Home and Nation in Anglophone Autobiographies of Africa

ISBN-13: 9783031366352 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023

Lena Englund

Opis

This book looks at contemporary autobiographical works by writers with African backgrounds in relation to the idea of ‘place’. It examines eight authors’ works – Helen Cooper’s The House at Sugar Beach, Sisonke Msimang’s Always Another Country, Leila Ahmed’s A Border Passage, Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland, Douglas Rogers’s The Last Resort, Elamin Abdelmahmoud’s Son of Elsewhere, Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil’s The Girl Who Smiled Beads and Aminatta Forna’s autobiographical writing – to argue that place is particularly central to personal narrative in texts whose authors have migrated multiple times. Spanning Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, this book interrogates the label ‘African’ writing which has been criticized for ignoring local contexts. It demonstrates how in their works these writers seek to reconnect with a bygone ‘Africa’, often after complex experiences of political upheavals and personal loss. The chapters also provide in-depth analyses of key concepts related to place and autobiography: place and privilege, place and trauma, and the relationship between place and nation.

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Introduction.

Chapter 2: Place and Privilege in Helene Cooper’s The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood.

Chapter 3: Exiled Place in Sisonke Msimang’s Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home.

Chapter 4: Family History and Place in Leila Ahmed’s A Border Passage: From Cairo to America – A Woman’s Journey.

Chapter 5: Redemptive Place in Elamin Abdelmahmoud’s Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces.

Chapter 6: Disillusioned Place in Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria.

Chapter 7: Place and Politics in Douglas Rogers’s The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe.

Chapter 8: Place and Trauma in The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil.

Chapter 9: From Place to Place in Aminatta Forna’s Autobiographical Writing. - Chapter 10:Home and Nation in Autobiographical Writing.

O autorze

Lena Englund currently works as senior researcher at the School of Humanities, University of Eastern Finland. She is the author of South African Autobiography as Subjective History: Making Concessions to the Past (Palgrave, 2021).

Blurb

This book looks at contemporary autobiographical works by writers with African backgrounds in relation to the idea of ‘place’. It examines eight authors’ works – Helen Cooper’s The House at Sugar Beach, Sisonke Msimang’s Always Another Country, Leila Ahmed’s A Border Passage, Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland, Douglas Rogers’s The Last Resort, Elamin Abdelmahmoud’s Son of Elsewhere, Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil’s The Girl Who Smiled Beads and Aminatta Forna’s autobiographical writing – to argue that place is particularly central to personal narrative in texts whose authors have migrated multiple times. Spanning Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, this book interrogates the label ‘African’ writing which has been criticized for ignoring local contexts. It demonstrates how in their works these writers seek to reconnect with a bygone ‘Africa’, often after complex experiences of political upheavals and personal loss. The chapters also provide in-depth analyses of key concepts related to place and autobiography: place and privilege, place and trauma, and the relationship between place and nation.

Lena Englund currently works as senior researcher at the School of Humanities, University of Eastern Finland. She is the author of South African Autobiography as Subjective History: Making Concessions to the Past (Palgrave, 2021).