Yogita Goyal
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479829590
- eISBN:
- 9781479819676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479829590.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines recent celebrated fictions from the new African diaspora that remake American conceptions of race by placing them in relation to the history of the postcolonial state and its ...
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This chapter examines recent celebrated fictions from the new African diaspora that remake American conceptions of race by placing them in relation to the history of the postcolonial state and its own itineraries of hope and despair, migration and return. Writers like Chris Abani, NoViolet Bulawayo, Chimamanda Adichie, Teju Cole, and Dinaw Mengestu appropriate various genres—the great American novel, the reverse imperial romance, the black Atlantic travel narrative, the ethnic bildungsroman—to delineate new conceptions of diaspora, beyond the assimilation mandated by the conventional immigrant plot or the melancholy sounded by critics nostalgic for simpler moments of opposition between Africa and the West. Often termed Afropolitan, these writers resist received notions of what constitutes African literature, even as they open up numerous critical possibilities for the study of diaspora, expanding previous geographies and weaving together race and class with location.Less
This chapter examines recent celebrated fictions from the new African diaspora that remake American conceptions of race by placing them in relation to the history of the postcolonial state and its own itineraries of hope and despair, migration and return. Writers like Chris Abani, NoViolet Bulawayo, Chimamanda Adichie, Teju Cole, and Dinaw Mengestu appropriate various genres—the great American novel, the reverse imperial romance, the black Atlantic travel narrative, the ethnic bildungsroman—to delineate new conceptions of diaspora, beyond the assimilation mandated by the conventional immigrant plot or the melancholy sounded by critics nostalgic for simpler moments of opposition between Africa and the West. Often termed Afropolitan, these writers resist received notions of what constitutes African literature, even as they open up numerous critical possibilities for the study of diaspora, expanding previous geographies and weaving together race and class with location.
Yogita Goyal
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479829590
- eISBN:
- 9781479819676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479829590.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter 2 focuses on the figure of the child as soldier. Reading expansively across memoirs and novels about war, I show how the figure of the child shuttles between sentimental and gothic modes, the ...
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Chapter 2 focuses on the figure of the child as soldier. Reading expansively across memoirs and novels about war, I show how the figure of the child shuttles between sentimental and gothic modes, the former universalizing, the latter calling attention to history, often repeating debates about American and Atlantic gothic. Best-selling narratives by Ishmael Beah, Susan Minot, and Uzodinma Iweala replicate the logic of humanitarian spectacles like Kony 2012 (condemning Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony) and the movement to #BringBackOurGirls (focusing on the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria). Tracing how and why the African child soldier appears as the afterlife of the Atlantic slave, the chapter unravels the assumptions about race in translation and travel at work. Lingering in gothic terror, refusing closure or redemption, novels by Chris Abani and Ahmadou Kourouma unearth repressed histories in order to challenge the absolute innocence demanded by human rights advocates.Less
Chapter 2 focuses on the figure of the child as soldier. Reading expansively across memoirs and novels about war, I show how the figure of the child shuttles between sentimental and gothic modes, the former universalizing, the latter calling attention to history, often repeating debates about American and Atlantic gothic. Best-selling narratives by Ishmael Beah, Susan Minot, and Uzodinma Iweala replicate the logic of humanitarian spectacles like Kony 2012 (condemning Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony) and the movement to #BringBackOurGirls (focusing on the Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria). Tracing how and why the African child soldier appears as the afterlife of the Atlantic slave, the chapter unravels the assumptions about race in translation and travel at work. Lingering in gothic terror, refusing closure or redemption, novels by Chris Abani and Ahmadou Kourouma unearth repressed histories in order to challenge the absolute innocence demanded by human rights advocates.
Kathryn Lachman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781380307
- eISBN:
- 9781781387290
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380307.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Borrowed Forms has shown how a critical engagement with music is essential to understanding the formal innovations and ethical commitments of the transnational novel. The conclusion extends the ...
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Borrowed Forms has shown how a critical engagement with music is essential to understanding the formal innovations and ethical commitments of the transnational novel. The conclusion extends the discussion of polyphony, counterpoint, variation and opera to consider the influence of concerto form on the work of Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. Concerto form relies on the principles of opposition, contrast, and dialogue. In Concierto barroco, accordingly, Carpentier foregrounds the dynamic negotiation among Cuban, African-American, and Italian Baroque traditions. Carpentier's novella suggests that the resurgence of Baroque musical forms in transnational fiction cannot be regarded simply as evidence of neocolonialism nor of the entrenched legacy of Western cultural values. On the contrary, musical forms are always hybrid and impure: they are the product of encounters among multiple traditions, and constantly undergo creolization and transformation. The conclusion brings together the book's main arguments, while also pointing to the new musical strategies deployed by emerging writers and the critical challenges this presents.Less
Borrowed Forms has shown how a critical engagement with music is essential to understanding the formal innovations and ethical commitments of the transnational novel. The conclusion extends the discussion of polyphony, counterpoint, variation and opera to consider the influence of concerto form on the work of Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier. Concerto form relies on the principles of opposition, contrast, and dialogue. In Concierto barroco, accordingly, Carpentier foregrounds the dynamic negotiation among Cuban, African-American, and Italian Baroque traditions. Carpentier's novella suggests that the resurgence of Baroque musical forms in transnational fiction cannot be regarded simply as evidence of neocolonialism nor of the entrenched legacy of Western cultural values. On the contrary, musical forms are always hybrid and impure: they are the product of encounters among multiple traditions, and constantly undergo creolization and transformation. The conclusion brings together the book's main arguments, while also pointing to the new musical strategies deployed by emerging writers and the critical challenges this presents.
