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Secondary Sources

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Books & Special Issues

  • Adeniji, Abiodun, Ben Okri: The Quest for an African Utopia (Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr Müller, 2011). Print-on-demand publisher.
  • Clary, Françoise, Ben Okri: The Famished Road (Paris: Atlande, 2013). In French.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, Behind the Mask: A Study of Ben Okri's Fiction (Rome: Carocci, 2002).
  • Elder, Arlene A., Narrative Shape-Shifting: Myth, Humor and History in the Fiction of Ben Okri, B. Kojo Laing and Yvonne Vera (Oxford: James Currey, 2009), esp. pp. 7-55.
  • Fraser, Robert, Ben Okri: Towards the Invisible City (Horndon: Northcote House, 2002).
  • Gray, Rosemary, Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 28.4, special issue on 'The Works of Ben Okri' (2012).
  • Gray, Rosemary Alice, The Tough Alchemy of Ben Okri (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).
  • Guignery, Vanessa, Seeing and Being: Ben Okri's The Famished Road (Paris: CNED & PUF, 2012).
  • Guignery, Vanessa (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).
  • Guignery, Vanessa (ed.), Callaloo 38.5, 'Ben Okri: A Special Issue' (Fall 2015).
  • Kehinde, Owoeye Durojaiye, Intertextuality and the Novels of Amos Tutuola and Ben Okri (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011). Print-on-demand publisher.
  • Kehinde, Owoeye Durojaiye, Rhetorical Criticism of Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2011). Print-on-demand publisher.
  • Lim, David C.L., The Infinite Longing for Home: Desire and the Nation in Selected Writings of Ben Okri and K.S. Maniam (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, 2005).
  • Mahmutovic, Adnan, Ways of Being Free: Authenticity and Community in Selected Works of Rushdie, Ondaatje and Okri (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2012).
  • Mbem, André Julien, La quête de l'universel dans la littérature africaine : de Léopold Sédar Senghor à Ben Okri (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2007).
  • McCann, Fiona (ed.), Commonwealth: Essays and Studiesw 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri.
  • Moh, Felicia Oka, Ben Okri: An Introduction to his Early Fiction (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 2001).
  • O'Connor, Maurice, The Writings of Ben Okri: Transcending the Local and the National (New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2008).
  • Quayson, Ato, Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing: Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka & Ben Okri (Oxford / Bloomington & Indianapolis: James Currey / Indiana University Press, 1997).
  • Scannavini, Katia, Pensieri migranti: un'interpretazione sociologica della letteratura nigeriana: Ben Okri e Buchi Emecheta (Turin: L'Harmattan Italia, 2009).
  • Zhu, Ying, Fiction and the Incompleteness of History: Toni Morrison, V.S. Naipaul, and Ben Okri (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006), esp. chapter 4, 'An Undiscovered Continent: Ben Okri's The Famished Road and the Enlargement of Historical Reality' (pp. 107-140).

 

Articles & Essays

  • Abdullah, Sarah, 'Material Survival, Hierarchal Exploitation and Urban Space in Ben Okri's "Converging City"', Language in India 17.7 (July 2017), pp. 396-406. [ available online ]
  • Abdullah, Sarah, '"The Young Shall Grow": Violence, Conflict and Coming of Age in Ben Okri's "Laughter beneath the Bridge"', Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics 37 (2017), pp. 1-6. [ available online ]
  • Adam, Ezinwanyi E., 'Poverty Eradication for Sustainable Growth in Africa: Insights from Ben Okri's In Arcadia, in Toyin Falola and Jamaine Abidogun (eds.), Education, Creativity, and Economic Empowerment in Africa (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2014), pp. 131-142.
  • Adéèkó, Adélékè, 'Specterless Spirits/Spiritless Specters: Magical Realism's Two Faces', European Legacy 12.4 (July 2007), pp. 469-480. On Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of this World.
  • Adeniji, Abiodun, 'Utopianism and the Quest Motif in Ben Okri', JALA 6.2 (Winter-Spring 2012), pp. 142-152.
  • Adeniji, Abiodun, '"We Can Redream This World and Make the Dream Real": The Utopian Quest in Ben Okri's Primary Myths', in Chirambo, Reuben Makayiko and J.K.S. Makokha (eds.), Reading Contemporary African Literature: Critical Perspectives (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2013), pp. 197-212.
  • Agera, Ate, & Aondona Amough, 'Ben Okri's Literary Works and the Enduring Relevance of Postcolonial Theory in African Literature', Journal of Language and Communication 6.1 (March 2019), pp. 1-10. [ available online ]
  • Agofure, Joyce Onoromhenre, 'Natural and Imagined Ecologies: An Ecocritical Study of Helon Habila's Oil on Water and Ben Okri's Stars of the New Curfew', ND?Ñ?DE: Calabar Journal of The Humanities 13 (2018), pp. 249-259. [ available online ]
  • Aizenberg, Edna, 'The Famished Road: Magical Realism and the Search for Social Equity', Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 43 (1995), pp. 25-30; also in Spanish: 'The Famished Road: El realismo magico y la busqueda de la equidad social', Reflejos 3 (December 1994), pp. 26-31.
  • Aizenberg, Edna, '"I Walked with a Zombie": The Pleasures and Perils of Postcolonial Hybridity', World Literature Today, 73.3 (Summer 1999), pp. 461-466; also in Spanish: '"I Walked with a Zombie": Placeres y peligros de la hibridez poscolonial', in Carlos A. Jauregui and Juan Pablo Dabove (eds.), Heterotropias: Narrativas de identidad y alteridad latinoamericana (Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, University of Pittsburgh, 2003), pp. 135-147.
  • Akubuiro, Henry, 'Ben Okri: Blending the Identity and Culture of the Nigerian Writer in The Famished Road', Daily Sun (Nigeria), 3 March 2012. [ available online ]
  • Aladaylah, Majed Hamed, 'Making Sense of the "Freedom Scapes" in Ben Okri's In Arcadia', Asian Social Science 9.2 (2013), pp. 305-309. [ available online ]
  • Aldea, Eva, 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road (1991): The Aesthetic of Possibilities', in her Magical Realism and Deleuze: The Indiscernibility of Difference in Postcolonial Literature (London and New York: Continuum, 2011), pp. 136-145.
  • Alowonle, Khabyr, 'Foregrounded Syntactic Structures and Deviation as Markers of Freedom: A Stylistic Reading of Ben Okri's Tales of Freedom', Studies in Literature and Language 23.3 (2021), pp. 17-24. [ available online ]
  • Anyanwu, Patricia Ngozi, 'Nation, Nationness in The African Novel: A Fanonian Interpretation of Ben Okri's Flowers and Shadows', Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science 5.5 (2017), pp. 19-26. [ available online ]
  • Aparna, K. Renukadevi, 'Fantasy as Reality: A Look at Ben Okri's Incidents at the Shrine', Journal of Natural Remedies 21.8 (2020).
  • Aparna, R., 'Transcending the Borders of the Real and the Unreal in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Literary Endeavour 10 (March 2019),pp. 391-394. [ available online ]
  • Armstrong, Andrew, 'Speaking through the Wound: Irruption and Memory in the Writing of Ben Okri and Festus Iyayi', Journal of African Cultural Studies 13.2 (December 2000), pp. 173-83.
  • Asadu, Emmanuela Uzoma, 'Leadership, Human Degradation and Social Change in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences 8.1 (2015), pp. 138-146. [ available online ]
  • Asempasah, Rogers, 'Exile and Postcolonial National Redemption in Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus', African Studies 79.3 (2020), pp. 267-284.
  • Ashcroft, Bill, 'Knowing Time: Temporal Epistemology and the African Novel', in Brenda Cooper & Robert Morrell (eds.), Africa-centred Knowledges: Crossing Fields and Worlds (Woodbridge: James Currey, 2014), pp. 64-77. Includes a short discussion of The Famished Road and Infinite Riches.
  • Awitor, Francis Etsè, 'Portraying a Tragic Hero in Ben Okri's Flowers and Shadows: The Case of Jonan Okwe', AIC 15 (2015), pp. 127-133. [ available online ]
  • Awitor, Francis Etsè, '"Could the Subaltern Speak?" Patriarchy and Gender-Based Violence in Ben Okri's Dangerous Love', Journal of Gender, Ethnic and Cross-Cultural Studies 1.1 (January 2022), pp. 40-58. [ available online ]
  • Balzer, C. D., 'Mme-dolph and the Question of (Postcolonial) Art', Commonwealth 18.2 (Spring 1996), pp. 13-20. [ available online ]
  • Bamikunle, Aderemi, 'Ben Okri's An African Elegy', Savanna 17.1-2 (June-December 1996), pp. 61-68.
  • Bardolph, Jacqueline, 'Azaro, Saleem and Askar: Brothers in Allegory', Commonwealth 15.1 (1992), pp. 45-51.
  • Barhoun, Brahim, 'Hybridity in Ben Okri's Abiku Trilogy', Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 21 (2013), pp. 49-63. [ available online ]
  • Barhoun, Brahim, 'The Carnivalesque in Ben Okri's Magical Realist Abiku Trilogy: Subverting Colonial Discourse', ?y??: Journal of Language, Literature and Popular Culture 1.1 (2019), pp. 37-49. [ available online ]
  • Barker, Clare, '"Redreaming the World": Ontological Difference and Abiku Perception in The Famished Road', in her Postcolonial Fiction and Disability: Exceptional Children, Metaphor and Materiality (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 158-188.
  • Bayer, Gerd, 'The Spirit of Conviviality and the Demons of the Marketplace in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 77-91.
  • Birat, Kathie, 'The Liberty of Limitations: The Paradoxes of Narration in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Commonwealth: Essays and Studies 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 101-110.
  • Birat, Kathie, '"Through a Bending Light': Ben Okri's Poetic Commitment', Commonwealth: Essays and Studies 38.1 (Autumn 2015), pp. 45-55.
  • Birat, Kathie, 'The Dialogue of the Big and the Small: The Poetry of Ben Okri', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1065-1086.
  • Boehmer, Elleke, 'The Nation as Metaphor in Contemporary African Literature', in Robert Clark and Piero Boitani (eds.), English Studies in Transition: Papers from the ESSE Inaugural Conference (London / New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 320-331.
  • Boehmer, Elleke, 'The Nation as Metaphor: Ben Okri, Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera', in her Stories of Women: Gender and narrative in the postcolonial nation (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2005), pp. 140-157.
  • Boehmer, Elleke, 'Postcolonial Writing, Terror, and Continuity: Okri, D'Aguiar, NourbeSe Philip, Shire', in her Postcolonial Poetics: 21st-Century Critical Readings (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp. 63-85.
  • Bond, Paul, 'Poet Ben Okri on London's Grenfell Tower fire: "It has revealed the undercurrents of our age"', World Socialist Web Site, 11 September 2017. Short article about Ben Okri's poem 'Grenfell Tower, June, 2017'. [ available online ]
  • Bonnici, Thomasb, 'The Trope of Displacement in Ben Okri's Short Stories', Revista Unimar: Ciências Humanas e Sociais 19.1 (1997), pp. 25-39.
  • Brazzelli, Nicoletta, 'Postcolonial Transformations: The Forest in Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Le Simplegadi 15.17 (November 2017), pp. 151-161. [ available online ]
  • Breure, Marnel, 'De maskerdans van Ben Okri', in her In het spoor van de albatros: Vertellingen van verplaatsing (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Perdu, 1995), pp. 95-108.
  • Briault Manus, Vicki, '"Redreaming the World": From Orature to Emerging Genres in African Writing, with Reference to Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 121-135.
  • Brooks de Vita, Novella, 'Abiku Babies: Spirit Children and Human Bonding in Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak!, and Tina McElroy Ansa's Baby of the Family', Griot 24.1 (Spring 2005), pp. 18-24.
  • Brown, Aaron, 'Family Politics: Negotiating the Family Unit as a Creative Force in Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen and Ben Okri's
    • The Famished Road', in Abimbola Adelakun & Toyin Falola (eds.), Art, Creativity, and Politics in Africa and the Diaspora (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp. 69-82.
  • Brückner, Thomas, 'Ben Okri: Vom Erblühen der Verwesung im Verborgenen der Geschichte', in Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig, Siegmund Brauner and Herrmann Jungraithmayr (eds.), IX. Afrikanistentag: Beitrage zur afrikanischen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft, Leipzig 24.-26. September 1992 (Köln: Köppe Verlag, 1993), pp. 219-234. In German.
  • Busari, N.Temitayo, 'Redefining the "Mythical" and the "Historical" in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Journal of Black and African Arts and Civilization (JBAAC) 4.1 (July 2010), pp. 7-17.
  • Carbonieri, Divanize, 'Hibridismo e simultaneidade em The Famished Road de Ben Okri', Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture, 30.1 (2008), pp. 53-62. [ available online ]
  • Carbonieri, Divanize, & Adilson Vagner de Oliveira, 'A noção de dispêndio no contexto pós-colonial: uma análise de um conto de Ben Okri', Acta Scientiarum: Language and Culture 41.2 (July-December 2019). On 'The Dream Vendor's August'. In Portuguese. [ available online ]
  • Cavone, V., 'The face of the Medusa. Ben Okri: dalla "famished road" alle "magical roads"', Quaderni 7 (1996), pp, 27-65. In Italian.
  • Cezair-Thompson, Margaret, 'Beyond the Postcolonial Novel: Ben Okri's The Famished Road and its "Abiku" Traveller', Journal of Commonwealth Literature 31.2 (1996), pp. 33-45.
  • Chaudet, Chloé, 'Peindre une autre réalité porteuse d'espoir: L'Engagement au-delà de la dénonciation dans Dangerous Love de Ben Okri (1996) et Historias marginales de Luis Sepúlveda (2000)', Revue de Littérature Comparée 3.347 (July-September 2013), pp. 305-320, 387-388, 389-400.
  • Chetty, Rajendra & Matthew Curr, 'Humiliated Consciousness in Ronnie Govender's The Lahnee's Pleasure and Ben Okri's In Arcadia', English Academy Review 38.1 (2021), pp. 39-51.
  • Choudhury, Saradashree, 'Folklore and Society in Transition: A Study of The Palm-Wine Drinkard and The Famished Road', African Journal of History and Culture 6.1 (2015), pp. 3-11. [ available online ]
  • Chikogu, Ray N., 'Selectional Restriction Rule Violation and the Explication of Fantasy in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Nigerian Journal of the Humanities 15 (2008), pp. 152-168. Journal based at the University of Benin, Nigeria.
  • Chikogu, Ray N., 'The Aesthetics and Stylistic Significance of Naming in Ben Okri's The Famished Road Cycle', Journal of the Literary Society of Nigeria (forthcoming).
  • Chikogu, Ray N. and Jennifer J. Owivri, 'Parallelism as Linguistic Manipulation in Ben Okri's "Lament of the Images"', IRORO: A Journal of Arts 13.1&2 (2008), pp. 89-102. Journal based at Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma-Nigeria.
  • Chinedu, Ezekwesili Chinyere, 'Ideology and the Pursuit of Desire in Ben Okri's Starbook', International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature 8.3 (2019), pp. 1-4. [ available online ]
  • Chukwumah, Ignatius, 'The Figure with Recurrent Presence: The Defiant Hero in Nigerian Narratives', Acta Scientiarum 36.1 (January-March 2014), pp. 73-82. Partly deals with The Famished Road. [ available online ]
  • Chukwumah, Ignatius, 'The Phenomenon of Exile as a Mutant Strain in Nigerian Narratives', Nsukka Journal of the Humanities 22 (2014), pp. 213-220. Partly deals with The Famished Road. [ available online ]
  • Chukwumah, Ignatius, 'From Realism to Fantasy: The Poetics of Setting in Ben Okri's Narratives', Nordic Journal of African Studies 24.1 (2015), pp. 23-44. [ available online ]
  • Cooper, Brenda, 'Out of the centre of my forehead, an eye opened: Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Magical Realism in West African Fiction: Seeing with a Third Eye (London: Routledge, 1998), 67-114.
  • Cooper, Brenda, 'Snapshots of Postcolonial Masculinities: Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimming-Pool Library and Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Journal of Commonwealth Literature 34.1 (1999), pp. 135-157.
  • Cooper, Brenda, 'A Boat, a Mask, Two Photographers and a Manticore: African Fiction in a Global Context', Pretexts: Studies in Writing and Culture 9.1 (July 2000), pp. 63-76.
  • Cooper, Brenda, 'Landscapes, Forests and Borders within the West African Global Village', in Jamie S. Scott and Paul Simpson Housley (eds.), Mapping the Sacred: Religion, Geography and Postcolonial Literatures (Amsterdam: Rodopi, Cross/Cultures Series, 2001), pp. 275-293.
  • Cooper, Brenda, 'The West African Magical Realist Novel: Syl Cheney-Coker's The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar, Ben Okri's The Famished Road, and Kojo Laing's Woman of the Aeroplanes', in Lokangaka Losambe (ed.), An Introduction to the African Prose Narrative (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004), pp. 209-242.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'Ben Okri e il nuovo "Orfeo africano": Una lettura mitica di "When the Lights Return"', Confronto Letterario 13.25 (May 1996), pp. 373-386.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta,'The Artist's "Negotiations": A Reading of Ben Okri's Stars of the New Curfew', in Giovanni Iamartino, Marialuisa Bignami and Carlo Pagetti (eds.), The Economy Principle in English: Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Perspectives, Proceedings of the XIX Conference of the Associazione Italiana di Anglistica, Milan, 21-23 October 1999 (Milan: Edizioni Unicopli, 2002), pp. 480-491.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'Metaphors of Initiation in Ben Okri's Flowers and Shadows', in Carmela Nocera, Gemma Persico and Rosario Portale (eds.), Rites of Passage: Rational/Irrational, Natural/Supernatural, Local/Global (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2003), pp. 105-120.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'Ben Okri and the Modern Storyteller', in Alessandra Contenti, Maria Paola Guarducci and Paola Splendore (eds.), Step Across This Line: come si interroga il testo postcoloniale, Proceedings of the 3rd AISLI Conference (Venice: Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, 2004), pp. 207-216.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'The Fruit of Much Restlessness: Literary Creation and Revision According to Ben Okri', in Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Wolfgang Görtschacher (eds.), The Author as Reader: Textual Visions and Revisions, Salzburg Studies in English Literature and Culture SEL & C vol. 2 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2005), pp. 245-259.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'The Poet as Activist: Models of Commitment in Dennis Brutus and Ben Okri', Journal of the Odisha Association for English Studies 2.1 (2012), pp. 49-58.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'Hunger and Food Metaphors in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 92-108.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'Transcending Historical Violence: Uses of Myth and Fable in Ben Okri's Starbook', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1118-1134.
  • Costantini, Mariaconcetta, 'Representations of the African Diaspora in Ben Okri's Fiction', in Jude V. Nixon and Mariaconcetta Costantini (eds.), Becoming Home: Diaspora and the Anglophone Transnational (Wilmington: Vernon, 2022), pp. 47-74.
  • Coundouriotis, Eleni, 'Landscapes of Forgetfulness: re-inventing the historical in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Daniel Gover, John Conteh-Morgan and Jane Bryce (eds.), The Post-Colonial Condition of African Literature (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000), pp. 41-48.
  • Coundouriotis, Eleni, 'Things of Poverty and War: Ben Okri and Thing Theory', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1087-1099.
  • Coussy, Denise, 'Past and Present: Ben Okri's worlds of enchantment', in André Viola, Jacqueline Bardolph and Denise Coussy, New Fiction in English from Africa: West, East and South (Amsterdam / Atlanta: Rodopi, Cross/Cultures Series, 1998), pp. 12-21.
  • Cribb, Timothy, 'Transformations in the Fiction of Ben Okri', in Anna Rutherford (ed.), From Commonwealth to Postcolonial (Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1992), pp. 145-150.
  • Cribb, T.J., 'In the Shadow of Language: From Joyce to Okri', in T.J. Cribb (ed.), Imagined Commonwealths: Cambridge Essays on Commonwealth and International Literature in English (Houndmills / New York: Macmillan / St. Martin's, 1999), pp. 105-124.
  • Curr, Matthew, 'An Anzalduan Reading of Ben Okri's In Arcadia (2002)', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 36.3 (September 2020), pp. 36-48.
  • Dandy, Jo, 'Magic and Realism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Songs of Enchantment and Astonishing the Gods: An Examination of Conflicting Cultural Influences and Narrative Traditions', in Kiss and Quarrel: Yoruba/English, Strategies of Mediation (Birmingham University African Studies Series No.5; Birmingham: Centre of West African Studies, 2000), pp. 45-63.
  • Darie, Daniela-Irina, 'A New Mask for Olorun: The Syncretic Mythopoeia of the African Novel in the 20th Century', Proceedings of the International Conference 'Communication, Context and Interdisciplinarity', vol. 3 (Tîrgu-Mures: "Petru Maior" University Press, 2014), pp. 1192-1203. [ available online ]
  • De, Asis, 'Torn between Territories: The Yoruba Abiku in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Litscape 7.1 (2012), pp. 71-79.
  • De, Asis, 'Africa to me Now: Ben Okri's The Famished Road Sequence as Dreams of Transformation', Middle Flight 2.1 (2013), pp. 104-112.
  • de Bruijn, Esther, 'Coming to Terms with New Ageist Contamination: Cosmopolitanism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Research in African Literatures 38.4 (Winter 2007), pp. 170-186.
  • Deandrea, Pietro, 'The Rise of West African Magical Realism: Ben Okri: The abiku's double vision', in his Fertile Crossings: Metamorphoses of Genre in Anglophone West African Literature (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, Cross/Cultures Series, 2002), pp. 47-71.
  • Deandrea, Pietro, 'Beyond Magical Realism: An etherised invisibility: Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods', Fertile Crossings: Metamorphoses of Genre in Anglophone West African Literature (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, Cross/Cultures Series, 2002), pp. 82-92.
  • Digvijay, 'Unhistoried Cravings: Corruption of Identity in Ben Okri and Aravind Adiga's Fiction', International Journal of Information Movement, 2.3 (July 2017), pp. 179-182. [ available online ]
  • Doloughan, Fiona J., 'Writing with an Accent: Components of Style in the Intercultural Narrative', Language and Intercultural Communication 4.1-2 (2004), p. 39-48.
  • Doloughan, Fiona J., Contemporary Narrative: Textual Production, Multimodality and Multiliteracies (London and New York: Continuum, 2011), pp. 118-120. On In Arcadia.
  • Eccard, Jonathan, 'Revaluating African Historicities: Okri's Three-Volume Cycle', in Robert Cancel and Winifred Woodhull (eds.), African Diasporas: Ancestors, Migrations and Borders (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2008), pp. 143-158.
  • Elder, Arlene A., 'Narrative Journeys: From Orature to Postmodernism in Soyinka's The Road and Okri's The Famished Road', in Hal Wylie and Bernth Lindfors (eds.), Multiculturalism and Hybridity in African Literatures (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000), pp. 409-416.
  • Elze-Volland, Jens Frederic, 'Precarity and Picaresque in Contemporary Nigerian Prose: An Exemplary Reading of Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Jennifer Wawrzinek and J.K.S. Makokha (eds.), Negotiating Afropolitanism: Essays on Borders and Spaces in Contemporary African Literature and Folklore (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, 2011), pp. 47-58.
  • Ernest, Oko Eze, 'Postcolonial Realities in Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment, nternational Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature 8.2 (February 2020), pp. 1-7. [ available online ]
  • Faris, Wendy B., 'Scenes of Enchantment: Visionary Style in Ben Okri's Dangerous Love, Research in African Literatures 46.1 (Spring 2015), pp. 127-141.
  • Fernández Vázquez, José Santiago, 'La construcción del sujeto artístico en Dangerous Love de Ben Okri', in José Luis Camarés Lage, Carmen Escobedo de Tapia and Luis Bueno Alonso (eds.), El Discurso Artístico en Oriente y Occidente: Semejanzas y Contrastes, vol 1 (Oviedo: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Oviedo, 1997), pp. 403-415. In Spanish.
  • Fernández Vázquez, José Santiago, 'The Pilgrim's Progress through the Mind: The Politics of Epistemology in Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness', in Fernando Galván and Mercedes Bengoechea (eds.), On Writing (and) Race in Contemporary Britain (Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de Publicationes de la Universidad de Alcalá, 1999), pp. 107-114.
  • Fernández Vázquez, José Santiago, 'Recharting the Geography of Genre: Ben Okri's The Famished Road as a Postcolonial Bildungsroman', Journal of Commonwealth Literature 37.2 (2002), pp. 85-107.
  • Fernández Vázquez, José-Santiago, 'Journeys of Artistic and Social Exploration: Katabatic Influences in Ben Okri's Fiction', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1151-1169.
  • Fox, Alistair Graeme, 'In Search of the Postmodern Utopia: Ben Okri's In Arcadia', Portal 2.2 (July 2005). [ available online ]
  • Fulford, Sarah, 'Ben Okri, the Aesthetic, and the Problem with Theory', Comparative Literature Studies 46.2 (2009), pp. 233-260. On The Famished Road, The Landscapes Within and Dangerous Love.
  • Gadoin, Isabelle, 'In Arcadia, de Ben Okri : du topos littéraire à l'énigme du tableau', Polysèmes: Revue d'études intertextuelles et intermédiales 19 (2018), 12 pp. [ available online ]
  • Gaines, Kevin K., 'Reflections on Ben Okri, Goenawan Mohamad, and the 2020 Global Uprisings', Journal of Transnational American Studies 12.1 (2021), pp. 9-44. [ available online ]
  • Gane, Gillian, 'The Forest and the Road in Novels by Chinua Achebe and Ben Okri', Alternation 14.2 (2007), pp. 40-52. [ available online ]
  • García Ramírez, Paula, 'Los ninos obanye/abiku en la obra de Chinua Achebe y Ben Okri', Grove 1 (1996), pp. 45-60.
  • Garnier, Xavier, 'L'Invisible dans The Famished Road de Ben Okri', Commonwealth 15.2 (Spring 1993), pp. 50-57.
  • Garuba, Harry, 'Ben Okri's Animist Realism and the Famished Genre', Guardian (Lagos), 13 March 1993, p. 23.
  • Gibbons, Fiachra, 'Okri has harsh words for Britain', Guardian, 30 January 2003.
  • Gray, Rosemary, '"A Moment in Timelessness": Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods (1995; 1999)', Analecta Husserliana 86 (2007), pp. 23-35.
  • Gray, Rosemary, '"Domesticating infinity" in Ben Okri's Mental Fight and Astonishing the Gods', English Academy Review 24.1 (May 2007), pp. 85-101.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Apologia pro Ben Okri's In Arcadia: A neglected masterpiece?', English Academy Review 26.1 (May 2009), pp. 41-52.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Mythic Conjunctions in Transit: Ontopoiesis in Ben Okri's An African Elegy and Mental Fight and Wole Soyinka's A Shuttle in the Crypt', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 28.4 (2012), pp. 25-37.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'When Chaos Is the God of an Era: Rediscovering an Axis Mundi in Ben Okri's Starbook (2007)', Research in African Literatures 44.1 (2013), pp. 128-145.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'The Creative Imagination in Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within (1981)', English Academy Review 30.2 (2013), pp. 21-30.
  • Gray, Rosemary, '"A Lucid Stream of Everywhereness" in Ben Okri's Wild (2012): A Postmodern Perspective', International Journal of African Renaissance Studies 8.1 (2013), pp. 143-152.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Phenomenological Ecology in Two Occasional Poems by Ben Okri', International Journal of African Renaissance Studies 9.2 (2014), pp. 227-236.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Ontopoiesis in Ben Okri's Poetic Oeuvre and A Time for New Dreams (2011)', Analecta Husserliana 116 (2014), pp. 49-57.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within (1981): The Unfinished Story', Analecta Husserliana 119 (2016), pp. 73-82.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Promoting the Poetic Cause in Ben Okri's Stokus from Tales of freedom (2009)', Literator 37.1 (2016). [ available online ]
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Redreaming Ways of Seeing: Ben Okri's Intuitive Creativity', Tydskrif vir letterkunde 55.2 (2018), pp. 73-90. [ available online ]
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Ben Okri's Aphorisms: "Music on the Wings of a Soaring Bird"', Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 7.2 (2018), pp. 17-24. [ available online ]
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Sowing "A Quilt of Harmony": An Eco-Phenomenological Reading of Ben Okri's "Lines in Potentis" from Wild (2012)', Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research 121 (2018), pp. 281-290.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Ben Okri's Stoku, "The Standeruppers" (2017): The Frightening Irony of the Anthropocene', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 34.2 (June 2018), pp. 1-12.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Ben Okri's Wild (2012): The Muse of Archaeology', English in Africa 46.1 (2019), pp. 95-110.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Of Magic: Ben Okri's The Mystery Feast and The Magic Lamp', Imbizo 10.1 (April 2019), 15 pp.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Countering Mind-forg'd Manacles in Ben Okri's The Freedom Artist (2019)', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 36.3 (September 2020), pp. 49-68.
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Apprehending Global Civilisation in The Magic Lamp: Giving the World a New Literature', English Academy Review 37.2 (2020), pp. 34-48.
  • Gray, Rosemary, '"The Perfection of Chaos": Heeding the Nostalgic Imperative in Selected Works by Ben Okri', in The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta, ed. by Tanure Ojaide and Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega (New York: Routledge, 2021).
  • Gray, Rosemary, 'Ben Okri's Generational Protest Poem, "The Incandescence of the Wind"', Scrutiny2 (forthcoming).
  • Green, Matthew, 'Dreams of Freedom: Magical Realism and Visionary Materialism in Okri and Blake', Romanticism 15.1 (January 2009), pp. 18-32.
  • Guignery, Vanessa 'To See or not to See: Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 1-16.
  • Guignery, Vanessa, 'A Voice Without a Name: Choruses and Storytellers in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 79-89.
  • Guo, Deyan, 'Trauma and History in Ben Okri's Fiction', Cross-Cultural Communication 8.6 (2012), pp. 34-41. [ available online ]
  • Gutleben, Christian, 'African Gothic: Ben Okri's Aesthetics of the Uncanny in The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 47-58.
  • Halim, Amira, 'Perceiving Ben Okri's The Famished Road: The Role of Postcolonial Hybridity', Revue Sciences Humaines 32.2 (June 2021), pp. 721-735. [ available online ]
  • Hawley, John C., 'Ben Okri's Spirit Child: Abiku Migration and Post-modernity', Research in African Literatures 26.1 (Spring 1995), pp. 30-39.
  • Hemminger, Bill, 'The Way of the Spirit', Research in African Literatures 32.1 (Spring 2001), pp. 66-82.
  • Highfield, Jonathan, 'No Longer Praying on Borrowed Wine: Agroforestry and Food Sovereignty in Ben Okri's Famished Road Trilogy', in Byron Caminero-Santangelo and Garth Myers (eds.), Environment at the Margins: Literary and Environmental Studies in Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2012), pp. 141-158. Also published as Jonathan Bishop Highfield, 'Listening to the Spirits of the Forest: Agroforestry and the Famished Road Cycle', Food and Foodways in African Narratives: Community, Culture, and Heritage (New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 132-141.
  • Hoffman, Donald, 'Seeing Things: "Magical Realism" from Tutuola to Okri', in Edris Makward, Mark Lilleleht and Ahmed Saber (eds.), North-South Linkages and Connections in Continental and Diaspora African Literatures (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2005), pp. 487-501.
  • Hounhouayenou-Toffa, Ernest, 'Defamiliarizing Reality: AS IF and SEEM in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Etudes de stylistique anglaise 11 (2017), pp. 115-129. [ available online ]
  • Hugo, Esthie, 'A "Violence Just Below the Skin": Atmospheric Terror and Racial Ecologies in Ben Okri's "In the City of Red Dust"', ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (forthcoming).
  • Huang, Yihua, & Yanbing Zeng, 'A Study on the Perspectives in The Famished Road', CSCanada: Studies in Literature and Language 19.3 (2019), pp. 69-74. [ available online ]
  • Igbokwe, I.C. & A.E. Chukwudi-Ofoedu, 'Tug of Voice: Author Versus Narrator in Okri's The Famished Road', Lwati 11.2 (2014), pp. 120-127.
  • Ikechi, Emeka, 'The Style of Ben Okri in Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches', African Research Review 9.4 (September 2015), pp. 148-156. [ available online ]
  • Ikechi, Emeka, 'The Reign of Evil in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', AFRREV LALIGENS: An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies 4.3 (2015).
  • Ikechi, Emeka, 'Stylistic Devices in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and Humanities 5.1 (January 2016), pp. 245-253. [ available online ]
  • Ikechi, Emeka, 'A Society Under Siege: A Study of Ben Okri's Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches', African Research Review 10.1 (January 2016), pp. 234-242. [ available online ]
  • James, Erin, 'Bioregionalism, Postcolonial Literatures, and Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty and Karla Armbruster (eds.), The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2012), pp. 263-277.
  • James, Erin, 'National Myths and Ontological Boundaries in Ben Okri's The Famished Road Trilogy', in her The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), pp. 166-203.
  • Jeyifo, Biodun, 'The Voice of a Lost Generation: The Novels of Ben Okri', Guardian (Lagos), 12 July 1986.
  • Jojo Verge, Violetta, 'When to call it African Art? The Cases of Ofili in the Brooklyn Museum and Omovo in Dangerous Love', Atlantic Literary Review 2.4 (October-December 2001).
  • Jones, Eldred D., 'Childhood before & after Birth', African Literature Today 21 (1998), pp. 1-8.
  • Joseph-Vilain, Mélanie, 'The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Family Romance?', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 67-78.
  • Jowitt, David, 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road: A Reading', Journal of Communication, Culture and Philosophy 1 (1996), pp. 47-62.
  • Kalu, Johnson, 'Post-Mordernism and New Nigerian Literature', Sunday Vanguard (Nigeria), 12 March 2000, p. 29.
  • Kamalu, Ikenna, 'Metaphor and the Rhetoric of Postcolonial Politics in Ben Okri's Fiction', CONTEXT: Journal of Social & Cultural Studies, 11.1 (March 2008), pp. 26-46. [ available online ]
  • Kamalu, Ikenna, 'The Metaphor of Abiku: Politics, Ideology and Identity Construction in Ben Okri's Fiction', Journal of Black and African Arts and Civilization (JBAAC) 4.1 (July 2010), pp. 43-61.
  • Kamalu, Ikenna, 'Abiku in Ben Okri's Imagination of Nationhood: A Metaphorical Interpretation of Colonial-Postcolonial Politics', African Literature Today 32 (2014).
  • Kamalu, Ikenna, 'Discursive Representations of Social Meaning in Ben Okri's Abiku Fiction', Marang: Journal of Language and Literature 28.1 (2017), pp. 41-56.
  • Kehinde, Ayo, 'Narrating the African City from the Diaspora: Lagos as a Trope in Ben Okri and Chika Unigwe's Short Stories', African Identities 5.2 (August 2007), pp. 231-246. Also published in Fassil Demissie (ed.), Postcolonial African Cities: Imperial Legacies and Postcolonial Predicaments (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 73-88.
  • Kehinde, Ayo, 'Rulers Against Writers, Writers Against Rulers: The Failed Promise of the Public Sphere in Postcolonial Nigerian Fiction', Journal of English Studies 8 (2010), pp. 73-102. Also published in Lumina 21.1 (March 2010), Africa Development 35.1&2 (2010), pp. 27-53, and Matatu 39 (2011), pp. 221-251. Contains a section on Ben Okri's The Famished Road. [ available online ]
  • Kehinde, Owoeye Durojaiye, 'Norms of Ambivalence in Setting, Plot and Point-of-View in the Anti-Realist World of Salman Rushdie and Ben Okri', International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature 1.6 (November 2012), pp. 210-221. [ available online ]
  • Kelly, Kristine N., 'Nomadic London: Reading Wandering in Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners and Ben Okri's "Disparities"', Ariel 50.1 (January 2019), pp. 63-90.
  • Kochupurackal, John Kuriakose, 'Magical Realism in Ben Okri's Novel The Famished Road', Albaha University Journal of Human Sciences 26 (March 2021), pp. 377-389. [ available online ]
  • Kukathas, Chandran, 'The capitalist road: the riddle of the market from Karl Marx to Ben Okri', Quadrant 42.4 (April 1998), 49ff. Also published in Literature and the Economics of Liberty: Spontaneous Order in Culture, ed. by Paul A. Cantor and Stephen Cox (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010), pp. 469-498.
  • Lanone, Catherine, 'Parasites, or the Politics of Textual Poetics in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 57-66.
  • Larsen, Stephan, 'Whose Magic? Whose Realism? Reflections on Magical Realism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Anders Cullhed and Lena Rydholm (eds.), True Lies Worldwide: Fictionality in Global Contexts (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), pp. 275-288.
  • Lemus, Silvia, 'La Escritura, el Box y Nietzsche: Una Entravista con Ben Okri, un Fabulador que Muerde', Nexos (July 1995), pp. 55-63.
  • Lim, David C.L., 'Redreaming the World: Multidimensional Reality in the Selected Novels of Ben Okri', Southeast Asian Review of English 34-35, pp. 1-107. Tentative reference.
  • Lim, David C.L., 'Impartial Charioteer or Manufacturer of Reality? An Interrogation of the Governor-General in Ben Okri's Infinite Riches',Southeast Asia Review of English 45 (1997), pp. 19-33.
  • Liman, A.R., 'Postcolonial Discourse: The Case of Ben Okri's The Famished Road', CALEL 1.1 (1997).
  • Lincoln, Sarah L., '"Petro-Magic Realism": Ben Okri's Inflationary Modernism', in Mark Wollaeger and Matt Eatough (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 249-266. On the collection Stars of the New Curfew, esp. the stories 'Stars of the New Curfew' and 'What the Tapster Saw'.
  • López Rodríguez, Marta Sofia, 'Ben Okri: Politics in the World of Spirits', in Fernando Galván and Mercedes Bengoechea (eds.), On Writing (and) Race in Contemporary Britain (Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de Publicationes de la Universidad de Alcalá, 1999), pp. 101-105.
  • MacDonald, Ian, '"I Can't Go Forward, I Must Go Back": Ben Okri's (P)anachronistic Utopias', in Moradewun Adejunmobi and Carli Coetzee (eds.), Routledge Handbook of African Literature (Abingdon, Routledge, 2019).
  • Maja-Pearce Adewale, 'Darkness Visible', A Mask Dancing: Nigerian Novelists of the Eighties (London: Hans Zell Publishers, 1992), pp. 83-103. On Flowers and Shadows and The Landscapes Within.
  • Mahmutovic, Adnan, 'Reality as an Unfinished Project: A Re-review of The Famished Road', Literary Magic Magazine (Spring-Summer 2009). Short essay. [ available online ]
  • Mahmutovic, Adnan, 'History as the Road of Existential Struggle in The Famished Road', Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies 1.3&4 (2010), pp. 1-13. [ available online ]
  • Mahmutovic, Adnan, 'Revolution Revisited: The Politics of Dreaming in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 136-152.
  • Maithufi, Sope, 'The Inward and Outward Trajectories of the Shaman's Journeys: Mediation in Ben Okri's Dangerous Love and Zakes Mda's The Sculptors of Mapungubwe', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 31.2 (June 2015), pp. 81-93.
  • Maithufi, Sope, 'Mitshimbilo ('Wanderlust Disease'): Africa's Future in Zakes Mda's Sculptors of Mapungubwe and Two of Ben Okri's Novels', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 36.3 (September 2020), pp. 85-100. Partly deals with Astonishing the Gods and Dangerous Love.
  • Maithufi, Sope, & Rosemary Gray, 'Introduction: Revisiting Consciousness in Okri and Govender', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 36.3 (September 2020), pp. 20-25.
  • Mamudu, Ayo, 'Portrait of a Young Artist in Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within', Commonwealth 13.2 (Spring 1991), pp. 85-91.
  • Mangwanda, Marcel Khombe, 'Dream as a Journey of Self-discovery in Ben Okri's "Dreaming of Byzantium", Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 36.3 (September 2020), pp. 69-84.
  • Martinek, Thomas, 'Writing (in) the Migrant Space: Discursive Nervousness in Contemporary Nigerian Short Stories', in Marga Munkelt, Markus Schmitz, Mark Stein & Silke Stroh (eds.), Postcolonial Translocations: Cultural Representation and Critical Spatial Thinking (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2013), pp. 219-232. Partly deals with 'A Hidden History'.
  • Mathew, Binny, 'Death and Myth in a Dream Narrative: A Reading of Ben Okri's Novel Songs of Enchantment', Indian Review of World Literature in English 18.1 (January-June 2022), pp. 57-60. [ available online ]
  • Mathuray, Mark, 'Sacred Realism: Ben Okri's The Famished Road' in his On the Sacred in African Literature: Old Gods and New Worlds (Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 115-136.
  • Mathuray, Mark, 'The Famished Road after Postmodernism: African Modernism and the Politics of Subalternity', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1100-1117.
  • Mattoo, Insha, 'The Famished Road: A Coalescence of Conflicting Polarities', English Studies in India 25 (January 2017).
  • Mayer, Ruth, 'Magical Mystery Tours: Ben Okri, Ishmael Reed and the New Age of Africa', Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 45.3 (1997), p. 226-236.
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  • McCabe, Douglas, 'New Age Spirituality, Abiku and Hunger in The Famished Road', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 21-31.
  • Monnier, Fanny, 'Travelling The Famished Road of Ben Okri or How to Revolutionize the World by Revolving Inward', Commonwealth: Essays and Studies 42.1 (2019), 11 pp. [ available online ]
  • Moore, Gerald, 'Dialogism and The Famished Road', in Toyin Falola and Barbara Harlow (eds.), Essays in Honour of Bernth Lindfors: vol. 2, African writers and their readers (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002), pp. 415-429.
  • Murphy, Laura T., 'Geographies of Memory: Mapping Slavery's Recurrence in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in her Metaphor and the Slave Trade in West African Literature (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2012), pp. 75-105.
  • Nakai, Asako, 'Et in Arcadia Ego', Eigo Seinen/Rising Generation 148.12 (March 2003), p. 745.
  • Naumann, Michel, 'Literary Criticism and Third-World Literatures: a bridge or a toll-gate?', Commonwealth 17.1 (1994), pp. 40-44.
  • Niven, Alastair, 'Achebe and Okri: Contrasts in the Response to the Civil War', in Jacqueline Bardolph (ed.), Short Fiction in New Literatures in English: Proceedings of the Nice Conference of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (Nice: Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1989), pp. 277-283.
  • Njoku, T.U., 'The Artist and His Creative Development in The Nigerian Society: A Study of Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within', in Ebele Eko, Julius Ogu and Azubuike Iloeje (eds.), Literature and National Consciousness (Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books (Nigeria) Ltd, 1989), pp. 66-75.
  • Nnolim, Charles E., 'Ben Okri: Writer as Artist', Approaches to the African Novel: Essays in Analysis (London / Lagos / Port Harcourt: Saros International Publishers, 1992), pp. 173-189.
  • Nnolim, Charles E., 'The Time Is out of Joint: Ben Okri as a Social Critic', Commonwealth Novel in English 6.1-2 (Spring-Fall 1993), pp. 61-68.
  • Nwosu, Maik, 'The River, the Earth, and the Spirit World: Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, and the Novel in Africa ', in Tobias Robert Klein, Ulrike Auga and Viola Prüschenk (eds.), Matatu: Journal for African Culture and Society 35, Texts, Tasks, and Theories: Versions and Subversions in African Literatures 3 (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, 2007), pp. 93-109.
  • O'Brien, Louise, 'Utopianism and Universal Values in Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods', Compr(om)ising Post/Colonialism(s): Challenging Narratives and Practices, ed. Greg Ratcliffe and Gerry Turcotte (Sydney: Dangaroo, 2001), pp. 241-247.
  • Obi, Iwuanyanwu, 'Ben Okri as the Life Artist', Guardian Literary Series, 7 December 1991, p. 27.
  • Obobolo, Vincent P.A., 'Postcolonialism as a Reading Strategy: Ben Okri's The Famished Road', AFRREV LALIGENS: An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies 4.2 (May 2015), pp. 45-64. [ available online ]
  • Obumselu, Ben, 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road: A Re-evaluation', Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 48.1 (2011), pp. 26-38. Also published in Isidore Diala (ed.), Obumselu on African Literature: The Intellectual Muse (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019), pp. 206-221. [ available online ]
  • O'Connor, Maurice, '"Levántate, Lázaro!": La frontera permeable de la realidad en Ben Okri', in Rafael Vélez Núñez (ed.), La imaginación mítica: pervivencia y revisión de los mitos en la literatura en habla inglesa (Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz, 2002), pp. 235-248.
  • O'Connor, Maurice Frank, 'Writing from Memory: The Diasporic Discourse of Abdulrazak Gurnah and Ben Okri', Afroeuropa: Journal of Afroeuopean Studies 1.2 (2007).
  • O'Connor, Maurice Frank, 'Ben Okri as Cultural Translator', in Micaela Muñoz-Calvo, Carmen Buesa-Gómez and M. Ángeles Ruiz-Moneva (eds.), New Trends in Translation and Cultural Identity (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008), pp. 237-247.
  • O'Connor, Maurice, 'A Journey Towards Stillness: Modes of Renewal in Ben Okri's Starbook', Wasafiri 54 (23.2, June 2008), pp. 17-22.
  • O'Connor, Maurice, '"A Dangerous Love": Ben Okri's Persisting Commitment to Literary Experimentation', Atlantis 39.1 (2017), pp. 189-204. [ available online ]
  • Odhiambo, T., 'Writing in New Tongues: Re-Directions in the Works of Dambudzo Marechera and Ben Okri', Journal of Cultural Studies 8.3 (2010), pp. 339-356.
  • Ogbazi, Ifeyinwa J. & Ijeoma Lena Osita, 'Magic Realism as a Postmodern Device for Postcolonial Criticism: A Study of Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Nigerian Journal of African Studies 3.2 (2021), pp. 84-94. [ available online ]
  • Ogunbayo, Sola, 'Prophetic Myth in Selected Fiction of Ben Okri', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 28.4 (2012), pp. 38-56. Also published as Ogunbayo, Olusola, 'A Critical Analysis of Prophetic Myths in the Selection Fiction of Ben Okri', in Gbemisola A. Adeoti (ed.), African Literature and the Future (Dakar: Codesria, 2015), pp. 89-104.
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  • Ogunfolabi, Kayode Omoniyi, 'Representations of War and Peace in Selected Works of Ben Okri', in Toyin Falola and Hetty ter Haar (eds.), Narrating War and Peace in Africa (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2010), pp. 180-194.
  • Ogunfolabi, Kayode Omoniyi, 'Fictionalizing the Crisis of the Environment in Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment', in Toyin Falola and Emily Brownell (eds.), Landscape, Environment and Technology in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa (New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 273-290.
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  • Oha, Anthony C., 'A Syntactic Study of Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Ozo-mekuri Ndimele (ed.), In the Linguistic Paradise: A Festschrift for E. Nolue Emenanjo (Port Harcourt: M & J Grand Orbit Communications, 2019), pp. 187-199.
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  • Okpala, Jude Chudi, 'Deterritorialization, Black British Writers, and the Case of Ben Okri', in Lauri Ramey (ed.), BMa: The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review 6.2 (Spring 2001), pp. 97-113. Also published in R. Victoria Arana and Lauri Ramey (eds.), Black British Writing (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 145-159. [ available online ]
  • Okpala, Jude Chudi, 'Postcolonial Aesthetics and Black British Aesthetics', in 'Black' British Aesthetics Today, ed. R. Victoria Arana (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), pp. 50-63. Includes a discussion of the short story 'Stars of a New Curfew'.
  • Olaoluwa, Senayon S., 'Roland Barthes and the Judgment of History: A Reading of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Chetan Deshmane (ed.), Muses India: Essays on English-Language Writers from Mahomet to Rushdie (Jefferson: McFarland, 2013), pp. 75-88.
  • Oliva, Renato, 'Re-Dreaming the World: Ben Okri's Shamanic Realism', in Elsa Linguanti, Francesco Casotti and Carmen Concilio (eds.), Coterminous Worlds: Magical Realism and Contemporary Post-Colonial Literature in English (Amsterdam: Rodopi, Cross/Cultures Series, 1999), pp. 171-196.
  • Omhovère, Claire, 'Inconclusiveness in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 59-76.
  • Omoyele, Idowu, 'Secret, Dangerous Love', Guardian, 10 August 1998, p. 52.
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  • Otino, T.N., 'From Ben Okri Comes a Web of Nightmares', Guardian (Lagos), 14 January 1991.
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  • Owoeye, Durojaiye, 'Going Beyond Borders: Rushdie, Okri and the Deconstruction of Realism', in Arua E. Arua, Taiwo Abioye and Kehinde A. Ayoola (eds.), Language, Literature and Style in Africa: A Festschrift for Professor Christopher Olatunji Awonuga (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), pp. 22-43.
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  • Pandya, Digvijay & Vijay Anand, 'Search Of Identity: A Thematic Analysis of Ben Okri's Select Novels', European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine 7.7 (2020), pp. 6121-6125. [ available online ]
  • Parker, Michael, 'Hybrid Voices and Visions: The Short Stories of E. A. Markham, Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Patricia Duncker, and Jackie Kay', in Cheryl Alexander Malcolm and David Malcolm (eds.), A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), pp. 308-329.
  • Pathange, Monali Sahu, 'Between Colonial Ancestry and Postcolonial Identification: Locating "Filiation" and "Affiliation" in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Gnosis 5.1 (October 2018), pp. 76-86.
  • Pathange, Monali Sahu & P.V. Amith Kumar, ''Reading the "Hybrid" Mother: Representation of Divinity and Grotesqueness in the Mother Figure of Ben Okri's Abiku Trilogy', Lokaratna 14.2 (2021), pp. 115-134. [ available online ]
  • Peeren, Esther, 'The Postcolonial and/as the Spirit World : Theorizing the Ghost in Jacques Derrida, Achille Mbembe and Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Mélanie Joseph-Vilain, Judith Misrahi-Barak & Gerry Turcotte (eds.), Postcolonial Ghosts / Fantômes postcoloniaux (Montpellier: Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée; coll. Les Carnets du CERPAC 8, 2009), pp. 327-343. [ available online ]
  • Peeren, Esther, 'Everyday Ghosts and the Ghostly Everyday in Amos Tutuola, Ben Okri, and Achille Mbembe', in María del Pilar Blanco & Esther Peeren (eds.), Popular Ghosts: The Haunted Spaces of Everyday Culture (London: Continuuum: 2010), pp. 106-117. [ available online ]
  • Phillips, Maggi, 'Ben Okri's River Narratives: The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment', in Derek Wright (ed.), Contemporary African Fiction (Bayreuth: Breitinger, 1997), pp. 167-179.
  • Phillips, Maggi, 'Madame Koto: Grotesque Creatrix or the Paradox of Psychic Health?', in Alice Mills (ed.), Seriously Weird: Papers on the Grotesque (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), pp. 35-49.
  • Pont, Lourdes Torrelles, 'Failure to Listen to the Voice of the Ancestors: Ben Okri's Perception of Nigeria as an Abiku Country', in Brian J. Worsfold (ed.), The Art of Ageing: Textualizing the Phases of Life (Lérida: Department d'Anglés i Lingüística, Universitat de Lleida, 2005), pp. 155-164.
  • Pordzik, Ralph, 'An African Utopographer: Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods and the Quest for Postcolonial Utopia', Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik: A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture 48.1 (2000), pp. 44-56. See also his The Quest for Postcolonial Utopia: A Comparative Introduction to the Utopian novel in the New English Literatures (New York: Peter Lang, 2001), passim.
  • Porter, Abioseh Michael, 'Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within: A Metaphor for Personal and National Development', World Literature Written in English 28.2 (Autumn 1988), pp. 203-210.
  • Powers, Connor, 'Building an African Identity through Magical Realism: Cyclicality in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', North Texas Journal of Undergraduate Research 2.1 (2021), pp. 1-10. [ available online ]
  • Priebe, Richard K., 'Literature, Community, and Violence: Reading African Literature in the West, Post-9/11', Research in African Literatures 36.2 (Summer 2005), pp. 46-58. Partly on Ben Okri's Mental Fight.
  • Quayson, Ato, 'Esoteric Webwork as Nervous System: Reading the Fantastic in Ben Okri's Writing', in Abdulrazak Gurnah (ed.), Essays on African Writing II: A Re-Evaluation (Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, Studies in African Literature Series, 1995), pp. 144-158.
  • Quayson, Ato, 'Orality - (Theory) - Textuality: Tutuola, Okri and the Relationship of Literary Practice to Oral Traditions', in Stewart Brown (ed.), The Pressures of the Text: Orality, Texts and the Telling of Tales (Birmingham University African Studies Series No.4; Birmingham: University of Birmingham Centre for West African Studies, 1995), pp. 96-117.
  • Quayson, Ato, 'Protocols of Representation and the Problems of Constituting an African "Gnosis": Achebe and Okri', Yearbook of English Studies 27 (1997), pp. 137-149.
  • Quayson, Ato, 'Looking Awry: Tropes of Disability in Post-Colonial Writing', in Rod Mengham (ed.), An Introduction to Contemporary Fiction: International Writing in English since 1970 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999), pp. 53-68.
  • Rajini, P., 'History as an Inevitable Element in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Language in India 18.11 (November 2018), pp. 98-104. [ available online ]
  • Ramone, Jenni, 'Transforming Hunger into Power: Food and Resistance in Nigerian Culture', in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Food, ed. by Lorna Piatti-Farnell & Donna Lee Brien (Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2018). Partly deals with Okri's The Famished Road.
  • Ratau, Nelson S., 'Art and Spirituality in the Covid-19 Epoch: An Exploratory Reading of Ben Okri's Poetry', Pharos Journal of Theology 102, special edition 2 (2021), pp. 1-24. [ available online ]
  • Raynaud, Claudine, 'The Text as Riddle and Death's Many Ways: Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Études Anglaises 65.3 (July-September 2012), pp. 331-46.
  • Richards, David, 'A History of Interruptions: Dislocated Mimesis in the Writings of Neil Bissoondath and Ben Okri', in Anna Rutherford (ed.), From Commonwealth to Postcolonial (Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1992), pp. 74-82.
  • Ringrose, Christopher, 'Assessing Ben Okri's Fiction 1995-2005', in Philip Tew and Rod Mengham (eds.), British Fiction Today (London / New York: Continuum, 2006), pp. 78-90.
  • Ringrose, Christopher, '"The Mind Develops Wings": The Famished Road', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 33-43.
  • Ringrose, Chris, '"Redreaming the World": The Poetry of Ben Okri', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1135-1150.
  • Rosendahl Thomsen, Mads, 'African Mediations: Transcultural Writings in Achebe, Gourevitch, Eggers, and Okri', in Stefan Helgesson and Pieter Vermeulen (eds.), Institutions of World Literature: Writing, Translation, Markets (New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), pp. 126-139.
  • Rosendahl Thomsen, Mads, 'Negative Enchantment', in Lorna Burns and Katie Muth (Abningdon: Routledge, 2019), pp. 179-191. Partly deals with Starbook.
  • Roy, Anjali, 'Post-modern or Post-colonial? Magic Realism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Daniel Gover, John Conteh-Morgan and Jane Bryce (eds.), The Post-Colonial Condition of African Literature (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000), pp. 23-39.
  • Sancheti, Poora, 'Locating Ben Okri's The Age of Magic in a Cosmopolitan Framework', HyperCultura 8 (2019), pp. 1-13.
  • Sanchez-Arce, Ana Maria, 'Invisible Cities: Being and Creativity in Meera Syal's Anita and Me and Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods', in Philippe Laplace and Eric Tabuteau (eds.), Cities on the Margin , on the Margin of Cities: Representations of Urban Space in Contemporary Irish and British Fiction (Paris: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises, 2003), pp. 113-130.
  • Sankar, P., 'The Road Not Taken: Realistic Revelations of Magic Realism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Journal of The Gujarat Research Society 21.14 (December 2019), pp. 1253-1256. [ available online ]
  • Saranya, K., 'A Panorama of Societal Ramifications in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Infokara Research 8.8 (2019), pp. 189-193. [ available online ]
  • Saranya, K., & A. Selvalakshmi, 'Blend of Yoruba Culture and Magical Realism: A Recent Prospect in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Language in India 18.5 (May 2018), pp. 351-357. [ available online ]
  • Severac, Alain, 'Dangerous Love: Okri's Metafiction', in Jean-Pierre Durix (ed.), Theory and Literary Creation/Theorie et creation litteraire (Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, 1999), pp. 175-185.
  • Shamim, Imtiar, 'Ben Okri: Shoyshaber Biral Uththan', Daily Janakantha, 1995. In Bengali.
  • Sharma, Richa, 'Ben Okri's Fiction: A Critique of Postcolonial Discourse', Research Scholar 3.2 (May 2015), pp. 345-349. [ available online ]
  • Simola, Raisa, 'Immigrant stories of belonging by Ben Okri', in Toyin Falola and Barbara Harlow (eds.), Essays in Honour of Bernth Lindfors: vol. 2, African writers and their readers (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002), pp. 397-413. On 'Disparities' and 'A Hidden History'.
  • Smalligan, Laura M., 'Navigating between Worlds: Ben Okri's Abiku Child and the Oshogbo School of Art', Journal of Commonwealth Literature 46.2 (June 2011), pp. 359-375.
  • Smith, Andrew, 'Ben Okri and the freedom whose walls are closing in', Race & Class 47.1 (2005), pp. 1-13.
  • Smith, Anna, 'Dreams of Cultural Violence: Ben Okri and the Politics of the Imagination', World Literature Written in English 38.2 (2000), pp. 44-54.
  • Soliman, Munira, 'From past to present and future: the regenerative spirit of the Abiku', Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 24 (2004), p. 147-171 (pp. 164-166).
  • Soniya, K., 'The Significance of the Use of Masquerade in the Select Novels of Ben Okri', Language in India 19.8 (August 2019), pp. 308-315. [ available online ]
  • Sommer, Roy, 'Other Stories, Other Minds: The Intercultural Potential of Cognitive Approaches to Narrative', in Lars Bernaerts, Dirk De Geest, Luc Herman & Bart Vervaeck (eds.), Stories and Minds: Cognitive Approaches to Literary Narrative (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), pp. 155-174. Partly deals with The Famished Road.
  • Sowande, Bode, 'The Metaphysics of Abiku: A Literary Heritage in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Holger Ehling and Claus-Peter Holste-Von Mutius (eds.), No Condition is Permanent: Nigerian Writing and the Struggle for Democracy (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, 2001), pp. 73-81. Matatu 23-24.
  • Streitfeld, David, 'Of Time and the River', Book World, 21 June 1992, p. 15.
  • Strongman, Luke, 'Postmodernism and History: Magical realism and African cosmopolitanism: Ben Okri's The Famished Road', The Booker Prize and the Legacy of Empire (Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi, 2002), pp. 128-132.
  • Swann, Leah, 'Ben Okri and the Uses of Enchantment: A Journey towards Self-Knowledge', Meanjin 76.1 (Autumn 2017), pp. 152-158. [ available online ]
  • Syrkin, Elizabeth, 'Restoring the Kingdom of the Mind: Trans-realism and Transgressing Aesthetic Boundaries in Ben Okri's Fiction', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 45-55.
  • Teimouri, Mahdi, 'Time and Vision in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Sarjana 26.2 (2011), pp. 1-14.
  • Ten Kortenaar, Neil, 'Fictive States and the State of Fiction in Africa', Comparative Literature 52.3 (2000), pp. 228-245.
  • Tolofon, Andre, H., 'Ben Okri's Flowers and Shadows or The Difficult Happy Medium', in Shyam S. Agarwalla (ed.), The African Fiction (New Delhi: Prestige, 2000), pp. 47-55.
  • Tunca, Daria, 'Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within and Dangerous Love: Vision and Revision', Bell New Series 2: The Linguistics / Literature Interface (2004), pp. 85-101. [ available online ]
  • Tunca, Daria, 'Art is a Journey: Metaphor in Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within and Dangerous Love', in her Stylistic Approaches to Nigerian Fiction (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 100-121.
  • Tunca, Daria, 'Intersections on the "Map of Art": Metaphor in Ben Okri's Dangerous Love and Wilson Harris's The Mask of the Beggar', in Gordon Collier, Geoffrey V. Davis, Marc Delrez and Bénédicte Ledent (eds.), The Cross-Cultural Legacy: Critical and Creative Writings in Memory of Hena Maes-Jelinek (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2017), pp. 81-95.
  • Uprety, Sanjeev Kumor, 'Disability and Postcoloniality in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Third-World Novels', in Lennard J. Davis (ed.), The Disability Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 366-381.
  • Upstone, Sara, 'Writing the Post-Colonial Space: Ben Okri’s Magical City and the Subversion of Imperialism', Partial Answers 2.2 (June 2004), pp. 139-159. A revised version of the discussion on Okri was published in the chapter entitled 'The Ambiguous Utopia: Postcolonial Cities', in her Spatial Politics in the Postcolonial Novel (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009).
  • Uwasomba, Chijioke, 'Beyond Magic and Mysticism: The Politics of the Two Publics in Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Ife Studies in African Literature and the Arts (ISALA) 5 (2010).
  • Vambe, Maurice Taonezvi, 'Fantastic Subversion of the African Postcolony in Songs of Enchantment, Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 28.4 (2012), pp. 57-86.
  • van Niekerk, Leigh, 'Postmodernism's Pit Stops en Route to Utopia: Language, History and Death in Ben Okri's In Arcadia', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 28.4 (2012), pp. 14-24.
  • van Schaik, Pamela, 'The Significance of "Mental Fight" in Ben Okri and William Blake', Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuurwetenskap 28.4 (2012), pp. 87-97.
  • Wachira, Ibrahim, Mugo Muhia & Kimani Kaigai, '"My-house-without-a-door-an-egg": Reading an African Perspective of the Chronotope in Selected Works of Amos Tutuola, Ben Okri and Alain Mabanckou', Nairobi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 5.1 (2021), pp. 34-50. [ available online ]
  • Waliaula, Ken Walibora, 'Disenchantment with the State of the Nation in Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Orhan Pamuk's Snow and Rashid al Daif's Passage to Dus', JALA: Journal of the African Literature Association 3.1 (Winter 2008 - Spring 2009), pp. 49-64.
  • Wallart, Kerry-Jane, 'Episodes and Passages: Spiralling Structure in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 30-46.
  • Wallart, Kerry-Jane, 'Unstable Narrative Voices and the Irrelevance of Fiction in The Famished Road', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 91-100.
  • Warnes, Christopher, 'The African World View in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', in his Magical Realism and the Postcolonial Novel: Between Faith and Irreverence (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 124-149.
  • Washington, Teresa N., 'Twinning across the Ocean : The Neo-political Àjé of Ben Okri's Madame Koto and Mary Monroe's Mama Ruby', in her Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Ajé in Africana Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).
  • Wenzel, Jennifer, 'Petro-Magic-Realism Revisited: Unimagining and Reimagining the Niger Delta', in Ross Barrett & Daniel Worden (eds.), Oil Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), pp. 211-225. Includes a discussion of 'What the Tapster Saw'.
  • Whyte, Philip, 'Photography in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', Commonwealth 23.2 (Spring 2001), pp. 21-28.
  • Whyte, Philip, 'West African Literature at the Crossroads: The Magical Realism of Ben Okri', Commonwealth SP5 (2003), pp. 69-79.
  • Whyte, Philip, 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road and the Problematic of Novelty', in Vanessa Guignery (ed.), The Famished Road: Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), pp. 109-120.
  • Whyte, Philip 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road in the Context of Post-War West African Literature in English', Commonwealth 35.2 (Spring 2013), special issue on Ben Okri, pp. 9-19.
  • Wright, Derek, 'Interpreting the Interspace: Ben Okri's The Famished Road', CRNLE Reviews Journal 1-2 (1995), pp. 18-30.
  • Wright, Derek,, 'Whither Nigerian Fiction? Into the Nineties', Journal of Modern African Studies 33.2 (1995), pp. 315-332. An extensively revised version was also published as 'Prospective: Into the Nineties' in Derek Wright, New Directions in African Fiction (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997), pp. 162-198.
  • Wright, Derek,, 'Imagined and Other Worlds: Magic History in Kojo Laing's Search Sweet Country and Ben Okri's The Famished Road, in his New Directions in African Fiction (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997), pp. 140-161.
  • Wright, Derek, 'Postmodernism as Realism: Magic History in Recent West African Fiction', in Derek Wright (ed.), Contemporary African Fiction (Bayreuth: Eckhard Breitinger, 1997), pp. 181-207.
  • Wright, Derek, 'Pre- and Post-Modernity in Recent West African Fiction', Commonwealth 21.2 (Spring 1999), pp. 5-17.
  • Wu, Coral, 'From Cultural Hybridization to Ecological Degradation: The Forest in Chinua Achebe's Things Falls Apart and Ben Okri's The Famished Road', JALA 6.2 (Winter-Spring 2012).
  • Yuki, Hideo, 'New Writing e no shishin', Eigo Seinen/Rising Generation 138.2, May 1992, p. 74.

 

Entries in Encyclopedias & Reference Works

  • Entry in Ian Ousby (ed.), The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
  • Entry in Frank N. Magill (ed.), Critical Survey of Short Fiction, rev. ed. (Pasadena: Salem, 1993).
  • 'Ben Okri (1959 -   )', in Cheryl Alexander Malcolm and David Malcolm (eds.), Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 319: British and Irish Short-fiction Writers, 1945-2000 (Farmington Hills: Thomson/Gale, 2006).
  • 'Ben Okri (1959 -   )', in Hutchinson Dictionary of the Arts (Abingdon: Helicon, 1998).
  • 'Ben Okri', in Killam, Douglas and Ruth Rowe (eds.), The Companion to African Literatures (Oxford / Bloomington / Indianapolis: James Currey / Indiana University Press, 2000), p. 198.
  • 'Ben Okri (1959 -   )', Hutchinson Encyclopedia (Abingdon: Helicon, 2003).
  • 'Ben Okri 1959 - ', Contemporary Literary Criticism 87 (1995), pp. 312-331.
  • 'Ben Okri: A Biographical Essay', in Dictionary of Literary Biography 231: British Novelists since 1960, 4th Series (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2003). Electronic book text, 11 pp.
  • 'The Famished Road (1991), by Ben Okri', in Merritt Moseley (ed.), Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 326: Booker Prize Novels, 1969-2005 (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006).
  • Azuonye, Chukwuma, 'Ben Okri' in Folktales and Fairy Tales: Traditions and Texts from around the World, 2nd ed., ed. by Anne E. Duggan and Donald Haase, with Helen J. Callow (Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2016), pp. 735-736.
  • Ball, Kimberly, 'The Famished Road by Ben Okri', in Joyce Moss and Lorraine Valestuk (eds.), World Literature and Its Times: Profiles of Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events That Influenced Them, Vol. 2: African Literature and Its Times (Detroit: Gale Group, 2000), pp. 151-161.
  • Bennett, Robert, 'Ben Okri (1959-   )', in Pushpa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima Jagne (eds.), Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Source Book (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998), pp. 364-73.
  • Cooper, Brenda, 'Ben Okri', in Simon Gikandi (ed.), Encyclopedia of African Literature (London / New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 412-413.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'Ben Okri', Literary Encyclopedia, 30 March 2001.
  • Garuba, Harry, 'Ben Okri', in Bernth Lindfors and Reinhard Sander (eds.), Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers (Third Series): Dictionary of Literary Biography 157 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1996), pp. 277-285.
  • Görtschacher, Wolfgang, in Cheryl Alexander Malcolm and David Malcolm (eds.), British and Irish Short-Fiction Writers, 1945-2000 (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006), pp. 298-303.
  • Graff, Ann Barbara, 'Ben Okri', in Merritt Moseley (ed.), Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 213: British Novelists since 1960, Fourth Series (Detroit: Gale, 2001).
  • Green-Simms, Lindsey, 'Okri, Ben', in Sangeeta Ray and Henry Schwarz (eds.), Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2016).
  • Hobby, Blake G., 'The Famished Road, by Ben Okri', in Merritt Moseley (ed.), Booker Prize Novels: 1969-2005 (Detroit MI: Gale, 2006), pp. 224-31.
  • Jeyifo, Biodun, 'Ben Okri', in Yemi Ogunbiyi (ed.), Perspectives on Nigerian Literature: 1700 - Present (Lagos: Guardian Books, 1988), pp. 277-281.
  • King, Bruce, 'Ben Okri', in Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly (eds.), Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, vol. 2 (London / New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 1177-1179. An updated version of this entry was published in the 2005 edition of the encyclopedia, pp. 1176-1178.
  • Martinek, Thomas, 'The Famished Road', Literary Encyclopedia, 8 July 2004.
  • Quayson, Ato, 'Ben Okri', in C. Brian Cox (ed.), African Writers (New York: Scribners, 1997).
  • Riach, Alan, 'Ben Okri', in Lesley Henderson (ed.), Contemporary Novelists (Chicago / London: St James Press, 1991).
  • Ringrose, Christopher, 'In Arcadia', Literary Encyclopedia, 13 January 2009.
  • Rosati Francesca, 'Ben Okri (1959 - )', in Francesca Rosati (ed.), The Quest for Democracy: Writings on Nigerian Literature in English (Rome: Aracne, 2004), pp. 455-457.
  • Ross, Jean W., 'Ben Okri', in Contemporary Authors 138 (Detroit, MI: Gale, 1993), pp. 336-341.
  • Roy, Anjali Gera, 'Okri, Ben', in Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, ed. by Brian W. Shaffer (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), pp. 1271-1272.
  • Tunca, Daria, 'Okri, Ben (1959 -   )', in Dictionary of African Biography (vol. 5: Oding-Teres), ed. by Henry Louis Gates Jr & Emmanuel K. Akyeampong (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 23-24.
  • Warnes, Christopher, 'Ben Okri (1959 -    )', in Jay Parini (ed.), World Writers in English, Volume II: R. K. Narayan to Patrick White (New York: Scribner's, 2004), pp. 459-75.
  • Wolf, Bill, 'Ben Okri (1959 -    )', in Alba della Fazia Amoia and Bettina Liebowitz Knapp (eds.), Multicultural Writers Since 1945: An A-to-Z Guide (Westport: Greenwood, 2004), pp. 391-94 .

 

Study Guides

  • 'Ben Okri's "In the Shadow of War": A Study Guide', in Marie Rose Napierkowski (ed.), Short Stories for Students 20 (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2004). Electronic book text, 27 pp. It includes essays (Liz Brent, 'Motif of Vision'; Dustie Robeson, 'Issues of Morality'; Laura Carter, 'Transformative Powers of Light and Shadow') and reviews (Michael Thorpe, 'Themes of Violence and Torment'; Robert Fraser, 'Incantatory Beauty'; Sylvester Ike Onwordi, 'Beneath the Waves').

 

Dissertations

  • Armstrong, Andrew Hamilton, 'Dancing around Tradition, Dancing with Tradition: The Aesthetics of Paradox and Possibility in the Writing of Ben Okri', research paper, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, 1996, 64pp.
  • Averett, Bronwyn, 'Realizing the Illusion of Time: Temporality and the Infinite in the Works of Ben Okri', MA thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, 2009.
  • Badji, Bourama, 'Heritage and Self-fulfilment in Ben Okri's Flowers and Shadows', MA thesis, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal, 2011, 102 pp.
  • Bain, David Victor, '"Aesthetics", Postcolonialism and the Literary Text: A Study in Cultural Differences, with Particular Reference to the Work of Ayi Kwei Armah, Neil Bissoondath, V.S. Naipaul, Ben Okri and Amos Tutuola', PhD dissertation, University of Leeds, UK, 1996, 338 pp.
  • Barhoun, Brahim, 'Magical Realism as Postcolonial Discourse: Magic, the Carnivalesque and Hybridity in Ben Okri's Abiku trilogy', PhD dissertation, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, 2013, 357 pp.
  • Barker, Claire Frances, 'Exceptional.Children, Disability and Cultural History in Contemporary Postcolonial Fiction', PhD dissertation, University of Leeds, UK, 2007. Partly deals with The Famished Road.
  • Bartholomeusz, Ramon, 'Magic Mirrors: Utopia and Utopian Impulse in Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods and The Famished Road, BA thesis, University of Adelaide, Australia, 2008.
  • Blankenship, Melissa Dawn, 'Balancing Body and Mind to Construct the Self: An Examination of Reproductive Themes in Magical Realist Literature', MA thesis, University of Louisville KY, USA, 1999, 78 pp. Contains a chapter entitled '"She grew stronger": Ben Okri's The Famished Road' (pp. 49-69).
  • Camenzuli, Martina, 'A Quest for Meaning: A Study of the Journey Motif in the Fiction of Ben Okri', MA dissertation, University of Malta, 2019.
  • Carbonieri, Divanize, 'Hibridismo e Simultaneidade no Romance The Famished Road de Ben Okri', thesis, University of São Paulo, Brazil, 2006.
  • Casey, Anna, 'Aesthetic Impropriety: Properties Of Law And Politics In Postcolonial Literature', PhD dissertation, Cornell University, 2016. Chapter four deals with Okri's The Famished Road.
  • Chikogu, Ray N., 'A Stylistic Analysis of Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches', PhD dissertation, University of Benin, Nigeria, 2013.
  • Chow, Ijosé, 'Child of Deathmother: A Critical Study of the West African Myth of the Spirit-Child', MA thesis, York University, Toronto, Canada, 2006, 161 pp. Includes a discussion of Ben Okri's work.
  • Degirmenci, Asli, 'Mapping Geographies in Transition: Magical Realism in the Fiction of Salman Rushdie, Latife Tekin, and Ben Okri', PhD dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, 2013, 161 pp. Includes a chapter on Ben Okri's The Famished Road (pp. 104-138).
  • Dike, Agwu, 'Technique and Meaning in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 1993.
  • DuBois Bourenane, Heather L., 'Rewriting the Real: Magical Realism and the Fiction of Wilson Harris and Ben Okri', MA thesis, Ohio State University, Colombus OH, USA, 2000.
  • Fenech, Claire, '"All things are linked": Magical Realism in Ben Okri's "Abiku Trilogy"', BA dissertation, University of Malta, 2018.
  • Gyulay, Nicola, 'Magical realism in contemporary fiction : Bulgakov, Rushdie and Okri', MA thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, 2002.
  • Gyulay, Nicola, 'Religion and secularism in Naipaul, Rushdie and Okri', PhD dissertation, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, 2006.
  • Issifou, Moussa, 'Hybridizing Political Criticism in the Postcolonial African Novel: Magical Realism as Aesthetic of Necessity', PhD thesis, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA, 2012, 231 pp. Contains a chapter entitled 'Born to Die: Reading Ben Okri's "Abiku" in The Famished Road As a Parable of the Postcolonial African Condition' (pp. 105-157).
  • Irene, Michael Oshoke, ' Re-inventing Oral Tradition in Ben Okri's Trilogy: The Famished Road, Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches', PhD dissertation, Anglia Ruskin University, UK, 106 pp. [followed by a creative writing piece]
  • Iyizoba, Nwamaka E., 'Myth in Ben Okri's The Famished Road', BA dissertation, Godfrey Okoye University, Ugwuomu-Nike, Nigeria, 2018.
  • Kamalu, Ikenna, 'Style and the Metaphor of Abiku in Ben Okri's Fiction', PhD dissertation, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 2009.
  • Kehinde, Ayo, 'Dissonance and Pain: Narrating Africa in Selected Novels of Ben Okri, Meja Mwangi and J.M. Coetzee', PhD dissertation, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 2002.
  • Kusnetz, Ilyse Margo, 'The Return of Romantic Irony: Modes of Feminist and Post-colonial Identity in the Work of Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie and Ben Okri', PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1999, 310 pp.
  • Lim, Lim Chong, 'Redreaming the world: Multidimensional reality in the selected novels of Ben Okri', MA thesis, University of Malaya, Malaysia, 1997, 119 pp.
  • Louviot, Myriam, 'Poétique de l'hybridité dans les littératures postcoloniales', PhD dissertation, University of Strasbourg, France, 2010, 948 pp. Partly deals with Ben Okri. In French.
  • Magnolia, Tiffany, 'Within the kingdom of this world: Magical realism as genre', PhD thesis, Tufts University, USA, 2006. Includes a chapter entitled 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road and a Myth that Exceeds its Borders' (pp. 58-109).
  • Mahmutovic, Adnan, 'Ways of Being Free: Authenticity and Community in Selected Works of Rushdie, Ondaatje and Okri', PhD thesis, University of Stockholm, Sweden, 2010.
  • Maier, Anca-Ioana, 'Ben Okri: Between Reality and Fantasy', PhD thesis, Universitatea Babe?-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2013.
  • Moellenberg, Tamara, ' Fictions of Youth: Childness in Selected West African Novels, 1991-2009', PhD dissertation, University of Oxford, UK, 2015.
  • Mosca, Roberta, 'Riscritture del mito di Orfeo in Ben Okri e Wole Soyinka', Università degli Studi Gabriele D'Annunzio di Chieti e Pescara, Italy, 2007.
  • Murphy, Laura Teresa, 'Enduring Memory: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in West African Literature', PhD dissertation, Harvard University USA, 2008, 514 pp. Contains a chapter entitled 'Geographies of Memory: Mapping Slavery's Recurrence in Ben Okri's The Famished Road' (pp. 88-124).
  • Nkwain Ngam, Roland, 'Ben Okri's The Famished Road: A Case Study in the Translation of New Englishes', MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2004.
  • O'Connor, Maurice, 'From Lagos to London and back again: The road from mimicry to hybridity in the novels of Ben Okri', PhD dissertation, University of Cadiz, Spain, 2005.
  • Oed, Anja, 'Antelope (Woman) and Buffalo (Woman): Contemporary Literary Transformations of a Topos in Yoruba Culture', SOAS, University of London, UK, 2002, 281 pp. Partly deals with Okri's trilogy.
  • Ogunfolabi, Kayode Omoniyi, 'Animist Consciousness in Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment', MA thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria, 1997.
  • Ogunfolabi, Kayode Omoniyi, 'History, Horror, Reality: The Idea of the Marvelous in Postcolonial Fiction', PhD thesis, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI, USA, 2008, 217 pp. Includes a chapter entitled 'Reimagining Political Engagement in Postcolonial Fiction', which deals with Astonishing the Gods, Incidents at the Shrine, Stars of the New Curfew and The Famished Road (pp. 165-208).
  • Okajima, Kei, 'Performing Childhood in Diaspora: Palimpsestic Bodies and Agency in Contemporary Black Diasporic Literature', PhD dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, 2018, 173 pp. Includes a chapter on The Famished Road.
  • Osemene, G.O., 'Naturalism in Flowers and Shadows and The Landscapes Within', University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 1986.
  • Phillips, Maggi, 'Storytellers, Shamans and Clowns: Postcolonial Engagement with the Supra-Human in the Novels of R.K. Narayan, Nuruddin Farah, Bessie Head, Ben Okri and Salman Rushdie', PhD dissertation, Northern Territory University, Darwin, Australia, 1996.
  • Plettner, Martha Anne, 'The Postcolonial Liminal Novel in Africa: Farah's Maps, Ben Jelloun's L'enfant de sable and Okri's The Famished Road', MA dissertation, American University in Cairo, Egypt, 2000, 69 pp.
  • Quayson, L.A., 'Tradition(s) and the Individual Talent: the development of a Nigerian tradition of writing (with special reference to the works of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Ben Okri', PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge, UK, 1995.
  • Ratnaningsih, Sri Rosyana, 'Metafictional Self-consciousness: A Comparative Study of Magical Realism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Dee Lestari's Aroma Karsa', State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, Indonesia, 2021.
  • Rimbeaux Hausammannn, Isabelle, C., 'Africanness in Second Generation Nigerian Novels: Contemporary Nigerian Novelists: Buchi Emecheta, Ben Okri, and Ken Saro-Wiwa', thesis, University of Zurich, 1999.
  • Sabatini, Bettina, '"All Things Are Linked": A Study of Ben Okri's Dangerous Love and Its Circulation', MA dissertation, Stockholm University, Sweden, 2015.
  • Sasser, Kim, 'Magically Strategized Belonging: Magical Realism as Cosmopolitan Mapping in Ben Okri, Cristina García, and Salman Rushdie', PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, UK, 2011. Contains a chapter entitled 'Vernacular Humanism in Ben Okri's The Famished Road' (pp. 57-121).
  • Storm, Aline Louise, '"Anything is possible, one way or another": A Double Reading of Ben Okri's The Famished Road', thesis, University of Copenhagen, 2001.
  • Taylor, Laurel, 'Liminality as Identity in Four Novels by Ben Okri and Tahar ben Jelloun', PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, UK, 2001, 171 pp.
  • Tietz, Joan, 'Foils to Weak Men: Images of Women in the Chaotic World of Ben Okri's Novels', BA thesis, University of Basel, Switzerland, 1993.
  • Tunca, Daria, 'Voices and Visions: Language in Gbenga Agbenugba's Another Lonely Londoner and Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within and Dangerous Love', MA dissertation, University of Liège, Belgium, 2003.
  • Tunca, Daria, 'Style beyond Borders: Language in Recent Nigerian Fiction', PhD dissertation, University of Liège, Belgium, 2008. Includes a chapter on Ben Okri's The Landscapes Within and Dangerous Love.
  • Wachira, Ibrahim Gichingiri, '"Representations of Chronotopic Cycles and Consciousness in Selected Works of Amos Tutuola, Ben Okri, Alain Mabanckou and Mia Couto', PhD thesis, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya, 2021, 307 pp.
  • Zhu, Ying, 'Fiction and the incompleteness of history: Toni Morrison, V. S. Naipaul, and Ben Okri', PhD thesis, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China, 2005.

 

Profiles

  • 'Fantasies born in the ghetto', Times, 24 July 1986.
  • 'Africa's marvellous realist', West Africa 3839 (1-7 April 1991), p. 478.
  • Boylan, Clare, 'An ear for the inner conversation', Guardian, 3 October 1991, p. 26.
  • Battersby, Eileen, 'Okri's Booker win delights critics', Irish Times, 23 October 1991, p. 10.
  • Winder, Robert, 'Road to discovery', Independent, 24 October 1991, p. 23.
  • Song, Koh Buck, 'High spirits', Straits Times, 26 October 1991.
  • Dourian, Kate, 'Inventive talent wins top literary award for Nigerian writer', Reuters News, 28 October 1991.
  • Bharvani, Shakuntala, 'Okri's Elevation', Times of India, 3 November 1991, p. 37.
  • Niven, Alastair, 'Uncommon progression', West Africa 3869 (4-10 November 1991), pp. 1842-1843.
  • Osundare, Niyi, 'Of Prizes and Messianism', West Africa 3874 (9-15 December 1991), pp. 2053-2054.
  • Baldwin, Jessica, 'From Obscurity to the Heart of English Literature', Associated Press, 16 December 1991.
  • Streitfeld, David, 'Of Time and the River', Washington Post, 21 June 1992, p. X15.
  • Cook, Emma, 'Ben Okri', Observer, 21 March 1993, p. B67.
  • Griffiths, Lorraine, 'The spirit-child comes of age', Weekly Journal, 1 April 1993.
  • Chisholm, Anne, 'Ben Okri's Journey', Age, 1 May 1993, p. 7.
  • Chatterjee, Julia, 'Out Of Dark Africa: Ben Okri weaves a tale of inequality in a shrinking world', Outlook India Magazine, 15 May 1996.
  • Guiloineau, Jean, 'L'Oeuvre de Ben Okri: Une Arme et un enchantement', Notre Librairie: Revue des Litteratures du Sud 140 (April-June 2000), pp. 42-44.
  • Houpt, Simon, 'Ben Okri: The Landscapes Within', Globe and Mail, 2 January 1992, Arts section p. C1. Also published in African Literature Association Bulletin 18.3 (Summer 1992), pp. 37-39.
  • Holt, Patricia, 'Okri's Enchanted Reality', San Francisco Chronicle, 31 May 1992.
  • Davies, Hunter, 'Ben Okri's green-apple, left-handed sort of day', Independent, 23 March 1993, p. 18.
  • Larson, Charles R., 'Africa's Magical Musician of Prose', The World & I (November 1993), pp. 298-305. Includes summaries of Flowers and Shadows, a few short stories, The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment.
  • Dickson, Jane E., 'A Childhood', Times, 1 April 1995.
  • Carbines, Louise, 'Divining Life From A Deep Sense Of Loss', Age, 17 October 1996, p. 17.
  • Lyall, Kimina, 'A writer moulded by Nigeria's loss', Australian, 17 October 1996, p. 11.
  • Ean, Tan, Gim, 'The lonely road of love and anguish', New Straits Times, 6 November 1996, p. 8.
  • Caccia, Fulvio, 'Nigeria: l'initiation du sourcier', Quinzaine Littéraire 7493 (1997), pp. 6-7.
  • Hunter, Charles, 'Awake in his dreams', Irish Times, 10 April 1997, p. 12.
  • Taylor, Alan, 'Magical mysteries', Scotsman, 11 August 1997.
  • Gledhill, Ruth, 'Booker author says dome must connect "all our faiths"', Times, 7 January 1998, p. 2.
  • Mehta, Julie, 'Spokesman for the Spirits', Nation (Thailand), 10 November 1998.
  • 'Back of the book: Two of a Kind', Theweek, 7 December 1998.
  • Franks, Alan, 'Wake up world', Times, 2 January 1999.
  • Luce, Edward, 'Electrified by a surge of hope', Financial Times, 26 June 1999, p. 3.
  • Hattersley,Roy, 'Ben Okri: A man in two minds', Guardian, 21 August 1999, p. A6.
  • Hattersley, Roy, 'Ben Okri, A Writer between Two Worlds', Guardian, 4 September 1999.
  • 'Okri follows Motion with CBI poem', Evening Standard, 10 September 1999, p. 12.
  • Palmer, Judith, 'Ben Okri: Great art tries to get us to the place of true enchantment', Independent, 7 September 2002, p. 22.
  • Pronk, Iris, 'Interview Ben Okri: Ik wil priemende vragen stellen', Trouw, 27 September 2003.
  • Tervonen, Taina, 'À la recherche de la Muse et des illusions perdues: Coetzee et Ben Okri', Africultures 56 (September 2003). In French.
  • Kamp, Jurriaan, '"Treat life as a workshop to find out who you are"', Ode Magazine 33, May 2006.
  • Jaggi, Maya, 'Free spirit', Guardian, 11 August 2007, p. 12.
  • Taylor, Alan, 'The art of creation', Sunday Herald, 19 August 2007, p. 42.
  • Stenhouse, Davis, 'It came to him like a dream', Sunday Times, 19 August 2007, p. 7.
  • Goring, Rosemary, 'A bringer of light amid the world's darkness', Herald, 25 August 2007, p. 19.
  • Naparstek, Ben, 'Driven to abstraction', South China Morning Post, 2 September 2007, p. 5. Also published as 'Prince of the planet', Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September 2007, p. 30.
  • Mensah, Nana Yaa, 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: An Interview with Ben Okri', Wasafiri 54 (23.2, June 2008), pp. 11-16.
  • 'Analyzing magic with Booker Prize winner Ben Okri', Daily News Egypt, 29 January 2009.
  • Anrys, Stefaan, 'Ben Okri: "Ik ben opgegroeid met jongens die geesten zagen"', MO* Magazine, 24 June 2009. In Dutch. Also published in English as 'Interview with Booker Prize Laureate Ben Okri: "I grew up with kids seeing spirits"', translation by Matthias Somers, MO* Magazine, 26 August 2009.
  • 'The triumph that is The Famished Road', Mail & Guardian [online], 13 July 2009. On the stage adaptation of Okri's novel.
  • Mansfield, Susan, 'The journey and the spell', Scotsman, 6 March 2010. [online version: 8 March 2010]
  • Agbedeh, Terh, 'Okri Finds a Time for New Dreams', National Mirror, 20 April 2011.
  • Rahim, Sameer, 'Ben Okri: "Africa has a wild resilience"', Telegraph, 15 September 2011.
  • Butalia, Nivriti, 'A brief encounter with Ben Okri', Khaleej Times, 7 March 2013.
  • Sengupta, Chiranjib, 'An accurate voice of post-modern Africa', Weekend Review, 21 March 2013.
  • Mackley, Elizabeth, 'Quietly quirky, Okri cast his poetic spell', Swindon Advertiser, 15 May 2013.
  • Kellaway, Kate, 'Ben Okri: "Are you ready for African food?"', Observer, 20 October 2013, p. 6.
  • Butler, Eoin, 'Ben Okri: "We are poised on the edge of a crisis"', Irish Times, 27 June 2014.
  • Jewell, Stephen, 'Exploring the dark side of utopia', New Zealand Herald, 9 May 2015.
  • Knott, Kylie, 'Novelist Ben Okri on the childhood trauma that drives his creativity', South China Morning Post, 29 July 2015.
  • East, Ben, 'Booker Prize-winning novelist Ben Okri: "Reality itself is mysterious in nature"', National, 3 November 2015.
  • 'Words are magic: Ben Okri', Gulf Today, 6 November 2015. About Ben Okri's participation in the Sharjah International Book Fair.
  • Dasgupta, Priyanka, 'India going through amazing literary period: Ben Okri', Times of India, 13 January 2016.
  • White, Nadine, 'Ben Okri On The Power Of Fake News During Election Time', Voice, 6 June 2017.
  • Armitstead, Claire, 'Ben Okri: "I was nearly shot because I couldn't speak my dad's language"', Guardian, 6 September 2018.
  • Jones, S.A., 'Freedom Writer', Big Issue Australia 580 (8-21 February 2019), pp. 36-37.

 

Reviews

Fiction

Flowers and Shadows

  • Bryce, Jane, 'Out of the Earth', Times Literary Supplement, 19 September 1980, p. 1047.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'In the Whale', Third World Quarterly 12.3&4 (1990-1991), pp. 198-199.
  • Lasdun, James, 'Sunlight and Chaos', New Statesman, 19 December 1980, p. 45.
  • Obradović, Nadežda, World Literature Today 64.4 (Autumn 1990), p. 687.

The Landscapes Within

  • Bailey, Hilary, 'Some realities', Guardian, 20 May 1982, p. 16.

Incidents at the Shrine

  • Sunday Age, 12 July 1993, p. 9. Very short review.
  • Anderson, Elisabeth, 'Alone and dispossessed', Times, 10 August 1986.
  • Best, Nicholas, 'London to Cambridge fizzer', Financial Times, 1 August 1986, p. xii. Very short review.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'Meticulous Acid', West Africa 3598, 18 August 1986, p. 1738.
  • Phillips, Caryl, 'Sullen Beauty', Race Today Review, 1987, pp. 40-41.
  • Thwaite, Anthony, 'Country of the heart', Observer, 13 July 1986, p. 27.
  • Wordsworth, Christopher, 'Off with his brains', Guardian, 18 July 1986, p. 13.

Stars of the New Curfew

  • Washington Post, 19 August 1990, p. X12. Short review.
  • Yorkshire Post, 15 July 1999, p. 15. Very short review.
  • Sunday Herald, 1 August 1999, p. 11.
  • Best, Nicholas, 'Siren Song Of The Blitz', Financial Times, 6 August 1988, p. xiv. Extremely short review.
  • Bissoondath, Neil, 'Rage and Sadness in Nigeria', New York Times (Book Review), 13 August 1989, p. BR12.
  • Cronje, Suzanne, 'Powerlessness corrupts', New Statesman and Society, 24 July 1988, pp. 43-44.
  • Etienne, Marie, 'Un écrivain doué de "claire-voyance"', Argos 10 (March 1993), p. 29. In French.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'Incantatory Beauty', Third World Quarterly 11.2, April 1989, pp. 181-183.
  • Freely, Maureen, 'The sky's the limit', Observer, 10 July 1988, p. 42.
  • Johnson, George, New York Times, 5 August 1990. Extremely short review.
  • Kakutani, Michiko, 'Brave New Africa Born of Nightmare', New York Times, 28 July 1989, p. 25.
  • MacCurtain, Austin, Sunday Times, 16 July 1989. Very short review.
  • Onwordi, Sylvester Ike, 'Beneath the Waves', Times Literary Supplement, August 1988.
  • O'Rourke, Donny, Herald, 5 August 1999, p. 22. Very short review.
  • Power, C.J., Times, 7 August 1999. Very short review.
  • Quinn, Anthony, 'Drunken soldiers and dreams in Lagos', Independent, 18 August 1988, p. 15.
  • Ryan, Alan, 'Ben Okri's Modern Fetishes', Washington Post, 7 August 1989, p. B2.
  • Shaw, Simon, Mail on Sunday, 25 July 1999, p. 69. Very short review.
  • Taylor, Linda, 'Prisoners of a Lagos nightmare', Guardian, 15 July 1988, p. 23.
  • Taylor, Robert, 'Mythic, real tales of Nigeria', Boston Globe, 23 August 1989, p. 49.
  • Thorpe, Michael, 'Themes of Violence and Torment', World Literature Today (Spring 1990), p. 349.
  • Upchurch, Michael, 'Fantasy and Menace In Six Nigerian Tales', San Francisco Chronicle, 25 July 1989, p. E4.
  • Wallace, Arminta, Irish Times, 23 October 1999, p. 70. Very short review.

The Famished Road

  • 'A Long and Winding African Road', Time, 8 June 1992, p. 95.
  • 'And Bear in Mind', New York Times (Book Review), 5 July 1992, p. 18.
  • Essence 23.5 (September 1992), p. 58.
  • 'Books of the year 1992', New York Times, 6 December 1992, p. 57. Extremely short review.
  • Washington Post, 1 August 1993, p. X12. Very short review.
  • Washington Post, 26 September 1993, p. X12.
  • Essence 33.1 (May 2002), p. 110.
  • Appiah, Anthony, 'Spiritual Realism', Nation, 3 August 1992, pp. 146-148.
  • Boehmer, Elleke, Novel 26 (1993), p. 268.
  • Bush, Catherine, 'Booker sets Okri on the road', Globe and Mail, 16 November 1991, p. C18.
  • Carstarphen, Meta G., 'Inspirational story about one African family', Dallas Morning News, 9 August 1992, p. 8J.
  • Carter, Angela, 'Gaudy Metaphysics', Sunday Times, 31 March 1991, p. 8.
  • Cartwright, Justin, 'Taking an African safari', Sunday Times, 30 June 1996. Extremely short review.
  • Catalfo, Phil, 'Soul Stories', New Age Journal 9.11 (1992), p. 98, 102.
  • Doris, Byn Anne, Toronto Star, 26 September 1992, p. K12. Very short review.
  • Dirda, Michael, 'Traveler in a World of Spirits', Washington Post, 24 May 1992, p. X1.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'Carrion Comfort and Magical Strains', Independent (Weekend Books), 1 June 1991, p. 28.
  • Fremont, Helen, Harvard Review 2 (Fall 1992), pp. 214-216.
  • Gates, Henry Louis, Jr, 'Between the Living and the Unborn', New York Times (Book Review), 28 June 1992, pp. 3-4.
  • Gbadamosi, Gabriel, Wasafiri 14 (Autumn 1991), p. 35.
  • Gertler, Frances, 'In a distorting mirror', Jerusalem Post, 9 August 1991, p. 21.
  • Graeber, Laurel, New York Times, 8 August 1993, p. 28. Very short review. A shorter version was also published in Dayton Daily News, 8 August 1993, p. 6C, and Houston Chronicle, 15 August 1993, p. 24.
  • Grant, Linda, 'Long Walk of Men and Angels', Independent on Sunday, 31 March 1991, p. 30.
  • Grant, Linda, 'The lonely road from twilight to hard sun', Observer, 27 October 1991, p. 61.
  • Hecimovich, Gregg A., Book Page, August 1991.
  • Hines, Joanna, Guardian, 22 January 2009, p. 9. Part of a feature entitled '1000 Novels Everyone Must Read: Volume 6: Science Fiction & Fantasy: Haldeman to Okri'.
  • Hughes, Glyn, 'Brilliance in the darkness', Guardian, 21 March 1991, p. 28.
  • Lafee, Scott, '"Famished Road" a feast of fiction, folklore', San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 July 1992, p. E10.
  • Langille, Marie-Suzanne, 'Booker winner a magical tale', Toronto Star, 23 November 1991, p. F13.
  • Larson, Charles R., 'The Power of Hunger', The World & I (March 1992), pp. 383-387.
  • Locke, Richard, 'A Master of Magic Realism', Wall Street Journal, 7 July 1992, p. A12.
  • Mintz, Kenneth, Library Journal, 1 June 1992, p. 178.
  • Niethold, Mary Lee, 'Poverty, spirit world inhabit "Road"', Denver Post, 19 June 1992, p. 6D.
  • Nixon, Rob, 'Road Warriors', Village Voice 37.34 (25 August 1992), p. 87.
  • Oguibe, Olu, 'The Famished Road', African Events Magazine, January 1992, p. 135.
  • Purdon, James, Observer, 28 February 2010, p. 47.
  • Quackenbush, Rich, 'Ben Okri writes about growing up in Africa', Houston Chronicle, 7 June 1992, p. 21.
  • Rubin, Merle, Christian Science Monitor, 10 July 1992, p. 10.
  • Song, Koh Buck, 'Trip into this world fantastic', Straits Times, 26 October 1991.
  • Song, Koh Buck, Straits Times, 28 December 1991. Very short review.
  • Tarabulus, Jennie, 'Marriages all sewn up', Jerusalem Post, 17 December 1992, p. 7. Short review.µ
  • Turner, Jenny, 'Blithe Spirits', New Statesman & Society, 22 March 1991, p. 44.
  • Upchurch, Michael, 'Human, Spirit Worlds Mesh In Okri Novel', Seattle Times, 24 May 1992. Also published as 'Nigeria Through The Eyes Of a Spirit', San Francisco Chronicle, 31 May 1992.
  • Upchurch, Michael, 'Page Turners: What To Read When You Want To Relax', Seattle Times, 1 August 1993. Very short review.
  • Walters, Colin, 'Magical visions realistically told Nigerian writer conjures up a "spirit child"', Washington Times, 14 June 1992, p. B6.
  • Wernick, Kathleen, Spectator, 30 November 1991, p. D3. Extremely short review.
  • Wilhelmus, Tom, 'Time and Distance', Hudson Review 46.1 (Spring 1993), pp. 247-254 (pp. 247-249).

Songs of Enchantment

  • Abodunrin, Femi, Wasafiri 18 (Autumn 1993), p. 71.
  • Appiah, Anthony K., 'Azaro and the Spirits', Washington Post, 3 October 1993, p. X5.
  • Barnacle, Hugo, 'Village life with thugs, dragons and unicorns', Independent, 3 April 1993, p. 29.
  • Best, Nicholas, 'Ben after the Booker', Financial Times, 27 March 1993, p. 21.
  • Birkerts, Sven, 'Magical scenes not enough for "Enchantment" to hold its spell', Washington Times, 17 October 1993, p. B8.
  • Bogenschutz, Debbie, Library Journal, 1 August 1993, p. 155.
  • Caldwell, Gail, 'Ghosts who do windows', Boston Globe, 31 October 1993, p. 104.
  • Cooke, Judy, 'Strong Spirits', New Statesman & Society, 26 March 1993, p. 41.
  • Doris, Anne, Toronto Star, 9 April 1994, p. L13. Very short review.
  • Egremont, Max, 'Dreaming under an African sigh', Evening Standard, 18 March 1993, p. 46.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'The Magic of the Jackals', West Africa 3942, 12-18 April 1993, p. 616.
  • Gorra, Michael, 'The spirit Who Came to Stay', New York Times Book Review, 10 October 1993, p. 24.
  • Greet, Annie, 'More Gold Than Yellow', Age, 1 May 1993, p. 7.
  • Griffiths, Lorraine, 'Magic, myth and Nigeria', Weekly Journal, 1 April 1993.
  • Hayden, Chris, 'Book of Dreams has Poetic Flavor: Sequel to Prize-Winning Novel, Mixes Miracle, Myth and Magic', St-Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 November 1993, p. 5C.
  • Haynes, John, 'The African Way', Times Literary Supplement 4693, 12 March 1993, p. 20.
  • Hawley, John C., 'The Further Education of a Spirit Child', San Francisco Chronicle, 24 October 1993, p. 5.
  • Hower, Edward, 'Where the Real and the Imaginary Mingle', Wall Stree Journal, 15 October 1993, p. A9.
  • Lucas, Rose, 'Tales Of Mystery And Imagination In Post-colonial Africa', Sunday Age, 30 May 1993, p. 10.
  • Mitton, Jennifer, 'A traveller in dream land', Toronto Star, 29 May 1993, p. H14.
  • Morrice, Polly, 'Enchanting language paints African allegory', Houston Chronicle, 20 February 1994, p. 23.
  • Omotoso, Kole, 'No Poor Relation', Guardian (Manchester), 23 March 1993, p. A8.
  • Omotoso, Kole, 'Fantastic Dreams of the Poor', Manchester Guardian Weekly, 11 April 1993, p. 28.
  • Seaman, Donna, Booklist, 1 October 1993.
  • Singer, George, '"Enchantment" Rich in Style', Tulsa World, 17 April 1994, p. BK7.
  • Sorensen, Rosemary, 'Murky make myths of harlots and mothers', Sydney Morning Herald, 15 May 1993, p. 47.
  • Steinberg, Sybil S., 'Forecasts: Fiction', Publishers Weekly, 16 August 1993, p. 85.
  • Taylor, Colin, 'Okri's spirits enchant even as they drift', Globe and Mail, 12 June 1993, p. C23.
  • Taylor, Paul, 'Dreams of a boy on earth', Independent on Sunday, 21 March 1993, p. 28.
  • Tester, Royston, 'Booker-winning novel set in Nigeria is frustrating and exhausting', Hamilton Spectator, 10 July 1993, p. W4.
  • Trimble, Bob, Dallas Morning News, 26 December 1993, p. 8J. Very short review.
  • Upchurch, Michael, 'Brave New Worlds: Two Exuberant, Mythic Works From British Colonial Legacy', Seattle Times, 14 November 1992.
  • Wald-Hopkins, Christine, 'Ben Okri's sequel to "Famished Road" plows no new ground', Arizona Daily Star, 13 March 1994, p. 13E.
  • Wright, Derek, International Fiction Review 22 (1995), p. 111.

Astonishing the Gods

  • 'Unenlightenment', Asiaweek, 16 June 1995, p. 16.
  • Herald (Scotland), 11 April 2015.
  • Adil, Alev, 'More Narnian than Olympian', Times Literary Supplement 4797, 10 March 1995, p. 23.
  • Braniste, Lili, Lire, June 1997.
  • Caccia Fulvio, Quinzaine Littéraire 717 (1997), p. 6. In French.
  • Chehat, Fayçal, Africultures 2 (November 1997).
  • Cowley, Jason, 'Houses dissolve into liquid and horses crumble into mist', Independent, 11 March 1995, p. 26.
  • Greet, Annie, 'Black Starlight', Age, 20 May 1995, p. 9.
  • Hicks, Ian, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 December 1994, p. 50. Extremely short review.
  • Jane, Mary, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 October 1996, p. 11. Very short review.
  • Kirchhoff, H.J., Globe and Mail, 10 August 1996, p. C15. Very short review.
  • Larson, Charles R., 'In Postcolonial Limbo', Nation, 27 May 1996, pp. 31-34.
  • Lawson, Guy, 'Charming tale pulses with wonder', Globe and Mail, 3 May 1995, p. C3.
  • Lewis, Trevor, Sunday Times, 21 April 1996. Very short review.
  • Mannes-Abbott, Guy, 'Joyful wisdom', New Statesman & Society, 24 March 1995, pp. 25-26.
  • O'Connor, Garry, 'Strange realms of nothingness', Financial Times, 18 March 1995, p. 8.
  • O'Shaughnessy, Kathy, 'A real nowhere man', Independent on Sunday, 23 Apri l995, p. 37.
  • Regisford, Dianne 'A cautionary tale of mystical proportions: Astonishing the Gods, Ben Okri', Weekly Journal, 23 February 1995.
  • Rengger, Patrick, 'Allusions in search of substance', Financial Post, 8 July 1995, p. 23.

Dangerous Love

  • 'Surprises after the big sleep', Guardian, 29 December 1995, p. 14. Extremely short review.
  • Asiaweek, 20 December 1996, p. 48.
  • 'Truth and Consequences', Economist, 15 June 1996, pp. 3-4.
  • New Straits Times, 14 June 1997, p. 8. Very short review.
  • Adamson, Judy, 'The power of the human spirit', Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 1996, p. 12.
  • Allen, David, 'Lovers and other dangers', Australian, 19 October 1996.
  • Barnacle, Hugo, 'Difficulties of a style victim', Sunday Times, 7 April 1996.
  • Chaudhuri, Amit, 'A Love Story with Compound Interest', Spectator, 20 April 1996, pp. 42-43.
  • Chehat, Fayçal, Africultures 3 (December 1997).
  • Cusk, Rachel, 'Demanding a Future for Love', Times, 4 April 1996.
  • Evans, John, 'Enchanted nightmare', New Sraits Times, 17 September 1997, p. 11.
  • Faulkner, Peter, New Humanist, 111.3 (September 1996), pp. 22-23.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'The Shield of Art', West Africa 4108, 15-21 July 1996, p. 1122.
  • Heron, Liz, 'Resuscitating the Forgotten Sixties', Times Educational Supplement 4168, 17 May 1996, p. 7.
  • Jaggi, Maya, 'Scumscape virtuoso', Guardian, 5 April 1996, p. A17.
  • Jowitt, David, Wasafiri 24 (Autumn 1996), pp. 62-63.
  • Kerrigan, Michael, 'A Landscape of Losses', Times Literary Supplement 4853, 5 April 1996, p. 26.
  • Kleu, Tony, 'Something Is Awry In Okri's World Of Spirits', Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1996, p. 12.
  • Margaronis, Maria, 'Innocence abroad', Independent on Sunday, 21 April 1996, p. 34.
  • Mitchell, Elizabeth, 'Dangerous Love's style rewards only the most persistent of readers', Financial Post (1 June 1996), p. 31.
  • Pavey, Ruth, 'Portrait of the Artist', New Statesman & Society, 12 April 1996, p. 37.
  • Platt, Edward, Sunday Times, 15 December 1996. Very short review.
  • Thomas, Joan, 'Okri tells compelling tale in reworked first novel', Globe and Mail, 27 July 1996, p. C13.
  • Walker, Victoria, Times, 1 March 1997. Very short review.

Infinite Riches

  • Adair, Tom, 'High spirits', Scotland on Sunday, 27 September 1998.
  • Anderson, Carol, 'Reality in the melting pot', Herald, 29 October 1998, p. 22.
  • Ang, Lynn, 'Lively spirits, dreamy worlds', Straits Times, 17 April 1999.
  • Baker, Phil, 'Imaginations on overdrive', Sunday Times, 23 August 1998.
  • Barrow, Andrew, 'It's too damn hot', Spectator 8872, 22 August 1998, p. 34.
  • Beasley, Lesley, 'Okri's "wondrous, bloody, comic Tale"', Canberra Times, 10 October 1998, p. 21.
  • Busch, Ren, Sunday Herald Sun, 25 October 1998, p. 36. Short review.
  • Chimonyo, Janet, 'Chaos at the end of empire', Australian, 30 October 1998, p. 16.
  • Clarke, Roger, Mail on Sunday, 23 August 1998, p. 30.
  • Foster, Aisling, 'Pan-African Visions', The Times, 20 August 1998, p. 34.
  • Fraser, Robert, Wasafiri 29 (Spring 1999), pp. 86-87.
  • Glover, Simon, 'Fighting spirit in dream date with destiny', Yorkshire Post, 29 October 1998, p. 11.
  • Henry, Andrea, 'More magic than realism', Independent, 29 August 1998, p. 15.
  • Herd, David, 'Enemies in the Forest', Times Literary Supplement 4980, 11 September 1998, p. 23.
  • Jaggi, Maya, 'Famished sequel', Guardian, 12 September 1998, p. 10.
  • Robson, David, 'A spirit-child returns', Sunday Telegraph, 23 August 1998.
  • Smith, Ali, 'A treasure beyond dreams', Scotsman, 22 August 1998, p. 15.
  • Thompson-Noel, Michael, 'Further down the same road', Financial Times, 12 September 1998, p. 6.
  • Vincent, Gertjan, 'Ben Okri scherpt het oor voor de muziek van de collectieve ziel', Trouw, 8 January 2000. In Dutch.
  • Williams, Stephen, African Business, 1 December 1998, p. 26.
  • Yip, Hilton, China Post, 22 August 2009.

In Arcadia

  • Trouw, 13 September 2003. In Dutch. Very short review.
  • Abell, Stephen, 'Scratcher of Sores', Times Literary Supplement, 27 September 2002, p. 23.
  • Adams, Tim, 'Grope springs eternal', Observer (Review), 22 September 2002, p. 16. Also published in Star Weekend Magazine 1.131 (21 November 2003).
  • Anderson, Hephzibah, Daily Mail, 20 September 2002.
  • Barnacle, Hugo, 'Tunnel Visions', Sunday Times, 29 September 2002.
  • Brown, Helen, Independent on Sunday, 20 October 2002, p. 17.
  • Bruce, Keith, 'Quest for the ultimate truth is just too brief', Herald, 28 September 2002, p. 12.
  • Carey, Anna, Irish Times, 30 August 2003, p. 60. Very short review.
  • Condren, Bernadette, 'Rambling quest for everyman's Greek Eden', Courier Mail, 14 December 2002.
  • Clarke, Stella, 'Ideas to cultivate the gardens of our souls', Australian, 25 January 2003.
  • Cousins, Sally, Sunday Telegraph, 9 November 2003, p. 16. Very short review.
  • Hayes, Helen, Independent Sunday, 20 October 2002.
  • Hickling, Alfred, 'Tunnel Vision', Guardian (Review), 12 October 2002, p. B27.
  • Johnstone, Doug, 'Many a detour on the road to paradise', Scotland on Sunday, 29 September 2002, p. 6.
  • King, Bruce, World Literature Today 77.1 (April-June 2003), p. 86-87.
  • Leclair, Bertrand, Quinzaine Littéraire 855 (2003), p. 7.
  • Mathieson, Amy, 'Halfway to an arty paradise', Scotsman, 28 September 2002, p. 6.
  • Mooney, Bel, 'Arcadian games', Times, 28 September 2002.
  • Riemer, Andrew, 'In artifice, a certain freedom', Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 2002, p. 14.
  • Robson, David, 'Self-discovery by Eurostar', Sunday Telegraph, 6 October 2002, p. 16.
  • Rose, Sean James, 'De l'ironie au lyrisme', Lire, June 2003.
  • Sansom, Ian, 'Poetic pilgrimage, absorbing illusions Fiction Files', Irish Times, 2 November 2002, p. 60.
  • Skidelsky, William, 'Novel Thoughts', New Statesman, 7 October 2002, p. 55.
  • Tervonen, Taina, 'À la recherche de la Muse et des illusions perdues', Africultures 56 (September 2003).
  • Treglown, Jeremy, 'Past glories prove elusive', Spectator, 28 September 2002, p. 68.
  • Tynan, Eithne, Sunday Tribune, 17 August 2003. Very short review.

Starbook

  • The Mail on Sunday, 21 October 2007, p. 76. Very short review.
  • African Business 337 (1 December 2007), p. 80. Short review.
  • Adair, Tom, 'Celestial bodies', Scotsman, 18 August 2007, p. 16.
  • Barnacle, Hugo, 'All very deep, but is it meaningful?', Sunday Times, 19 August 2007, Culture p. 47.
  • Brown, Ben, 'Some day her prince will come', Observer (Review), 19 August 2007, p. 26. Also published as 'A curiously sweet and optimistic fable', Otago Daily Times, 22 September 2007.
  • Cribb, Tim, South China Morning Post, 2 September 2007, p. 5. A different and shorter version was published as 'Okri returns with an epic tale of African suffering', Australian, 24 November 2007, p. 14.
  • Critchley, Ian, Sunday Times, 24 August 2008, Culture p. 48. Very short review.
  • Curtis, Vanessa, 'Famished road leads to a philosophical feast', Scotland on Sunday, 19 August 2007, p. 20.
  • Flynn, Julia, 'Has Ben Okri lost touch with reality?', Telegraph, 9 September 2007, p. 46. [ Online version: 13 September 2007]
  • Griffiths, Niall, 'We are exhorted to shrug off delusion, and the fairytale goes on', Daily Telegraph, 11 August 2007, p. 26.
  • Griffiths, Niall, 'A parable the size of a housebrick', Telegraph, 16 August 2007.
  • Hickling, Alfred, Guardian, 5 July 2008, p. 20. Short review.
  • Hildyard, Daisy, 'Mythical tale of the white wind', Yorkshire Post, 31 August 2007.
  • Maier, Heidi, 'Okri's honest prose refuses to be shackled', Sun Herald, 30 December 2007, p. 51.
  • McClements, Melissa, 'Ready and fable', Financial Times, 1 September 2007, p. 37.
  • Sandys, Elspeth, 'Falling star', New Zealand Listener 211.3525 (1-7 December 2007).
  • Saunders, Kate, Times, 8 September 2007, p. 13. Very short review.
  • Serrao, Angelique, 'A sense of self based on stories', Star, 15 November 2007, p. 10.
  • Souster, Tim, 'As if in a dream', Times Literary Supplement 5447-5448, 24 August 2007, p. 23.
  • Sullivan, Rick, 'Torn between worlds', Advertiser, 27 October 2007, p. 19.
  • Tay, Janet, 'Anti-spell for the 21st century', Malaysia Star, 23 September 2007.
  • Taylor, Alan, 'The art of creation', Sunday Herald, 19 August 2007.
  • Tshisela, Namhla, 'Okri spins his magic', Sowetan, 4 December 2007.
  • Woodhead, Cameron, Age, 10 November 2007, p. 24. Short review.

Tales of Freedom

  • Geelong Advertiser, 18 April 2009, p. 46. Very short review.
  • Adcock, Fleur, 'Small and curiously formed', Financial Times, 4 April 2009, p. 16. [online version: 6 April 2009]
  • Bruce, Keith, 'Poetry in perpetual motion', Herald (Glasgow), 4 April 2009, p. 12.
  • Clements, Madeline, 'Onerous Riddles', TLS 5540, 5 June 2009, p. 21.
  • Cronshaw, Damon, Newcastle Herald, 30 May 2009, p. 34. Very short review.
  • Deveson, Tom, 'A padded sell', Sunday Times, 26 April 2009, p. 47.
  • Daniel, Lucy, 'Lost in a cloud of mysticism', Daily Telegraph, 2 May 2009, p. 24. [online version: 30 April 2009]
  • Dey Sarker, Nilima, Daily Post (Liverpool), 7 May 2010, p. 22. Short review. Also published in Gloucester Echo, 8 May 2010, p. 37, and Darlington and Stockton Times, 14 May 2010. A shorter version was also published as 'Poet and author Okri enjoys abstract appeal', Nottingham Evening Post, 7 May 2010, p. 5, and appeared untitled in Western Daily Press, 12 June 2010, p. 29. Slightly different versions of this shorter text also appear in Wales on Sunday, 9 May 2010, p. 5, Bristol Evening Post, 29 May 2010, p. 16, and Bristol Evening Post, 12 June 2010, p. 16.
  • Feng, Yen, Straits Times, 5 July 2009.
  • Goldsworthy, Kerryn, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 June 2009, p. 30.
  • Parini, Jay, 'Introducing the stoku', Guardian (Review), 25 April 2009, p. 11.
  • Schimke, Karin, 'The boredom of Okri's characters seeps into the reader's mind', Cape Times, 3 September 2010.
  • Tattersall, Malcolm, Townsville Bulletin, 13 June 2009, p. 68.
  • Woodhead, Cameron, Age, 20 June 2009, p. 28.

The Age of Magic

  • 'Swiss mystery in Ben Okri's new novel', Business Standard, 24 November 2014.
  • Goldsworthy, Kerryn, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 January 2015.
  • Gorolay, Nikheel, Sable 15 (Autumn 2015), p. 21.
  • Haverty, Anne, 'Giving substance to the abstract', Irish Times, 19 September 2015.
  • Khan, Ammara, 'Confronting the Past', Kashmir Monitor, 29 March 2015.
  • Larson, Charles R., 'Of Quylphs and Bad Sex', Counterpunch, 29 May 2015.
  • McEwen, Todd, 'Devil finds work for idle hands', Sunday Herald (Scotland), 25 October 2014.
  • Speirs, Helen, 'Bewitching and rich allegorical tale', Otago Daily Times, 26 January 2015.

The Magic Lamp

  • Coughlan, Philipa, NB Magazine, 1 February 2019.
  • Hess, Liam, 'Fairy Tales', Times Literary Supplement, 22-29 December 2017, p. 38.
  • Khan, Maliha , 'Ben Okri: The writer, the artist', Daily Star (India), 15 December 2017.
  • Mbao, Wamuwi, 'Ben Okri demonstrates the value of dreams in a ramshackle world', The Johannesburg Review of Books, 5 February 2018.
  • Swirsky, Rebecca, 'England's Dreaming', New Statesman, 9-15 March 2018, p. 47.
  • Wagner, Erica, 'After the Dream', Financial Times, 15 December 2017.

The Freedom Artist

  • Booklist, 15 December 2020, p. 25. Very short review.
  • Kirkus Reviews 87.23, 1 December 2019.
  • New York Times Book Review, 23 February 2020, p. 4. Very short review.
  • Publishers Weekly, 9 December 2019, p. 68. Very short review.
  • Apostolides, Zoë, 'Life in a post-truth society', Financial Times, 1 February 2019.
  • Bush, Vanessa, Booklist, 1 & 15 January 2021, p. 35.
  • Forbes, Malcolm, 'Ben Okri's foray into dystopian themes in The Freedom Artist doesn't disappoint', National News, 25 March 2019.
  • Massie, Allan, Scotsman, 6 February 2019.
  • Merritt, Stephanie, 'Wake-up call of a world without books', Guardian, 12 February 2019.
  • Mond, Ian, Locus (February 2020).
  • Sasidharan, Keerthik, 'A river runs through it', Hindu, 20 July 2019.

Prayer for the Living

  • Kirkus Reviews 88.21,, 1 November 2020.
  • New Statesman, 22-28 November 2019, p. 41.
  • Publishers Weekly, 16 November 2020, p. 64. [online version: 30 October 2020]
  • Bissell, Sally, Library Journal 146.1 (January 2021), p. 70.
  • James, Maya C., Locus 125 (vol. 86.6) (June 2021), p. 23.
  • Okolo, Babi, 'The Immensity of Brevity: On Ben Okri's Prayer for the Living', Los Angeles Review of Books, 2 February 2021.

Poetry

Mental Fight

  • Bekri, Tahar, Notre Librairie: Revue des littératures du Sud 141 (July/September 2000), pp. 66-67.
  • Bradbury, Dominic, 'Dream on', Times, 4 September 1999.
  • Catalano, Gary, 'At Home With The Murray Dictionary', Sydney Morning Herald, 24 December 1999, p. 7.
  • Fabre, Cédric, 'Poème ouvert à l'homme épuisé', L'Humanité, 6 January 2000. In French.
  • Smith, Ali, 'Magical mystical tour of the millenium', Scotsman, 18 September 1999, p. 10.
  • Walker, Victoria, Times, 2 September 2000. Very short review.

Wild

  • Gorolay, Nikheel, Sable 15 (Autumn 2015), p. 20.

Non-Fiction

Birds of Heaven

  • Fraser, Robert, 'Killing the Minotaur' (review of Birds of Heaven and A Way of Being Free), West Africa 4146, 21-27 April 1997, p. 653.

A Way of Being Free

  • Globe and Mail, 2 August 1997, p. D10. Very short review.
  • West Australian, 4 August 2009, p. 7. Very short review.
  • Fiennes, William, 'Talking through his Euterpean hat', 10 April 1997, Times, p. 36.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'Killing the Minotaur' (review of Birds of Heaven and A Way of Being Free), West Africa 4146, 21-27 April 1997, p. 653.
  • Lakeman, James, Times Literary Supplement 4915, 13 June 1997, p. 28.
  • Mannes-Abbott, Guy, 'What's the story?', Independent, 19 April 1997, p. 8.
  • Rogers, Ben, 'Poetry, without a doubt', Independent on Sunday, 18 May 1997, p. 36.

A Time for New Dreams

  • Chambers, Claire, TLS 5655/5656, 19 August 2011, p. 34.
Stage Plays

Changing Destiny

  • Akbar, Arifa, 'Ben Okri's Sketchy Foray into Ancient Egypt', Guardian, 1 August 2021.

 

Miscellaneous

  • 'Nigerian Ben Okri wins prestigious Booker Prize', Agence France Presse, 22 October 1991.
  • Dourian, Kate, 'Nigeria's Ben Okri wins Britain's top literary award', Reuters, 22 October 1991.
  • Dourian, Kate [Reuter], 'Okri wins Booker: "I'm floating in a dream"', Globe and Mail, 23 October 1991, p. C1. Also published as 'Okri foils Booker bookmakers', Toronto Star, 23 October 1991, p. F6.
  • Radford, Tim, 'Ben Okri's magical road wins Booker', Guardian, 23 October 1991, p. 1.
  • 'Nigerian wins British fiction award', New York Times, 23 October 1991, p. 22. Also published as 'Nigerian Writer Wins Booker Prize', San Francisco Chronicle, 23 October 1991, p. E2. Very short item.
  • Wilson, A.N., 'What a Larkin as Booker goes back in time', Evening Standard, 23 October 1991, p. 10.
  • Evening Standard, 24 October 1991, p. 6. About Okri and Essex University. Very short item.
  • Evening Standard, 11 September 1992, p. 8. About Okri's winning of the Booker Prize the previous year. Very short item.
  • 'Mind over matter', Evening Standard, 9 March 1993, p. 8.
  • 'Written out: Okri leaves Random House', Times, 6 December 1993.
  • Johnson, Angella, 'France wrongs prize writer', Guardian, 24 May 1995, p. 2.
  • 'Ben Okri, Booker Prize-winning author, on where he gets it all from', Evening Standard, 29 May 1996, p. 8. Very short item.
  • Truss, Lynne, 'The scenic route to a predictable destination', Times, 10 October 1996, p. 47. Review of the television programme Great Railway Journeys featuring Ben Okri.
  • Seaton, Matt, Dan Glaister & Alex Duval Smith, 'Famished Road feeds French book fever', Guardian, 26 November 1996, p. 3. On Ben Okri's accusations of plagiarism against Calixthe Beyala.
  • Evening Standard, 1 July 1997, p. 8. Very short item, on Ben Okri recommending books to John Major.
  • Hall, Sarah, '"Cool cat" Humphrey immortalised: Ben Okri laments the departure of "a spy in the seat of power"', Guardian, 19 December 1997, p. 4. Ben Okri on his poem 'Ode to a Street Cat'.
  • 'Okri to write of life in the Slough lane', Evening Standard, 15 September 1998, p. 10.
  • 'Okri rescues Slough from its despond', Evening Standard, 12 October 1998, p. 10.
  • Henderson, Mark, 'Okri poem embraces spirit of millennium', Times, 8 May 1999, p. 8.
  • 'Fear of Flying', Evening Standard, 20 July 2000, p. 12.
  • 'From rubble to trouble', Evening Standard, 10 October 2001,p. 12. On Ben Okri's poem 'The Taliban'.
  • Coren, Giles, 'Ben Okri', Times, 11 October 2001. On Ben Okri's poem 'The Taliban'.
  • Adams, Guy, 'Peterborough: Fighting talk from Okri', Daily Telegraph, 2 February 2002, p. 22.
  • Gibbons, Fiachra, 'Okri has tough message for Britain', Guardian, 30 January 2003, p. 9. Published online as 'Okri has harsh words for Britain'.
  • 'A Message For World Leaders', Bath Chronicle, 3 March 2003, p. 8.
  • Mansfield, Susan, 'Writing Wrongs', Scotsman, 11 August 2003, p. 14. About the lecture Ben Okri delivered at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival.
  • Twaalfhoven, Anita, 'Mensen en geesten in een Afrikaanse straat', Trouw, 22 September 2002. Article in Dutch about the stage adaptation of The Famished Road.
  • Zonneveld, Loek, 'Met magie springen door de tijd', Groene Amsterdammer, 4 October 2003. Article in Dutch about the stage adaptation of The Famished Road.
  • Quarmby, Katharine, 'Healing Verses', Guardian (G2), 19 April 2005, p. 9.
  • Ohia, Paul, 'Nigerian among Arrowheads of Rushdie's Knighthood', This Day, 25 June 2007.
  • Geoffrey Wisner, 'Nigeria: Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri', in his A Basket of Leaves: 99 Books that Capture the Spirit of Africa (Auckland Park: Janaca Media, 2007), pp. 184-186.
  • Flood, Alison, 'Ben Okri releases new poem on Twitter', Guardian, 25 March 2009.
  • Oliver, Robin, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 November 1999, p. 21. Short review of the television programme Great Railway Journeys featuring Ben Okri.
  • Fraser, Robert, 'Ben Okri at Trinity', CAM: The Cambridge Alumni Magazine (Spring 1992), p. 35.
  • Quarmby, Katharine, 'Healing verses', Guardian, 19 April 2005.
  • 'Fatwa changed history of The Satanic Verses, says Ben Okri', Hindustan Times, 21 January 2012.
  • Alleyne, Richard, 'Ben Okri "disappointment" at editor he claims re-wrote his work', Telegraph, 11 February 2012.
  • Flood, Alison, 'Ben Okri erupts at editor over "rewriting" claim', Guardian (online), 13 February 2012.
  • Davis, Rebecca, 'Ben Okri at Steve Biko Memorial Lecture: "Freedom was just the overture"', Daily Maverick, 13 September 2012.
  • Tran, Mark, 'Ben Okri wins bad sex in fiction award for scene featuring rocket going off', Guardian, 3 December 2014.
  • Alberge, Dalya & Mark Brown, 'Actor Janet Suzman criticised for calling theatre "a white invention"', Guardian, 8 December 2014. Includes comments by Ben Okri.
  • Samatar, Sofia, 'Black and African writers don't need instructions from Ben Okri', Guardian, 30 December 2014. A response to Ben Okri's article 'A mental tyranny is keeping black writers from greatness'.
  • Sosibo, Kwanele, 'Okri's insufficient renaissance', Mail & Guardian, 17 April 2015. About Ben Okri's talk in Pretoria on African Renaissance.
  • Newland, Courttia, 'Black authors have freedom of speech but not of subject matter', Evening Standard, 20 April 2015. A response to Ben Okri's article 'A mental tyranny is keeping black writers from greatness'.
  • Boehmer, Elleke, 'Ben Okri, My Neighbor and Friend', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1007-1011.
  • Clunie, Rosemary, 'Images', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1014-1170 (5 pages within this page span). Sketches of Ben Okri.
  • Guignery, Vanessa, 'Ben Okri: A Man of Many Arts', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 997-1003.
  • Havsteen-Mikkelsen, Asmund, 'The Poet Looks Ahead', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), p. 1006. Sketch of Ben Okri (1996).
  • Kennedy, Helena, 'Ben Okri', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1015-1016.
  • Krüger, Peter, 'On My Artistic Collaboration with Ben Okri', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1045-1046. In the same issue, see also 'Film Stills from N: The Madness of Reason', pp. 1047-1048.
  • Parkes, Nii Ayikwei, 'Laughter of Demons', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1012-1013.
  • Strik, Elly, 'For the Dreamdrift and Paradise Tears. And for You', Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1049-1051.
  • Wästberg, Per, 'Between Magic and Everyday Life', trans. by Hanna Westerlund, Callaloo 38.5 (Fall 2015), pp. 1018-1022.
  • 'Twitter Improved My Poetry: Booker Winning Author Ben Okri', New Indian Express, 14 January 2016.
  • Roy, Sanjoy, 'New Ben Okri poem accompanies earthy dance', review of Terra by Hubert Essakow, Guardian, 26 February 2016.
  • Barnes, Andrew, 'Village Underground gets new mural to honour Grenfell victims', Hackney Citizen, 19 July 2017.
  • Thompson, Jessie, 'Grenfell Tower mural honours victims with words from powerful Ben Okri poem', Evening Standard, n.d. (July 2017).
  • Foroudi, Layli, 'Shoreditch mural honours Grenfell Tower victims', Financial Times, 21 July 2017.
  • Hackett, Tamsin, 'Ben Okri's first poetry collection in eight years goes to Head of Zeus', Bookseller (1 July 2020).
  • Blistein, Jon, 'Posthumous Tony Allen Album Previewed With "Cosmosis" Featuring Skepta and Ben Okri', Rolling Stone, 12 March 2021.
  • Ylanan, Aida, 'Writers describe the vast spaces contained within their short stories', Los Angeles Times, 24 April 2021.
  • Wood, Heloise, 'HoZ snaps up Okri's first children's book', Bookseller, 13 July 2021.

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