Coming Of Age In The Afro Latin American Novel

Explores the dimensions of the coming-of-age novel in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Brazil, focusing on works by eight major Afro-Latin American writers

After generations of being rendered virtually invisible by the US academy in critical anthologies and literary histories, writing by Latin Americans of African ancestry has become represented by a booming corpus of intellectual and critical investigation. This volume aims to provide an introduction to the literary worlds and perceptions of national culture and identity of authors from Spanish-America, Brazil, and uniquely, Equatorial Guinea, thus contextually connecting Africa to the history of Spanish colonization. The importance of Latin America literature to the discipline of African Diaspora studies is immeasurable, and this edited collection provides a ripe cultural context for critical comparative analysis among the vast geographies that encompass African and African Diaspora studies. Scholars in the area of African Diaspora Studies, Black Studies, Latin American Studies, and American literature will be able to utilize the eleven essays in this edition to enhance classroom instruction and further academic research.

Examines the full range of humanities and social science scholarship on people of African descent in Latin America.

Quince Duncan is one of the most significant yet understudied Black writers in the Americas. A third-generation Afro-Costa Rican of West Indian heritage, he is the first novelist of African descent to tell the story of Jamaican migration to Costa Rica. Duncan’s work has been growing in popularity among scholars and teachers of Afro-Latin American literature and African Diaspora Studies. This translation brings two of his major novels to English-speaking audiences for the first time, Weathered Men and The Four Mirrors. The book will be invaluable for those eager to develop further their background in Afro-Latin American literature, and it will enable students and faculty members in other fields such as comparative literature to engage with the burgeoning area of Afro-Latin American literary studies.

This book "explores pressing social and political issues such as racial identity, environmental devastation, human trafficking, and political violence through the lens of novels of African migration. [It] details how authors such as Chika Unigwe, Chris Abani, Dinaw Mengestu, In Koli Jean Bofane, Boubacar Boris Diop, and others develop 'the migratory imagination': the creative means mobilized within their novels to expose the reader to contemporary social issues. Drawing on and synthesizing a multitude of theoretical frameworks including ecocriticism, postcolonial theory, genre studies, Black studies, paratextual reading, and political economy, the book argues for the flexibility of the migration novel as a genre"--

Affect, Performativity, and Chinese Diasporas in the Caribbean: Hopeful Futures analyzes the emergence of Chinese diasporic literature and art in the Caribbean and its diasporas in the twenty-first century. This book considers the historical and critical discourse about the Chinese diasporas in the Caribbean and proposes a textual and visual archive selecting contemporary texts that signal a changing paradigm in postcolonial literature at the turn of the twenty-first century. Whereas, historically, Chinese minorities had been erased or presented as ultimate Others, contemporary texts mobilize Chinese characters and their stories strategically to propose alternative configurations of community and belonging grounded in affective structures and contest the coloniality of national imaginaries.

A comprehensive historical, geographic, and thematic analysis of the multidimensional and dynamic migration experience of Ethiopians within and beyond Africa. Ethiopia is one of the largest African sources of transnational migrants, with an estimated two to three million Ethiopians living outside of the home country. This edited collection provides a critical examination of the temporal, spatial, and thematic dimensions of Ethiopian migration, mapping out its scale, scope, and destinations. The thirteen essays here (plus an introduction and conclusion by the volume's editors) offer a discussion of the state of knowledge and current debates on the diaspora and suggest alternative frameworks for interrogating and understanding the Ethiopian migration and diasporic experiences. Key time periods and literatures are identified to study Ethiopian transnational migration, moving from a survey of patterns in pre-twentieth century Ethiopia and on to changing trajectories in the imperial period and under succeeding postrevolutionary regimes. Geographically, the contour of the Ethiopian diaspora is outlined, identifying key destinations and patterns of return. In particular, the volume seeks to correct the traditional tendency to conflate the Ethiopian diaspora with North America and Europe by including areas that have long been marginalized, such as inter-Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The objective is not to construct a simple cartography of migration but a critical analysis of national and global issues, policies, trends, and processes that shape the roots and routes of the migration dynamic. Thematically, this book aims to challenge the existing boundaries of Ethiopian migration and diaspora studies and raise important concerns about representation, ghettoization, and perpetuation of inequalities. Edited by Shimelis Bonsa Gulema, Hewan Girma, and Mulugeta F. Dinbabo. Contributors: Alpha Abebe; Amsale Alemu; Tekalign Ayalew; Kassaye Berhanu-MacDonald; Elizabeth Chacko; Marina de Re> Mulugeta F. Dinbabo; Peter H. Gebre; Hewan Girma; Mary Goitom; Shimelis Bonsa Gulema; Tesfaye Semela; Nassise Solomon; and Fitsum R. Tedla.