Underdevelopment and African Literature (Elements in Publishing and Book Culture)

People looking for works in cities are immersed in English as the lingua franca of the mobile phone and the urban hustle - more effective instigations to reading than decades of work by traditional publishers and development agencies. The legal publishing industry campaigns to convince people to scorn pirates and plagiarists as a criminal underclass, and to instead purchase copyrighted, barcoded works that have the look of legitimacy about them. They work with development industry officials to 'foster literacy' - meaning to grow the legal book trade as a contributor to national economic health, and police what and how the newly literate read. But harried cash-strapped audiences will read what and how they can, often outside of formal economies, and are increasingly turning to mobile phone platforms that sell texts at a fraction of the price of legally printed books.

• | Author: Sarah Brouillette
• | Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• | Publication Date: January 28, 2021
• | Number of Pages: 82 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1108713785
• | ISBN-13: 9781108713788