Magical Realism in West African Fiction examines this genre, as exemplified in the fiction of three of its West African pioneers, Syl Cheney-Coker of Sierra Leone, Ben Okri of Nigeria and Kojo Laing of Ghana.
This study contextualizes the art of magical realism within current debates and theories of postcoloniality. Brenda Cooper explores the distinct elements of this fictional genre in a West African context, and in relation to:
* a range of global expressions of magical realism, from the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to that of Salman Rushdie
* wider contemporary trends in African writing, with particular attention to how the realism of authors such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka have been connected with nationalist agendas.