East African literature on the market 2000-2010

PhD Erik Falk’s project “East African literature on the market 2000-2010” investigates the disjunctive relationship between literary markets for East African fiction in English. The study, which combines quantitative and qualitative methods, falls into two parts. Part one maps the production and circulation of literary fiction across the East African region with a particular focus on genre and key narrative features. Part two analyses the circulation and reception of internationally renowned East African writers on the world stage. Specifically, and elaborating on work done by, e.g. Huggan, Brouillette, and Van der Vlies, this part analyses how the literary works are packaged for, and received in, the British and US markets. The study’s comparative approach aims at furthering the understanding of the fragmented characters of the “world” across which literature travels, and analyse how “vernacular” and “cosmopolitan” operate with respect to East African literature.