Overview

ALT 36 turns a ""queer eye"" on Africa, offering provocative (re-)readings of texts to position formerly erased sexualities and contemporary sexual expression among Africans on the continent, and abroad. Debates on the future of the African continent and the role of gender identities in these visions are increasingly present in literary criticism forums as African writers become bolder in exploring the challenges they face and celebrating gender diversity in the writing of short stories, novels, poetry, plays and films. Controversies over the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer (LGBTIQ) communities in Africa, as elsewhere, continue inthe context of criminalization and/or intimidation of these groups. Residual colonial moralizing and contemporary western identity norms and politics vie with longstanding polyvalent indigenous sexual expression. In addition to traditional media, the new social media have gained importance, both as sources of information exchange and as sites of virtual construction of gender identities. As with many such contentious issues, the variety of responses to the""state of the question"" is strikingly visible across the continent. In this issue of ALT, guest editor John Hawley has sampled the ongoing conversations, in both African writing and in the analysis of contemporary African cinema,to show how queer studies can break with old concepts and theories and point the way to new gender perspectives on literary and cinematic output. This volume also includes a non-themed section of Featured Articles anda Literary Supplement. Guest Editor: John C. Hawley is Professor in the Department of English, Santa Clara University Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. Reviews Editor: Obi Nwakanma

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9781847011848

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Reviews

This books does [...] account for a large body of literature and art and proposes rich lines of thought about the studies of genres in the African context. ETUDES LITTERAIRES AFRICAINES Hawley's introduction, which sets the tone of the book, opens with a quote by Robert Mugabe on homosexuality, clearly highlighting the political agenda behind the edition-resistance to forms of erasure and enclosure that plague queer lives in Africa. By historicizing an intermedial, intersectional contemporary resistance in the creation of African queer identities, the book fulfills this agenda and opens valuable intersections and counter-publics for the future of queer visibility. RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES

This books does [.] account for a large body of literature and art and proposes rich lines of thought about the studies of genres in the African context. ETUDES LITTERAIRES AFRICAINES

Author Information

ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). SHOLA ADENEKAN is an associate professor of African literature at Ghent University, Belgium, and also the publisher of Thenewblackmagazine.com.

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