Pan-African American literature : signifyin(g) immigrants in the twenty-first century

2019 Choice Outstanding Academic Title The twenty-first century is witnessing a dynamic broadening of how blackness signifies both in the U.S. and abroad. Literary writers of the new African diaspora are at the forefront of exploring these exciting approaches to what black subjectivity means. Pan-African American Literature is dedicated to charting the contours of literature by African born or identified authors centered around life in the United States. The texts examined here deliberately signify on the African American literary canon to encompass new experiences of immigration, assimilation and identification that challenge how blackness has been previously conceived. Though race often alienates and frustrates immigrants who are accustomed to living in all-black environments, Stephanie Li holds that it can also be a powerful form of community and political mobilization. "The fast-changing contours of the African diaspora in the United States demand that we establish new ways of understanding black identity in the twenty-first century. Twenty-First Century Pan-African American Literature takes up writings by African born or identified authors like Teju Cole, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dinaw Mengestu, and NoViolet Bulawayo. Stephanie Li asserts that these texts reinvent the meaning of blackness by placing immigration and diasporic identity at the center of their narratives, and reassessing the relationship between slavery and contemporary social conditions. The texts studied demonstrate the ways in which race is an evolving and contested site of identity that is made new by the experiences of recent African immigrants; they also show how blackness becomes a bridge between people of radically different experiences. Though race often alienates and frustrates immigrants who are accustomed to living in all-black environments, Li holds that it can also be a powerful form of community and political mobilization"-- Provided by publisher Pan-African American Literature charts the contours of literature by African born or identified authors centered around life in the United States. The texts examined here deliberately signify on the African American literary canon to encompass new experiences of immigration, assimilation and identification that challenge how blackness has been previously conceived.