Why African Literature of Greek Expression?: facing a question

Abstract

This article aims to highlight the Greek expression in African literature, showing at the same time a position on the literary contents sometimes segregated from the scope of African literature for being linked to names commonly associated with the Hellenic world. Thus, it is proposed to surpass not only the conceptions on what defines African literature of Greek expression beyond the use of the Greek language in which the literary content was produced, but it also seeks to show that the encounters between ethnic groups in Ancient Africa are evident in this literature, as perceived in the “Greek novel”, thus pointing to the exchange between these cultures and how they have become close and sometimes extremely interrelated. However, the historical approaches to literature no longer reveal this imbrication by labeling them as “Greeks” or their authors as “Greeks of”. Faced with a complex context, the central question arises for reflection: to what extent can literature in the so-called Alexandrian/Hellenistic period be considered or labeled only as “Greek”? From this inquiry, we will return to Herodotus and theorists like Maria Regina Cândido and Susan Stephens to unravel the theme.