The Cultural Memory of Africa in African American and Black British Fiction, 1970-2000 Specters of the Shore

This book offers a new approach to reading the cultural memory of Africa in African American fiction from the post-Civil Rights era and in Black British fiction emerging in the wake of Thatcherism. The critical period between the decline of the Civil Rights Movement and the dawn of the twenty-first century saw a deep contrast in the distinctive narrative approaches displayed by diverse African diaspora literatures in negotiating the crisis of representing the past. Through a series of close readings of literary fiction, this work examines how the cultural memory of Africa is employed in diverse and specific negotiations of narrative time, in order to engage and shape contemporary identity and citizenship. By addressing the practice of “remembering” Africa, the book argues for the signal importance of the African diaspora’s literary interventions, and locates new paradigms for cultural identity in contemporary times. 

1 Introduction.- 2 ‘Drumbeats From The Aeons’: Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo.- 3 ‘Solomon’s Leap’: Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.- 4 ‘Worse Than Unwelcome’: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.- 5 ‘Something About The Silence’: John Edgar Wideman’s Philadelphia Fire.- 6 ‘Words Without Sound’: Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River.- 7 Circular Talk’: S.I. Martin’s Incomparable World.- 8 ‘Awakening to the Singing’: Bernardine Evaristo’s Lara.- 9 ‘I Can Change Memory’: David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress.- 10 Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Index.

Leila Kamali is Lecturer in American and English Literature at King's College London, UK.