Michael Echeruo

Echeruo was educated at the University College, Ibadan, Oyo State{{cite web|title= UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN |url=http://www.ui.edu.ng/|website=www.ui.edu.ng|access-date=19 November 2016}} (now the University of Ibadan) from 1955 to 1960 and was contemporaries with a few notable writers and poets from the college, such as Christopher Okigbo. He earned his Master's and Ph D degrees from Cornell University,{{cite web|title=Cornell University |url=https://www.cornell.edu/|website=www.cornell.edu|access-date=19 November 2016}} Ithaca, New York in 1963 and 1965 respectively. There he was a member of the Telluride House.{{Cite web|title=Telluride Newsletter|url=https://www.tellurideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/57_2_1969_Nov.pdf|date=November 1969|website=Telluride Association|access-date=May 29, 2020}} One of the most versatile of African critics, he has published on English Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama and on the modern English novel. Echeruo was primarily notable as a critic of western writers on Africa, as he viewed himself and his contemporaries as writers fighting for an African viewpoint instead of a western viewpoint on the continent. He is best known in poetry for his collection of poems, Mortality (1968);{{Cite web|title=Mjc Echeruo: Syracuse celebrates a titan|url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/10/mjc-echeruo-syracuse-celebrates-a-titan/|date=2010-10-24|website=Vanguard News|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-28}} in cultural history for his pioneering study of Victorian Lagos and in lexicography for his Dictionary of the Igbo Language (Yale 1998). He is currently William Safire Professor of Modern Letters in the English Department of Syracuse University.{{Cite web|title=Echeruo, Michael (Joseph Chukwudalu) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/echeruo-michael-joseph-chukwudalu|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2020-05-26}} He serves currently as a member of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) Committee of the New variourum Shakespeare.{{Cite web|title=Ahiajoku Lecture: Prof. Michael Echeruo rubbishes Igbo-Jewish link in Ogueri Mba 2019 Presentation {{!}} - Awareness Media Ng|url=https://www.theawarenessngr.com/news/details/8744/ahiajoku-lecture-prof-michael-echeruo-rubbishes-igbo-jewish-link-in-ogueri-mba-2019-presentation|website=www.theawarenessngr.com|access-date=2020-05-26}}{{dead link|date=March 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

• Victorian Lagos: aspects of nineteenth century Lagos life. Macmillan.{{Cite book|last=Echeruo, M.J.C. (Michael Joseph Chukwudalu)|title=Victorian Lagos : aspects of nineteenth century Lagos life|date=1977|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-333-22642-9|oclc=898987719}}
• Igbo-English Dictionary: A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Igbo Language with an English-Igbo Index.{{Citation|title=Comparison of Aspects of Igbo and English Grammars|work=Codeswitching in Igbo–English Bilingualism : A Matrix Language Frame Account|year=2016|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|doi=10.5040/9781474278171.ch-004|isbn=978-1-4742-7817-1}}
• The dramatic limits of Igbo ritual. (1973) Research in African Literatures, 21-31.{{Cite journal|last=Echeruo, M. J.|date=1973|title=The dramatic limits of Igbo ritual.|journal=Research in African Literatures|pages=21–31}}
• An African diaspora: The ontological project. The African Diaspora. {{Cite journal|last=Echeruo, M. J.|date=1999|title=An African diaspora: The ontological project.|journal=African Origins and New World Identities|pages=3–18}}
• Joyce Cary and the novel of Africa. London: Longman.{{Cite journal|last=Echeruo, M. J.|date=1973|title=Joyce Cary and the novel of Africa|journal=London: Longman}}
• Echeruo, M. J. (1979). A matter of identity. Culture Division, Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports.
• Echeruo, M. J. (1992). Edward W. Blyden, WEB Du Bois, and the ‘color complex’. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 30(4), 669-684.
• WEB Du Bois, and the ‘color complex’. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 30(4), 669-684.{{Cite journal|last=Echeruo|first=Michael J. C.|date=1992|title=Edward W. Blyden, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the 'Color Complex'|journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies|volume=30|issue=4|pages=669–684|doi=10.1017/s0022278x00011101|s2cid=155019435 |issn=0022-278X}}
• Echeruo, M. J. (1962). Concert and theatre in late nineteenth century Lagos. Nigeria Magazine, 74, 68-74.
• The intellectual context of nineteenth‐century Lagos life {{Cite journal|last=Echeruo|first=M. J. C.|date=January 1974|title=The intellectual context of nineteenth-century Lagos life|journal=African Studies|volume=33|issue=1|pages=43–51|doi=10.1080/00020187408707421|issn=0002-0184}}
• Traditional and borrowed elements in Nigerian Poetry. Nigeria Magazine, 89(1966), 142-155.{{Cite journal|last1=Okigbo|first1=Christopher|last2=Clark|first2=John Pepper|last3=Echeruo|first3=Michael Joseph Chukwudalu|last4=Higo|first4=Aig|last5=Soyinka|first5=Wole|date=1966|title=Nigeria|journal=Présence Africaine|volume=57|issue=1|pages=267|doi=10.3917/presa.057.0267|issn=0032-7638}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web|url= http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/13709.html|title= Echeruo, Michael Joseph Chukwudalu|access-date= 2007-04-06|work= Contemporary African Database|publisher= The Africa Centre|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070214122146/http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/13709.html|archive-date= 2007-02-14}}
• {{cite web|url= http://echeruo.syr.edu/biodata/echeruo_index.htm|title= Professor Michael J. C. Echeruo|access-date= 2007-04-20|work= Syracuse University Online|publisher= Syracuse University|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070622053355/http://echeruo.syr.edu/biodata/echeruo_index.htm|archive-date= 2007-06-22}}
• {{cite encyclopedia | editor = Simon Gikandi | editor-link = Simon Gikandi | title = Encyclopedia of African Literature | year = 2003 | publisher = Routledge | location = London, England }}

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Category:Nigerian male poets

Category:1937 births

Category:Living people

Category:University of Ibadan alumni

Category:Cornell University alumni

Category:Syracuse University faculty

Category:Igbo poets

Category:Igbo educators

Category:20th-century Nigerian poets

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