Imagining Village Life in Zambian Fiction

The dualism between the urban and the rural space, and between the systems of social relationships obtaining in each sphere, has proved to be an enduring source of inspiration to African fictional writers since the inception of the genre. Many studies of the genre, however, have failed to recognise the extent to which literary representations of the town and the village have changed over time. Using the case of Zambia, this paper argues that African ideas about the city and the country - and their literary expressions - are historically contingent and rooted in specific socio-economic contexts.