Alain Mabanckou's migrant cosmopolitanism. Issue 2 (1st October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xavier, Subha
• Is Part Of: Crossings. Volume 9:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 155
• Page End: 167
• Publication Date: 2018-10-01
• Subjects: Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Multiculturalism -- Periodicals; 304.8205
• DOI: 10.1386/cjmc.9.2.155_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-4344

Abstract

Writer Alain Mabanckou, originally from the Republic of the Congo, has worked his way to literary stardom in the French-speaking world and beyond by harnessing a creative ethos born of a cosmopolitan sensibility that is steeped in his experiences of migration as a black man. Living, writing, speaking and teaching between three continents, Mabanckou's prolific literary output betrays a conflicted relationship to French-speaking Africa's literary past, and draws on tropes of pastiche and irony to set itself within a global literary framework that demands a world audience. The writer's work and public persona thus showcase a unique brand of migrant cosmopolitanism.