This book explores the works of women writers and filmmakers across the African and African Diaspora world, reflecting on how the transnational sphere can serve to highlight voices that were at the margins of gender and race hierarchies.
The book demonstrates how in discourse and theory Africana women are the centers of their own knowledge production and agency, as the artists and their characters point the way forward. Their multi-perspectivism leads to avenues of selective mutuality and influence to generate transformative creative work, scholarship, and practices. Writers included are Sylvia Wynter, Edwidge Danticat, Amanda Smith, Werewere Liking, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Sefi Atta, NoViolet Bulawayo, Nnedi Okorafor, Mariama Bâ, Ama Ata Aidoo, Igiaba Scego, Léonara Miano, Gisèle Hountondji, Monique Ilboudo, and Maryse Condé, as well as filmmaker Kemi Adetiba. Over the course of the book, the contributors critically explore and update the canon on women in the African and African Diaspora literary sphere, highlighting their contributions to theoretical debates and providing substantive nuance to diasporic subjectivity.
This book will be of interest to scholars of African and Africana Studies, comparative literature, and women and gender studies.
Introduction: Transnational F(r)ictions: The Word, the Gaze, and the Narrative Cheryl Sterling Part I - Agents of Change and Producers of Knowledge Chapter 1,"Beyond the Profession: Sylvia Wynter’s Decolonial University," Anthony Bayani Rodriguez Chapter 2, "Mapping Diasporic and Transnational Subjectivities: Edwidge Danticat’s Politics of Exile and Home/Comings," Simone A. James Alexander Chapter 3, "Heavenly Homes and Transnational Travel: Amanda Smith’s Religious Cosmopolitan Vision," Amanda Lagji Chapter 4, "Performing Africana Institutions: The Enchevêtrement of Futures and Faith in the Theater of Werewere Liking," Guillaume Semon Yoboué Part II - TransLocations and the Futures of Fiction Chapter 5, "Memory, Identity, and Change in Select Short Stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie," Bernard Otonye Stephen Chapter 6, "Engaging the Diaspora in Contemporary Works by African Women Writers," Rose A. Sackeyfio Chapter 7, "Transnational Agency, Nollywood Feminist Auteurs, and Patriarchy," Olusegun Soetan Chapter 8, "Speculation at the Limits? Articulating History, Genre, and the Diasporic Fantastic in Nnedi Okorafor’s Arro-yo Stories," Matthew Lecznar Chapter 9, "Going through So Long a Letter and Changes: African Women in the Process of Transformation," Cheryl Sterling Part III - Diasporas of Difference Chapter 10, "Italy, Somalia, and the Black Mediterranean, or Reading Igiaba Scego’s Adua alongside Bâ, Mbembe, Waberi, and Somali Praise Poetry," Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken Chapter 11, "The Dismantling of Afropean Families in Léonora Miano’s Afropean Soul," Johanna Montlouis-Gabriel Chapter 12, "Gendered Migrations: Transnationalisms and Intersectionalities in the Novels of Francophone African Women," Joyce Hope Scott Chapter 13, "‘A part le bonheur, il n’y a rien d’essentiel:’ The Transnational Narrative Model in Maryse Condé’s Desirada," Eliana Văgălău
Biography
Cheryl Sterling is Associate Professor of English and Director of African Studies at Pennsylvania State University, USA.
