Reading M. G. Vassanji : A Contextual Approach to Asian African Fiction

ISBN-13: 9783639125474 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 128 str.

Justus Siboe Makokha

Opis

M. G. Vassanji has written six novels tracing themigration of South Asians to East Africain the 19th and 20th Centuries, and theirfurther exodus to North Americafrom the 1960s onwards. South Asians in East Africaare known in popular discourse simply asthe "Asians" or "Wahindis". Vassanjichronicles their unique (hi)stories as a migrantcommunity against the Black versus White coloniallogic prevalent in African studies. Through hisfiction, he argues Asians of East Africa (AsianAfricans) are neither Blacks nor Whites but a thirdentity between the two. They are the Other culturalfactor in East Africa''s multiracial equation. Thisnew book examines strategies of narration anddiscourse used in Vassanji''s fiction to expressthe Asian African experience and cultural ethos.Context-based readings of The Gunny Sack (1989) andThe Book of Secrets (1994) reveal how Vassanji usessetting and characterization to articulate communalmemory and authorial vision. His fiction challengesreaders of literature to reflect anew on the nexusbetween history, literature and the politics ofidentity in contemporary Africa.

O autorze

J. K. S. Makokha holds B.Ed.(Hons) and M.A. (Lit) degrees from
Kenyatta University. He is DAAD research fellow at the Institut
für Englische Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin. Makokha
teaches courses on African and South Asian Literatures.