African Literature & Cold War Afterlives: Reframing Decolonial Trajectories

Date
Wed October 21st 2020, 10:00 - 11:30am
Event Sponsor
Center for African Studies
Location
Virtual
African Literature & Cold War Afterlives: Reframing Decolonial Trajectories

Over 50 years ago, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Taban Lo Liyong and Henry Owuor published their resistant manifesto titled “On the Abolition of English Literature,” asking for the end of Eurocentric literary studies in higher education. Too few universities adopted this plan and every few years, find themselves in a state of crisis when it comes to strategically decolonizing syllabi, curricula and the university itself. Within these struggles, African literature finds itself in a precarious position within the fraught and contentious space of diversity initiatives in American universities and in American publishing. Join us on October 21st, as we speak with Bhakti Shringarpure about the crucial role Cold War history plays in understanding decolonization as an “arrested” or “failed” phenomenon in the realms of politics, economics or culture. Click here to register.

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