Description
Book SynopsisThe Postcolonial Subject in Transit presents in-depth analyses of the complex transitional migratory identities evident in emerging African diasporic writings. It provides insights into the hybridity of the migrant experience, where the migrant struggles to negotiate new cultural spaces. It shows that while some migrants successfully adapt and integrate into new Western locales, others exist at the margins unable to fully negotiate cultural difference. The diaspora becomes a space for opportunities and economic mobility, as well as alienation and uncertainties. This illuminates the heterogeneity of the African diasporic narrative; expanding the dialogue of the diaspora, from one of simply loss and melancholia to self-realization and empowerment.
Table of ContentsForeword Toyin Falola Introduction: Transitional Identity and Cultural Ambiguity in Diasporic African Literature Delphine Fongang Part I: Globalization, Migration, and Border Crisscrossing 1. Migration and African Diasporic Constructions in Chimamanda N Adichie’s Americanah Henry Kah Jick and Kelvin Ngong Toh 2. Inescapable Predicament: Migration and Diasporic Identity in Brian Chikwava’s Harare North Delphine Fongang 3. Politics of Migration: Dreams, Illusions and Reality in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods Inc. and NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names. Bosede Funke Afolayan Part II: Liminal Spaces, Hybridity and Gendered Identities 4. Black Americans and American Blacks: Transnational Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah Na’Imah H. Ford 5. In Search of Self:Teju Cole's Transcultural Urban Novel Open City Igor Maver 6. Entrapment and Dislocation: Migration and the Construction of “Queer” Subjectivity in Contemporary North African Literary Narratives Gibson Ncube 7. Mirror and Sexuality: Double Oppression of African Female Diasporic Subjects in Hannah Khoury’s So Pretty an African Samuel Kamara Part III: Reconnecting with the Homeland 8. “The Return of the Native”: Discourse of the Homecoming ‘Returnee’ Migrant in the Narratives of M. G. Vassanji Shilpa Daithota Bhat 9. Arrivals, Geographies, and “The Usual Reply” in Emily Raboteau’s Searching for Zion Nicole Stamant 10. Dislocation, Mimicry and the Geography of Home in Sefi Atta’s A Bit of Difference Grace Adeniyi Ogunyankin Conclusion: Emerging Perspectives in African Diasporic Literature Delphine Fongang
