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‘DestroyedMichygen’: re-routing the postnational in contemporary diaspirant fiction
This paper explores three novels published in the Obama era: NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names (2013), Okey Ndibe's Foreign Gods, Inc. (2014), and Dinaw Mengestu's How to Read the Air (2010). It considers how writing both by and on Obama illuminates some of the central preoccupations of what I am choosing to call these “diaspirant” texts. The paper unpacks the paradigm of “diaspirancy,” probing both its utility and limitations when it comes to a new generation of diasporic writing, often labeled African and American. This allows me to consider the extent to which all three of my contextually specific novels are both invoking and seeking to interrogate certain discourses of American exceptionalism amplified in the context of Obama's presidency. Similarly, the paper argues that, while the postnational label is used in indiscriminate and often exclusive ways when it comes to African contexts, all three of my chosen writers consider how it might speak to the peculiar contours of twenty-first-century America. These are thrown into starker relief when viewed through the migrant lens so central to Bulawayo, Ndibe, and Mengestu, as well as much of Obama's rhetoric before, during, and after his time in office.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Research in African LiteraturesISSN
0034-5210Publisher
Indiana University PressIssue
1Volume
49Page range
1-21Department affiliated with
- English Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2016-06-15First Open Access (FOA) Date
2017-12-06First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2016-06-15Usage metrics
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