An Afropolitan literary aesthetics? Afropolitan style and tropes in recent diasporic African fiction. (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Knudsen, Eva Rask; Rahbek, Ulla
• Is Part Of: European journal of English studies. Volume 21:Number 2(2017)
• Page Start: 115
• Page End: 128
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: Afropolitan style -- tropes -- anxiety about belonging -- return -- figuration of Africa; English literature -- Europe -- Periodicals; English literature -- Study and teaching -- Europe -- Periodicals; English language -- Europe -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Europe -- Periodicals; 420.71
• DOI: 10.1080/13825577.2017.1344473
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1382-5577

Abstract

Abstract: This article discusses what the authors call an emerging Afropolitan aesthetics. Through an exploration of recurring stylistic features, the article focuses particularly on the trope of a mobility-induced anxiety that entwines place and self. The ontological and affective troping of return and of self-understanding and the contemporary signification of Africa as a complex place of relocation and reconnection are explored in discussions of literary characters in Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go (2013), Yvonne Owuor's Dust (2014), Sefi Atta's A Bit of Difference (2013) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah (2013).