The Other Side of Africa Rising: Cultural Counter-Narratives
Year: 2013
Type: preprint
Abstract: This panel gathers papers that examine the ways in which contemporary African literature, art, film, music, and (social) media challenge and complicate the narrative of rising that has become so popular in mainstream media. We are interested in works that explore the ways that this / rosy narrative depends on the erasure of forms of social, political, and environmental violence. But, at the same time, we want to ask what it means to still insist on the unflattering images of at a time when many African countries are trying to re-brand. How do authors, artists, and other cultural producers refuse to comply with and celebrate the coercions of neo-liberalism in Africa? Papers might therefore also wish to examine / the following questions: What is the role of the African artist in the 21st century? How do forms of technology change what is being said by and about Africans? How are development narratives being re-imagined today? papers address a cross-section of African regions from Nigeria to Kenya to South and methodologies from literary, cultural and ethnographic studies. Individual paper titles include: Nollywood films and the 'happy ending'; Abuja Rising?; The literary underbelly of Kenyan crime fiction ; Neo-colonizing the Global South: Elite Indians in Africa and Rising, Driving, and the Violence of Automobility.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2219306302