Africa’s Narrative Geographies: Charting the Intersections of Geocriticism and Postcolonial Studies PDF
Preview Africa’s Narrative Geographies: Charting the Intersections of Geocriticism and Postcolonial Studies
GeocriticismandSpatialLiteraryStudies SeriesEditor: ROBERTT.TALLYJR.,TexasStateUniversity Seriesdescription: GeocriticismandSpatialLiteraryStudies isanewbookseriesfocusingonthe dynamicrelationsamongspace,place,andliterature.Thespatialturninthe humanitiesandsocialscienceshasoccasionedanexplosionofinnovative,mul- tidisciplinaryscholarshipinrecentyears,andgeocriticism,broadlyconceived, hasbeenamongthemorepromisingdevelopmentsinspatiallyorientedliter- arystudies.Whetherfocusedonliterarygeography,cartography,geopoetics, orthespatialhumanitiesmoregenerally,geocriticalapproachesenablereaders toreflectupontherepresentationofspaceandplace,bothinimaginaryuni- versesandinthosezoneswherefictionmeetsreality.Titlesintheseriesinclude bothmonographsandcollectionsofessaysdevotedtoliterarycriticism,the- ory, and history, often in association with other arts and sciences. Drawing on diverse critical and theoretical traditions, books in the Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies series disclose, analyze, and explore the significance ofspace,place,andmappinginliteratureandintheworld. Robert T. Tally Jr. is Associate Professor of English at Texas State Univer- sity, USA. His work explores the relations among narrative, representation, and social space in American and world literature, criticism, and theory. Tally has been recognized as a leading figure in the emerging fields of geocriticism, spatiality studies, and the spatial humanities. Tally’s books includeFredricJameson:TheProjectofDialecticalCriticism;PoeandtheSub- versionofAmericanLiterature:Satire,Fantasy,Critique;UtopiaintheAgeof Globalization: Space, Representation, and the World System; Spatiality; Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel: A Postmodern Iconography; and Melville, Mapping and Globalization: Literary Cartography in the American Baroque Writer.ThetranslatorofBertrandWestphal’sGeocriticism:RealandFictional Spaces, Tally is the editor of GeocriticalExplorations:Space,Place,andMap- pinginLiteraryandCulturalStudies;KurtVonnegut:CriticalInsights;and LiteraryCartographies:Spatiality,Representation,andNarrative. Titlestodate: Cosmopolitanism and Place: Spatial Forms in Contemporary Anglophone Literature ByEmilyJohansen LiteraryCartographies:Spatiality,Representation,andNarrative EditedbyRobertT.TallyJr. The Geocritical Legacies of Edward W. Said: Spatiality, Critical Humanism, andComparativeLiterature EditedbyRobertT.TallyJr. SpatialEngagementwithPoetry ByHeatherH.Yeung Literature’sSensuousGeographies:PostcolonialMattersofPlace ByStenPultzMoslund GeoparsingEarlyModernEnglishDrama ByMonicaMatei-Chesnoiu Africa’sNarrativeGeographies:ChartingtheIntersectionsofGeocriticismand PostcolonialStudies ByDustinCrowley Africa’s Narrative Geographies Charting the Intersections of Geocriticism and Postcolonial Studies Dustin Crowley AFRICA’SNARRATIVEGEOGRAPHIES Copyright©DustinCrowley,2015. Reprintoftheoriginaledition2015 Allrightsreserved. Firstpublishedin2015by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN® intheUnitedStates—adivisionofSt.Martin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. WherethisbookisdistributedintheUK,Europeandtherestofthe World,thisisbyPalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofMacmillanPublishers Limited,registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,of Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabove companiesandhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnited States,theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN978-1-349-70618-1 ISBN978-1-137-51899-6(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-1-137-51899-6 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Crowley,Dustin,1982– Africa’snarrativegeographies:chartingtheintersectionsof geocriticismandpostcolonialstudies/byDustinCrowley. pagescm.—(Geocriticismandspatialliterarystudies) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. Africanliterature—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism. 2. Africanliterature—21stcentury—Historyandcriticism. 3. Africanliterature(English)—Historyandcriticism. 4. African literature(French)—Historyandcriticism. 5. Place(Philosophy)in literature. 6. Africa—Inliterature. 7. Postcolonialism—Africa. 8. Geocriticism. I. Title. PL8010.C762015 809(cid:2).8996—dc23 2015002539 AcataloguerecordofthebookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. DesignbyIntegraSoftwareServices Firstedition:July2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents SeriesEditor’sPreface vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction:ChartingaPathforGeocriticism 1 1 “MyBlackLand”:Senghor’sConstructionof“Africa” 31 2 PlaceandScaleinNgu˜g˜ı’s“UniversalGarden” 51 3 ImaginingtheGlobalVillage:BessieHead’sNarratives ofMigrationandBoundaries 75 4 CosmopolitanSomalia:PlaceandIdentityinFarah’s Maps andLinks 101 5 HalfSlum,HalfParadise:Abani’sGlobalCities 129 Conclusion: The Landscape of Geocritical Inquiry: Finding CommonGroundforGeocriticismandEcocriticism 155 Notes 177 WorksCited 179 Index 187 Series Editor’s Preface The spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences has occasioned an explosion of innovative, multidisciplinary scholarship. Spatially oriented literary studies, whether operating under the banner of literary geography, literary cartography, geophilosophy, geopoetics, geocriticism, or the spatial humanities more generally, have helped to reframe or to transform contemporary criticism by focusing atten- tion, in various ways, on the dynamic relations among space, place, and literature. Reflecting upon the representation of space and place, whether in the real world, in imaginary universes, or in those hybrid zones where fiction meets reality, scholars and critics working in spa- tial literary studies are helping to reorient literary criticism, history, and theory. Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies is a book series presentingnewresearchinthisburgeoningfieldofinquiry. In exploring such matters as the representation of place in literary works, the relations between literature and geography, the histor- ical transformation of literary and cartographic practices, and the role of space in critical theory, among many others, geocriticism and spatial literary studies have also developed interdisciplinary or transdisciplinarymethodsandpractices,frequentlymakingproductive connections to architecture, art history, geography, history, philos- ophy, politics, social theory, and urban studies, to name but a few. Spatialcriticismisnotlimitedtothespacesoftheso-calledrealworld, anditsometimescallsintoquestionanytoofaciledistinctionbetween real and imaginary places, as it frequently investigates what Edward Sojahasreferredtoasthe“real-and-imagined”placesweexperiencein literatureasinlife.Indeed,althoughagreatdealofimportantresearch has been devoted to the literary representation of certain identifiable and well-known places (e.g., Dickens’s London, Baudelaire’s Paris, orJoyce’sDublin),spatialcriticshavealsoexploredtheotherworldly spacesofliterature,suchasthosetobefoundinmyth,fantasy,science fiction,videogames,andcyberspace.Similarly,suchcriticismisinter- ested in the relationship between spatiality and such different media or genres as film or television, music, comics, computer programs, viii Series Editor’s Preface and other forms that may supplement, compete with, and potentially problematize literary representation. Titles in the Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies series include both monographs and collec- tions of essays devoted to literary criticism, theory, and history, often in association with other arts and sciences. Drawing on diverse criti- cal and theoretical traditions, books in the series reveal, analyze, and explorethesignificanceofspace,place,andmappinginliteratureand intheworld. Theconcepts,practices,ortheoriesimpliedbythetitleofthisseries are to be understood expansively. Although geocriticism and spatial literary studies represent a relatively new area of critical and schol- arly investigation, the historical roots of spatial criticism extend well beyondtherecentpast,informingpresentandfuturework.Thanksto a growing critical awareness of spatiality, innovative research into the literary geography of real and imaginary places has helped to shape historicalandculturalstudiesinancient,medieval,earlymodern,and modernistliterature,whileadiscourseofspatialityundergirdsmuchof whatisstillunderstoodasthepostmoderncondition.Thesuppression ofdistancebymoderntechnology,transportation,andtelecommuni- cations has only enhanced the sense of place, and of displacement, in the age of globalization. Spatial criticism examines literary rep- resentations not only of places themselves but of the experience of placeandofdisplacement,whileexploringtheinterrelationsbetween lived experience and a more abstract or unrepresentable spatial net- workthatsubtlyordirectlyshapesit.Insum,theworkbeingdonein geocriticism and spatial literary studies, broadly conceived, is diverse andfar-reaching.EachvolumeintheGeocriticismandSpatialLiterary Studies seriestakesseriouslythemutuallyimpressiveeffectsofspaceor place and artistic representation, particularly as these effects manifest themselves in works of literature. By bringing the spatial and geo- graphical concerns to bear on their scholarship, books in this series seek to make possible different ways of seeing literary and cultural texts, to pose novel questions for criticism and theory, and to offer alternative approaches to literary and cultural studies. In short, the seriesaimstoopenupnewspacesforcriticalinquiry. RobertT.TallyJr. Acknowledgments In my efforts to complete this book, the University of Kansas was instrumental in providing financial support and opportunities for development and feedback. In particular, I am grateful to the Hall Center for the Humanities, which provided summer funding for me tocompleteChapter2,inadditiontoorganizingtheNatureandCul- ture Seminar, where I received helpful feedback on Chapter 5. I also want to thank the Kansas African Studies Center for providing two Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships, which lent me time and space to explore ideas and engage with other scholars in African studiesinwaysthathaveshapedeveryaspectofthisproject.Iamalso indebted to the English Department for funding trips to conferences whereIpresentedportionsofthiswork. Iamgratefulforpermissionsgrantedtoreprintrevisedorexcerpted portions of two essays: “Transgression, Boundaries, and Power: RethinkingtheSpaceofPostcolonialLiterature,”originallypublished in Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Literature (14.3, 2014), and “‘A Universal Garden of Many-Coloured Flowers’: Place and ScaleintheWorksofNgu˜g˜ıwaThiong’o,”fromResearchinAfrican Literatures (44.3,Fall2013). Many colleagues and mentors demand my admiration and thanks fortheirsupport,insight,andguidanceasIworkedonthisbook.Iam especially grateful to Paul Outka, Chris Brown, Philip Barnard, and Garth Myers for their conversation, feedback, and encouragement. My deep appreciation also goes to Frank Farmer, Barb Mesle, Jerry Denuccio,EricZonyk,ErinWilliams,andthelateJonWallace,friends andcolleagueswhoseinfluenceisreflectedinthisbookininnumerable ways. I wish to extend special thanks to Byron Caminero-Santangelo, who more than anyone else has helped me to develop and clarify my thoughtsandaspirationsthroughouttheprocessofwritingthisbook. x Acknowledgments His inspiration and direction have been invaluable not only for this projectbutformywholedevelopmentasascholar. Lastly,asever,Iamgratefulforthesupportandencouragementof family and friends. Through difficulties and uncertainties, my loving parents, Melvin and Debora, and far too many friends and family to listhavebuoyedmyspiritsandhelpedmetopresson.
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