1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910484582303321

Autore

Ouma Christopher E. W

Titolo

Childhood in contemporary diasporic African literature : memories and futures past / / by Christopher E. W. Ouma

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing, , 2020

ISBN

3-030-36256-6

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (209 pages)

Collana

African histories and modernities, , 2634-5773

Disciplina

809.6

Soggetti

African literature

Literature, Modern - 20th century

Literature, Modern - 21st century

Literature   

Ethnology - Africa

Africa History

Africa Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Chapter 1: Introduction: Constructing Childhood as a Set of Ideas -- Chapter 2: “We Are Children of the Cold War”: Childhood Times as Alternative -- Chapter 3: Countries of the Mind: Cartographies of Postmemory -- Chapter 4: Childhoods of War: “Na Craze World Be Dat” -- Chapter 5: Queer Childhoods and Multidirectional Desire -- Chapter 6: Diaspora Childhoods: Creating Sublimated Connections -- Chapter 7: Identity and Childhood.

Sommario/riassunto

This book examines the representation of figures, memories and images of childhood in selected contemporary diasporic African fiction by Adichie, Abani, Wainaina and Oyeyemi. The book argues that childhood is a key framework for thinking about contemporary African and African Diasporic identities. It argues that through the privileging of childhood memory, alternative conceptions of time emerge in this literature, and which allow African writers to re-imagine what family, ethnicity, nation means within the new spaces of diaspora that a majority of them occupy. The book therefore looks at the connections between childhood, space, time and memory, childhood gender and



sexuality, childhoods in contexts of war, as well as migrant childhoods. These dimensions of childhood particularly relate to the return of the memory of Biafra, the figures of child soldiers, memories of growing up in Cold War Africa, queer boyhoods/sonhood as well as experiences of migration within Africa, North America and Europe.”.