Making Black History : Diasporic Fiction in the Moment of Afropolitanism /
Haensell, Dominique,
Making Black History : Diasporic Fiction in the Moment of Afropolitanism / Dominique Haensell. - 1 online resource (VII, 245 pages) - Buchreihe der Anglia = ANGLIA book series, volume 73 0340-5435 ; . - Buchreihe der Anglia ; 73. Bd. .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter I Introduction -- Writing Race in the Moment of Afropolitanism -- Chapter II Going Through The Motions -- Movement, Metahistory, and the Spectacle of Suffering in Teju Cole's Open City -- Chapter III (Post- )Independent Women -- Romance, Return, and Pan-African Feminism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah -- Chapter IV A Painful Notion of Time -- Conveying Black Temporality in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing -- Chapter V Conclusion -- The Past Is Always Tense, the Future Perfect -- Bibliography -- Index
This study proposes that - rather than trying to discern the normative value of Afropolitanism as an identificatory concept, politics, ethics or aesthetics - Afropolitanism may be best approached as a distinct historical and cultural moment, that is, a certain historical constellation that allows us to glimpse the shifting and multiple silhouettes which Africa, as signifier, as real and imagined locus, embodies in the globalized, yet predominantly Western, cultural landscape of the 21st century. As such, Making Black History looks at contemporary fictions of the African or Black Diaspora that have been written and received in the moment of Afropolitanism. Discursively, this moment is very much part of a diasporic conversation that takes place in the US and is thus informed by various negotiations of blackness, race, class, and cultural identity. Yet rather than interpreting Afropolitan literatures (merely) as a rejection of racial solidarity, as some commentators have, they should be read as ambivalent responses to post-racial discourses dominating the first decade of the 21st century, particularly in the US, which oscillate between moments of intense hope and acute disappointment.
In English.
9783110722093 3110722097 9783110722147 3110722143
10.1515/9783110722093 doi
African Americans--History.
Biography.
Education.
Schools.
Teaching.
African Americans.
Biography.
Education.
Schools.
Teaching.
United States--History.
Africa--In literature.
Africa--Relations--Europe.
Africa--Relations--America.
United States.
African Atlantic, metahistory. Afropolitanism. Black Diaspora.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Electronic books.
PR9340.5 / .H34 2021eb
800
Making Black History : Diasporic Fiction in the Moment of Afropolitanism / Dominique Haensell. - 1 online resource (VII, 245 pages) - Buchreihe der Anglia = ANGLIA book series, volume 73 0340-5435 ; . - Buchreihe der Anglia ; 73. Bd. .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter I Introduction -- Writing Race in the Moment of Afropolitanism -- Chapter II Going Through The Motions -- Movement, Metahistory, and the Spectacle of Suffering in Teju Cole's Open City -- Chapter III (Post- )Independent Women -- Romance, Return, and Pan-African Feminism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah -- Chapter IV A Painful Notion of Time -- Conveying Black Temporality in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing -- Chapter V Conclusion -- The Past Is Always Tense, the Future Perfect -- Bibliography -- Index
This study proposes that - rather than trying to discern the normative value of Afropolitanism as an identificatory concept, politics, ethics or aesthetics - Afropolitanism may be best approached as a distinct historical and cultural moment, that is, a certain historical constellation that allows us to glimpse the shifting and multiple silhouettes which Africa, as signifier, as real and imagined locus, embodies in the globalized, yet predominantly Western, cultural landscape of the 21st century. As such, Making Black History looks at contemporary fictions of the African or Black Diaspora that have been written and received in the moment of Afropolitanism. Discursively, this moment is very much part of a diasporic conversation that takes place in the US and is thus informed by various negotiations of blackness, race, class, and cultural identity. Yet rather than interpreting Afropolitan literatures (merely) as a rejection of racial solidarity, as some commentators have, they should be read as ambivalent responses to post-racial discourses dominating the first decade of the 21st century, particularly in the US, which oscillate between moments of intense hope and acute disappointment.
In English.
9783110722093 3110722097 9783110722147 3110722143
10.1515/9783110722093 doi
African Americans--History.
Biography.
Education.
Schools.
Teaching.
African Americans.
Biography.
Education.
Schools.
Teaching.
United States--History.
Africa--In literature.
Africa--Relations--Europe.
Africa--Relations--America.
United States.
African Atlantic, metahistory. Afropolitanism. Black Diaspora.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Electronic books.
PR9340.5 / .H34 2021eb
800