The Postcolonial Subject in Transit

Migration, Borders and Subjectivity in Contemporary African Diaspora Literature

Foreword by Toyin Falola Contributions by Bosede Funke Afolayan, Shilpa Daithota Bhat, Na'Imah Ford, Henry Kah Jick, Samuel Kamara Minnesota State Universit, Igor Maver, Gibson Ncube Stellenbosch University, Grace Adeniyi Ogunyankin, Nicole Stamant, Kelvin Ngong Toh Edited by Delphine Fongang

Publication date:

19 January 2018

Length of book:

174 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

238x159mm
6x9"

The 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.

Foreword
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