The Cultural Memory of Africa in African American and Black British Fiction, 1970-2000: Specters of the Shore (Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict)

This Book Offers A New Approach To Reading The Cultural Memory Of Africa In African American Fiction From The Post-civil Rights Era And In Black British Fiction Emerging In The Wake Of Thatcherism. The Critical Period Between The Decline Of The Civil Rights Movement And The Dawn Of The Twenty-first Century Saw A Deep Contrast In The Distinctive Narrative Approaches Displayed By Diverse African Diaspora Literatures In Negotiating The Crisis Of Representing The Past. Through A Series Of Close Readings Of Literary Fiction, This Work Examines How The Cultural Memory Of Africa Is Employed In Diverse And Specific Negotiations Of Narrative Time, In Order To Engage And Shape Contemporary Identity And Citizenship. By Addressing The Practice Of Remembering Africa, The Book Argues For The Signal Importance Of The African Diaspora's Literary Interventions, And Locates New Paradigms For Cultural Identity In Contemporary Times. Drumbeats From The Aeons : Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo -- Solomon's Leap : Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon -- Worse Than Unwelcome : Alice Walker's The Color Purple -- Something About The Silence : John Edgar Wideman's Philadelphia Fire -- Words Without Sound : Caryl Phillip's Crossing The River -- Circular Talk : S.i. Martin's Incomparable World -- Awakening To The Singing : Bernardine Evaristo's Lara -- I Can Change Memory : David Dabydeen's A Harlot's Progress. Leila Kamali. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Acknowledgments 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 10 Chapter 1: Introduction 11 Africa in a Historical Gaze: Black Cultural Nationalisms and the Colonial Relationship 23 Notes 33 Part I: African American Aesthetics 39 Chapter 2: “Drumbeats From the Aeons”: Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo 40 Radically Present: When the Dead are Not Dead 48 Sounds on Home 59 Notes 63 Chapter 3: “Solomon’s Leap”: Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon 70 “The Whole Truth”: Narrating African American and African Pasts 78 “I Loved You All”: Morrison’s Cultural Nationalism and the Gaze Toward Africa 83 The Memory of Africa as Site of Responsibility 87 Malcolm X and African Filiality 91 Notes 94 Chapter 4: “Worse Than Unwelcome”: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple 101 Walker’s Apprehensive Africanism 111 “And Guess What Else...” 116 Notes 120 Chapter 5: “Something About the Silence”: John Edgar Wideman’s Philadelphia Fire 127 “Grasp the Pattern. Make Sense of Me.” 142 Finding the Voice 144 “Gather Up the Family”: Narration and Lineage 146 Notes 152 Part II: Black British Interventions 158 Chapter 6: “Words Without Sound”: Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River 159 “I Long to Hear”: Reading Cultural Memory as Future-Oriented 169 Into the Interior: Beyond Narration 174 “Something Fractured”: The Disquiet of Remembering 177 Writing Beyond Text? 183 Notes 185 Chapter 7: “Circular Talk”: S.I. Martin’s Incomparable World 191 Decoding the Archives 193 Humanizing the Heroes 202 The Memory of Africa and Adversarial Twinship 205 Historicity and the Politics of Remembrance 212 Notes 214 Chapter 8: “Awakening to the Singing”: Bernardine Evaristo’s Lara 219 The Past a Pit to Fall Down 226 Situating Black Britishness, and African American Influence 232 Memory Figured, Journeys Traveled 234 “Difference” and the Return to Britain 240 Notes 242 Chapter 9: “I Can Change Memory”: David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress 248 Truth and Forgetting 255 Unfinished Conversations 259 Adversarial Twinship and the Genesis of the Imagination 265 Notes 267 Chapter 10: Conclusion 271 Notes 278 Bibliography 280 Index 306 Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-28 Front Matter....Pages 29-29 “Drumbeats From the Aeons”: Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo ....Pages 31-60 “Solomon’s Leap”: Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon ....Pages 61-91 “Worse Than Unwelcome”: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple ....Pages 93-118 “Something About the Silence”: John Edgar Wideman’s Philadelphia Fire ....Pages 119-149 Front Matter....Pages 151-151 “Words Without Sound”: Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River ....Pages 153-184 “Circular Talk”: S.I. Martin’s Incomparable World ....Pages 185-212 “Awakening to the Singing”: Bernardine Evaristo’s Lara ....Pages 213-241 “I Can Change Memory”: David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress ....Pages 243-265 Conclusion....Pages 267-275 Back Matter....Pages 277-314