined States: Law and Literature in Nigeria

Author: Katherine Isobel Baxter
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 9781474420839
Published In: November 2019
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: Scotland ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

¥24,716.84

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Description
Contents

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Examines representations of the law in colonial and postcolonial fiction from and about Nigeria

Examines representations of the law in British and Nigerian high-brow, middle-brow and popular fiction and journalism between 1900 and 1966
Draws on rare archives of Nigerian newspaper reports and local government papers from the period
Explores how ethical issues of late colonial and early postcolonial law in Africa were played out in the pages of highly diverse texts
Draws on the political philosophy of Agamben, particularly his interpretation of the state of exception and the homo sacer, to illustrate the paradoxes of the colonial and postcolonial legal systems wittingly and unwittingly uncovered by these texts

Imagined States examines representations of the law in British and Nigerian high-brow, middle-brow and popular fiction and journalism. Drawing on a rich range of examples, the book focuses on the imaginative role that the state of exception played in the application of indirect rule during British colonialism and in the legal machinations of the postcolonial state. It reads works by Chinua Achebe, Joyce Cary, Cyprian Ekwensi and Edgar Wallace, together with a range of Nigerian market literature and journalism.

Introduction: Literature, Imagination and the State of Exception

1. ‘Natural Justice, Equity and Good Conscience’: History, Politics and Law in Nigeria, 1900-1966

2. ‘I Am the Law’: District Commissioner Fiction and the State of Exception

3. ‘Seeking a Legal Form’: Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson

4. ‘Beast of No Nation’: Bribery, Corruption and Late Colonial Administration in No Longer At Ease

5. ‘Written in the Interest of the People’: Representing the Law in Cyprian Ekwensi and Market Literature

6. ‘Sensational Coverage of a Sensational Trial’: Treason, Journalism and the State

7. Violence and the Law in A Man of the People

Conclusion: Imagined States

Bibliography