Black Travel Writing: Contemporary Narratives of Travel to Africa by African American and Black British Authors

Isabel Kalous

Published by transcript Verlag 2021

Black Travel Writing

Contemporary Narratives of Travel to Africa by African American and Black British Authors

Isabel Kalous

Volume 35 in the series American Culture Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839459539

Overview
Contents

About this book

What does it mean for Black diasporic writers to travel to Africa? Focusing on the period between the 1990s and 2010s, Isabel Kalous examines autobiographical narratives of travel to Africa by African American and Black British authors. She places the texts within the long tradition of Black diasporic engagement with the continent, scrutinizes the significance of Black mobility, and demonstrates that travel writing serves as a means to negotiate questions of identity, belonging, history, and cultural memory. To provide a framework for the analyses of contemporary narratives, her study outlines the emergence, development, and key characteristics of the multifaceted genre of Black travel writing. Authors discussed include, among others, Saidiya Hartman, Barack Obama, and Caryl Phillips.

Author / Editor information

Isabel Kalous is an alumna of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture at the University of Giessen, Germany, where she completed her dissertation in English and American Literature in 2020. Her research interests include African American literature, slavery and cultural memory, transnational American studies, and cultural mobility studies.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
I Introduction
1. Points of Departure: Tracing Roots/Routes to Africa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. On the Current State of Research Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
3. Route Map: Theoretical Premises, Methods, and Objectives of this Study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
II Traveling Black—Traveling Back
1. Black Im/Mobilities Past and Present Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
2. Diasporic Return and the Significance of Africa in the Black Imagination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
III An Invisible/Kaleidoscopic Genre: Black Travel Writing
1. Defining the Terms: Genre and Genealogy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
2. The Transnational Slave Narrative and the Roots of Black Travel Writing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
3. Developments and Trajectories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
IV Contemporary Black Travel Narratives
1. (Re)Writing Roots Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
2. Disenchanting Africa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
3. Searching for Home Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
4. Tracing Routes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
V Conclusion: Ambiguous Arrivals
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 274
Keywords: African Diaspora; Travel; Africa; African American Writers; Black British Writers; Literature; Postcolonialism; Migration; American Studies; Cultural Studies; Literary Studies

eBook

Published: November 27, 2021
ISBN: 9783839459539