ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the role of literature in education and particularly to consider what difficulties or what opportunities arise from the interaction of indigenous literary traditions with those evolved in the cosmopolitan west. Literary studies have tended to wander between historical, sociological, biographical, linguistic, ethical types of inquiry. One powerful group has centred its drive upon the concept of criticism (critical awareness, discrimination, judgement, etc.), but this has not proved very successful, or very widely transferable, because of the unconscious cultural assumption on which it is so often based. Circumstance and condition of social performance obviously stimulate a response related to the group psychology which can be so powerfully expressed in African communities. Provided that teachers are equal to the challenge in the field of literary studies, conflict between traditional and western forms of literary study may be eliminated, and the harmonious interaction of the two traditions can lead to fruitful study.
