Afropolitanism and the Novel: De-realizing Africa PDF
Preview Afropolitanism and the Novel: De-realizing Africa
AFROPOLITANISM AND THE NOVEL The place of the novel as a literary form in Africa is contested. Its colonial origins and its unaffordability for most Africans make it a bad fit for the continent, yet it was also central to the creation of most postcolonial African national literary canons. These bipolar traditions remain unresolved in recent debates about Afropolitanism and the novel in Africa today. This book extends this debate, arguing that Africa’s ‘de-realization’ in global representation and the global economy is reflected in the African novel becoming dominated by Afropolitan, rather than African, aesthetics, styles, and forms. Drawing on close readings of a variety of major African novels of the 2000s, the volume traces the tensions between the novel’s complicity with and resistance to such de-realization. The book argues that current trends and experiments in African non-realist genres, such as science fiction, magical and animist realism, Afro- futurism, and speculative environmentalism, are the result of a preoccupation with such de-realization. The volume is a significant exploration into literary form and its social, philosophical, political, and economic underpinnings. It will be a must-read for scholars, students, and researchers of African literature, politics, philosophy, and culture studies. Ashleigh Harris is Associate Professor of English at Uppsala University, Sweden. She has published widely on Zimbabwean and South African literature. Harris is currently leading the ‘African Street Literature and the Future of Literary Form’ research project at Uppsala University, which collects, archives, and analyses sub- Saharan literary forms that are produced and circulated outside of the formal publishing industry. Harris is also a participant in the ‘Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics in World Literature’ research project, based at Stockholm University. Literary Cultures of the Global South Series Editors: Russell West-Pavlov, University of Tübingen, Germany, and Makarand R. Paranjape, Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India Recent years have seen challenging new formulations of the flows of influence in transnational cultural configurations and developments. In the wake of the end of the Cold War, the notion of the ‘Global South’ has arguably succeeded the demise of the tripartite conceptual division of the First, Second and Third Worlds. This notion is a flexible one referring to the developing nations of the once-colonized sections of the globe. The concept does not merely indicate shifts in geopolitics and in the respective affiliations of nations, and the economic transformations that have occurred, but also registers an emergent perception of a new set of relationships between nations of the Global South as their respective connections to nations of the north (either USA/ USSR or the old colonial powers) diminish in significance. New social and cultural connections have become evident. This book series explores the literary manifestations (in their often intermedial, networked forms) of those south – south cultural connec- tions together with academic leaders from those societies and cultures concerned. Editorial Advisory Board Bruce Robbins, Columbia University Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago Elleke Boehmer, University of Oxford Laura I. P. Izarra, University of Sao Paulo Pal Ahluwalia, University of Portsmouth Robert J. C. Young, New York University Simon During, University of Queensland Véronique Tadjo, University of Witwatersrand Afropolitanism and the Novel De-realizing Africa Ashleigh Harris For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Literary-Cultures-of-the-Global-South/book-series/LCGS AFROPOLITANISM AND THE NOVEL De-realizing Africa Ashleigh Harris First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Ashleigh Harris The right of Ashleigh Harris to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Harris, Ashleigh, author. Title: Afropolitanism and the novel : de-realizing Africa / Ashleigh Harris. Description: New York : Routledge, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed. Identifiers: LCCN 2019016225 (print) | LCCN 2019017121 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429280337 () | ISBN 9780367199272 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780367235512 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: African fiction—History and criticism. | African fiction— 21st century. | Street literature—Africa—History and criticism. | Africans in literature. Classification: LCC PR9340.5 (ebook) | LCC PR9340.5 .H37 2019 (print) | DDC 823.9200996—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016225 ISBN: 978-0-367-19927-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-23551-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-28033-7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC For Alan and Shiona CONTENTS List of figures ix Series editors’ preface x Acknowledgements xii Introduction: de-realization and the African novel 1 PART I Afropolitanism and literary legitimacy 23 1 De-realizing literary form and style 33 2 Dissociation and Africa in the world 62 PART II De-realization and the aesthetics of irrealism 97 3 Street lives and the limits of hustling 101 4 Detective fictions in submerged and suspended landscapes 125 5 Mutants and contaminants in Afro-futurist irrealism 152 viii Contents Conclusion: towards a sustainable African literary future 175 Works cited 185 Index 195 FIGURES I.1 Santa Martha, Kilamba Kiaxe at Panoramio. 4 I.2 Andrew Harding, untitled image of a trolley pusher in Johannesburg. 14 I.3 Fabrice Monteiro, The Prophecy, #4 Untitled. 18 PI.1 Cover for Love of Biafra. 29 3.1 Un-ascribed student street art depicting the shadow of the removed statue of Cecil John Rhodes, University of Cape Town, 13 July 2016. 111 5.1 Fabrice Monteiro, The Prophecy, #2 Untitled. 163 C.1 Supplement to The Chronic 2017. Inner sleeve. 180
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