Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-182) and index.
Contents:
Signifyin(g) on the slave narrative: African memoirs of war and displacement -- Uncanny rememories in Teju Cole's open city -- The impossibility of invisibility in the novels of Dinaw Mengestu -- Refiguring the ancestor in the fiction of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- Becoming his own father: Obama's dreams from my father -- Conclusion: blackness now.
Summary:
"The fast-changing contours of the African diaspora in the United States demand that we establish new ways of understanding black identity in the twenty-first century. Twenty-First Century Pan-African American Literature takes up writings by African born or identified authors like Teju Cole, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dinaw Mengestu, and NoViolet Bulawayo. Stephanie Li asserts that these texts reinvent the meaning of blackness by placing immigration and diasporic identity at the center of their narratives, and reassessing the relationship between slavery and contemporary social conditions. The texts studied demonstrate the ways in which race is an evolving and contested site of identity that is made new by the experiences of recent African immigrants; they also show how blackness becomes a bridge between people of radically different experiences. Though race often alienates and frustrates immigrants who are accustomed to living in all-black environments, Li holds that it can also be a powerful form of community and political mobilization"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.