Afropolitanism for Black Women
Sexual Identity and Coming to Voice in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah
| dc.bibliographicCitation.firstPage | 101 | en_US |
| dc.bibliographicCitation.lastPage | 123 | en_US |
| dc.bibliographicCitation.volume | 11 | en_US |
| dc.contributor.author | Lyle, Caroline | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Gordon, Jake William | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Herrmann, Sebastian M. | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Lieback, Hedwig | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Rieger, Theresa | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Schmieder, Katja | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Schreier, Judith J. | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Shoup, David McLean | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Theune, Alina | |
| dc.contributor.editor | Walther, Eric R. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-11-03T14:27:17Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-11-03T14:27:17Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | In discussing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s award-winning novel Americanah, this article aims to expand Taiye Selasi’s concept of Afropolitanism. This term holds that Africans of the world “must form an identity along at least three dimensions: national, racial, cultural—with subtle tensions in between,” and my article proposes to include a sexual identity category. Considering the ongoing racist stigmatization of black sexuality in Western societies, I want to suggest that Selasi’s conceptualization of Afropolitanism, while potentially open to expansion, is currently incomplete. It is crucial for female Afropolitans to form a racialized sexual identity as well. Drawing on black sexuality scholarship as well as insights regarding theories of intersectionality, I argue that through the detailed exploration of the protagonist Ifemelu’s sexual identity, Americanah broadens the concept of Afropolitan identity construction for black heterosexual women. Ultimately, the novel insinuates that becoming a full subject is only possible when female racialized sexual experiences are consciously lived through and confronted, so that the voices of female Afropolitans can emerge. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.54465/aspeers.11-07 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?fidaac-11858/2581 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.relation.issn | 18658768 | en_US |
| dc.relation.journal | aspeers | en_US |
| dc.relation.journalalt | emerging voices in american studies | en_US |
| dc.rights | L::CC BY 3.0 | en_US |
| dc.subject.ddc | ddc:810 | en_US |
| dc.subject.field | americanstudies | en_US |
| dc.subject.field | literarystudies | en_US |
| dc.title | Afropolitanism for Black Women | en_US |
| dc.title.alternative | Sexual Identity and Coming to Voice in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah | en_US |
| dc.type | article | en_US |
| dc.type.version | publishedVersion | en_US |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication |