Size: 8.6 x 0.8 x 5.6 Inches; Dust jacket condition: Near Fine. Very nice and

Size: 8.6 x 0.8 x 5.6 Inches; Dust jacket condition: Near Fine. Very nice and clean. Text free of highlighting and writing. Tightly bound. Includes bibliographical references and index. xi, 139 p. : 22 cm. PenPoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams explores the relationship between art and political power in society, taking as its starting point the experience of writers in contemporary Africa, where they are often seen as the enemy of the postcolonial state. This study, in turn, raises the wider issues of the relationship between the state of art and the art of the state, particularly in their struggle for the control of performance space in territorial, temporal, social, and even psychic contexts. Often recalling the famous dialogues of Plato? s Republic, where Plato dictates the stringent conditions under which artists could be admitted into his ideal state, Kenyan writer NgOgT wa Thiong? o calls for the alliance of art and people power, freedom and dignity against the encroachments of modern states. Art, he argues, needs to be active, engaged, insistent on being what it has always been, the embodiment of dreams for a truly human world. 160 pages. African literature--20th century--History and criticism, African literature--Political aspects, Literature--Philosophy, Africa--Politics and government--1960-