African identities : race, nation, and culture in ethnography, pan-Africanism, and Black literatures

"This fascinating and well researched study explores the meaning generated by 'Africa' and 'Blackness' throughout the century. Using literary texts, autobiography, ethnography, and historical documents, African Identities discusses how ideas of Africa as an origin, as a cultural whole, or as a complicated political problematic, emerge as signifiers for analysis of modernity, nationhood and racial difference. Kanneh provides detailed readings of a range of literary texts, including novels by: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe and V.S. Naipaul. For anyone interested in literature, history, anthropology, political writing, feminist or cultural analysis, this book opens up new areas of thought across disciplines."-- Provided by publisher The Meaning Of Africa: Texts And Histories. Looking For Africa: 'cultural Translation' And African Ethnographies ; Competing Representations: 'african' Literatures ; Ambiguous Identity: Islam And Exile ; The Politics Of Resistance: Cultural Nationalisms ; Ethnophilosophy And The Essential Africa -- 'coming Home': Pan-africanisms And National Identities. 'back To Africa': Sierra Leone And The African Dream ; Travelling Modernities: Black Identities In Exile ; Cultures Of Resistance: Nation And Time ; Possible Futures: Modernity And Tradition. Remembered Landscapes: African-american Appropriations Of Africa. 'in The Flesh': Gender, Sexuality And Sisterhood ; Space Has A Feeling: The Geographies Of Racial Memory -- Crossing Borders: Race, Sexuality And The Body. Postmodernism And The Diaspora ; 'were We In Winter Or Summer?': Inter-racial Fantasy And African Migration ; Wigs And Veils: Cultural Constructions Of The Body ; Racialised Bodies And Sexuality ; Across The Line: Transgressing Whiteness And Desire ; Mixed Metaphors: Popular Culture And Hybridity ; In Conclusion. Kadiatu Kanneh. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. African Identities explores the meaning generated by `Africa' and `Blackness' throughout the century. Using literary texts, autobiography, ethnography, and historical documents, African Identities discusses how ideas of Africa as an origin, as a cultural whole, or as a complicated political problematic, emerge as signifiers for analysis of modernity, nationhood and racial difference. Kanneh provides detailed readings of a range of literary texts, including novels by: * Toni Morrison * Alice Walker * Gloria Naylor * Ngugi Wa Thiong'o * Chinua Achebe * and V.S. Naipaul. For anyone interested in literature, history, anthropology, political writing, feminist or cultural analysis, this book opens up new areas of thought across disciplines. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Introduction......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 12 The meaning of Africa: texts and histories......Page 14 'Coming home': Pan-Africanisms and national identities......Page 61 Remembered landscapes: African-American appropriations of Africa......Page 122 Crossing borders: race, sexuality and the body......Page 149 Afterword......Page 204 Bibliography......Page 206 Index......Page 213 Kanneh locates Black identity in relation to Africa and discovers how histories connected with the domination, imagination, and interpretation of Africa are constructive of a range of political and theoretic parameters around race