Exploring the Decolonial Imaginary: Four Transnational Lives

279 Pages·2012·7.92 MB·English

by  Patricia A. Schechter (auth.)

P ALGRAVE MACMILLAN TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY SERIES
A kira I riye ( Harvard University) and R ana M itter ( University of Oxford)
S eries Editors
T his distinguished series seeks to: develop scholarship on the transnational connections of societies
and peoples in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; provide a forum in which work on trans-
national history from different periods, subjects, and regions of the world can be brought together
in fruitful connection; and explore the theoretical and methodological links between transnational
and other related approaches such as comparative history and world history.
E ditorial board: T homas Bender, university professor of the Humanities, professor of History, and
director of the International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University Jane Carruthers,
professor of History, University of South Africa M ariano Plotkin, professor, Universidad
Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, and member of the National Council of Scientific and
Technological Research, Argentina P ierre-Yves Saunier, researcher at the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique, France I an Tyrrell, professor of History, University of New South Wales
P ublished by Palgrave Macmillan:
T HE NATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, 1870–1919
B y Glenda Sluga
C OMPETING VISIONS OF WORLD ORDER: GLOBAL MOMENTS AND MOVEMENTS,
1880S–1930S
E dited by Sebastian Conrad and Dominic Sachsenmaier
P AN-ASIANISM AND JAPAN’S WAR, 1931–1945
B y Eri Hotta
T HE CHINESE IN BRITAIN, 1800 TO THE PRESENT: ECONOMY, TRANSNATIONALISM, IDENTITY
B y Gregor Benton And Terence Gomez
1 968 IN EUROPE: A HISTORY OF PROTEST AND ACTIVISM, 1957–1977
E dited by Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth
R ECONSTRUCTING PATRIARCHY AFTER THE GREAT WAR: WOMEN, CHILDREN,
AND POSTWAR RECONCILIATION BETWEEN NATIONS
B y Erika Kuhlman
T HE IDEA OF HUMANITY IN A GLOBAL ERA
B y Bruce Mazlish
T RANSNATIONAL UNCONSCIOUS
E dited by Joy Damousi and Mariano Ben Plotkin
P ALGRAVE DICTIONARY OF TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY
E dited by Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves Saunier
T RANSNATIONAL LIVES: BIOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL MODERNITY, 1700 TO THE PRESENT
E dited by Angela Woollacott, Desley Deacon, and Penny Russell
T RANSATLANTIC ANTI-CATHOLICISM: FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
B y Timothy Verhoeven
C OSMOPOLITAN THOUGHT ZONES: INTELLECTUAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN SOUTH
ASIA AND EUROPE, 1870–1945
Edited by Kris Manjapra and Sugata Bose
I RISH TERRORISM IN THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY, 1865–1922
B y Jonathan Gantt
E UROPEANIZATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
E dited by Martin Conway and Klaus Kiran Patel
N EW PERSPECTIVES ON THE TRANSNATIONAL RIGHT
E dited by Martin Durham and Margaret Power
T ELEGRAPHIC IMPERIALISM: CRISIS AND PANIC IN THE INDIAN EMPIRE,
CA. 1850–1920
B y D. K. Lahiri-Choudhury
T HE ESTABLISHMENT RESPONDS: POWER, POLITICS, AND PROTEST SINCE 1945
E dited by Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Martin Klimke, Joachim Scharloth, and Laura Wong
E XPLORING THE DECOLONIAL IMAGINARY: FOUR TRANSNATIONAL LIVES
B y Patricia A. Schechter
Exploring the Decolonial
Imaginary
F our Transnational Lives
P atricia A. S chechter
E XPLORING THE DECOLONIAL IMAGINARY
C opyright © Patricia A. Schechter, 2012.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-33877-7
A ll rights reserved.
F irst published in 2012 by
P ALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
i n the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
1 75 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
W here this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
P algrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
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ISBN 978-1-349-34186-3 ISBN 978-1-137-01284-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137012845
L ibrary of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Datais available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
D esign by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
F irst edition: January 2012
1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
T his book is dedicated to three brainy, restless, and inspiring women:
Maria del Carmen Gomez Becerra, my mother
F ilomena Perugia Scardaccione, my grandmother
Hinda Schechter, my great-grandmother
C ontents
L ist of Previous Publications i x
L ist of Illustrations x i
F oreword x iii
A cknowledgments x v
I ntroduction What Comes Transnationally 1
1 A Kind of Privileged Character: Amanda Berry Smith and
Race in Liberian Missions 1 1
2 U nmaking Race: Gertrude Stein, the New Woman, and
Susan B. Anthony 4 9
3 ¡ Adelante Hermanas de La Raza! Josefina Silva de
Cintrón and Puerto Rican Women’s Feminismo 9 1
4 B ecoming Mama Maida: Maida Springer in
New York City and Africa 1 29
C onclusion Failed Escapes and Impossible Homecomings 1 69
N otes 1 73
B ibliography 2 35
I ndex 2 51
vii
L ist of Previous Publications
R emembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Activist, Legislator
and Community Leader, 2011. With Avel Louise Gordly.
I da B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880–1930, 2001.
ix