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GENDER Helen Nabasuta Mugambi and Tuzyline Jita Allan, eds. Masculinities in African Literary and Cultural Texts. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner for Ayeba Clarke Publishing, 2010. 352 pp. $27.50. Paper.
Masculinities in African Literary and Cultural Texts is divided into two parts: "Configuring Masculinity in Orature and Film" and "Writing the Masculine." Its eighteen chapters offer a succinct survey of the construction and manifestations of the masculine in Africa by examining diverse creative writing: oral pieces (epics, folktales, songs) as well as films by African writers and filmmakers. The list of contributors includes some of the most renowned scholars of African culture, among them A. C. Kalu, T. J. Allan, Bernth Lindfors, Simon Gikandi, and Tanure Ojaide. Introductions to the contributions explain the cultural and narrative significance of each piece. This anthology complements earlier, more theoretical and historical works on masculinity, such as Lisa Lindsay and Stephan Miescher's Men and Masculinities in Modem Africa (Heinemann, 2003) or Lahoucine Ouzgane and Robert Morrell's...