Asian African Literatures: Genealogies in the Making

The return journey has long been recognized as a central feature of diaspora, yet contemporary diaspora studies have conventionally understood it in stubbornly mythological terms. This paper looks to foster discussion about physical diasporic return journeys by juxtaposing M. G. Vassanji’s The In-Between World of Vikram Lall (2003) and Neil Bissoondath’s The Worlds Within Her (1998). Although the two novels overlap in their exploration of the Indian diaspora against the backdrop of racially volatile independence movements in former British colonies, they offer starkly different renderings of diasporic return that are reflected in their engagements with diasporic history. The paper closes with a consideration of the critical assumptions that have allowed the return journey to be overlooked in diaspora literary studies to date, suggesting that its absence may reflect the methodological nationalism of the field.

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African History and Global Studies: A View From South Africa

Hofmeyr

2013

J. Afr. Hist.

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Recent debates on global and world history have largely been shaped in the Euro-American academy, an arrangement that appears to deepen the growing divide between metropolitan and African universities. This article takes a more optimistic view arguing that twenty years of post-apartheid life has enabled a freer flow of people and ideas across the continent. These new networks have sparked projects that explore inter-regional exchanges and transnational circuits within the continent. These developments coincide with the ‘rise of the south’ and present an opportunity for new styles of world history that take the global south as their matrix. This article examines a range of such projects and draws out their wider significance.

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Asian African Literatures: Genealogies in the Making

Cited by 16 publications

References 4 publications

Colonial Theatre in British East Africa: Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika

Colonial Theatre in British East Africa: Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika

In-Between WorldandWorlds Within: Reading Diasporic Return in Vassanji and Bissoondath

African History and Global Studies: A View From South Africa

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