The Primordial Image

Contents: a.) Primordial images such as the Female Mythos, the Quest, the Bildungsroman, the Wise Man, the Dionysian Archetype, the Archetype of Eschatology, and Eros and Psychedelic Experience. b.) For college and university teachers and students. c.) My book is unique because although there have been scattered attempts in the past that focus on some mythic forms in selected African, Afro-American, and Caribbean literary works, little attempt has so far been made either to higlight the interrelationships of these archetypal patterns or subject the texts to the kind of comparative Jungian interpretation attempted in this book.

The Author: Ikenna Dieke was born in Onisha, Southeastern region of Nigeria, the last son of a family of five: three boys and two girls. He attended the University of Nigeria and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He earned his B.A. (magnum cum laude) from the Univerity of Nigeria in 1977 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Southern Illinois in 1981 and 1983 respectively. A comparatist in Black literary studies, Dr. Dieke has written widely in journals with interest in Black aesthetics. He organized the Baraka Colloquium, the first-ever national conference on Imamu Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, in 1986, with grants from the Mississippi Committee for the Humanites and others. Married with three children, Dr. Dieke has served on the faculty of several colleges and universities, inclucing Auburn University and Jackson State University. He is presently Associate Professor of English at Hampton University, Virginia.

"Ikenna Dieke's breathtaking study deals with the Jungian approaches to these literatures for the first time. As a profound study of interrelationships in terms of archetypes, it is destined to become a classic." ( George Ross Ridge)
"A first and a must for students of literature as well as for those interested in the humanities in general and female images in society and literature in particular, Dieke's 'the Primordial Image: African, Afro-American and Caribbean Mythopoetic Text' is a breakthrough: innovative, comprehensive, and extremely well written. The work should prove particularly relevant to African-American and African Studies programs whose 'raison d'être' is the highlighting of the black experience in whichever form it may manifest itself." (Mario Azevedo, University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
"'The Primordial Image: African, Afro-American and Caribbean Mythopoetic Text' is a comprehensive examination of the Jungian approaches to this body of literature. Dr. Ikenna Dieke's work offers new insights into the study of these literatures. It is a much awaited and important addition to literary analysis." (Mabel H. Pittman, Chair Emerita Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages, Jackson State University)