Overview

Homophobia is still rife and it remains dangerous and even life-threatening to be out in Africa, but Chantal Zabus here traces the range of representations of same-sex desire in Africa through historic and contemporary sources. Homosexuality was and still is thought to be quintessentially 'un-African'. Yet in this book Chantal Zabus examines the anthropological, cultural and literary representations of male and female same-sex desire in a pan-African context from the nineteenth century to the present. Reaching back to early colonial contacts between Europe and Africa, and covering a broad geographical spectrum, along a north-south axis from Mali to South Africa and an east-west axis from Senegal to Kenya, here is a comparative approach encompassing two colonial languages (English and French) and some African languages. Out in Africa charts developments in Sub-Saharan African texts and contextsthrough the work of 7 colonial writers and some 25 postcolonial writers. These texts grow in complexity from roughly the 1860s, through the 1990s with the advent of queer theory, up to 2010. The author identifies those texts thatpresent, in a subterraneous way at first and then with increased confidence, homosexuality-as-an-identity rather than an occasional or ritualized practice, as was the case in the early ethnographic imagination. The work sketchesout an evolutionary pattern in representing male and female same-sex desire in the novel and other texts, as well as in the cultural and political contexts that oppose such desires. ""

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9781847010827

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Reviews

The book is a treasure trove of resources, bringing into view the scale and variety of the field of queer African studies and setting out a series of interesting discursive formations. RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES The range of Zabus's reading is awesome, her analysis of the literature is illuminating and her building of the broad picture is a major intellectual achievement. SLIPNET Chantal Zabus's Out in Africa may greatly benefit scholars interested in contemporary African literatures and global queer identities. Out in Africa confirms Zabus's intellectual depth, vast range of literary and theoretical knowledge, and her commitment to exploring the dynamic literary of sexualities within Africa. AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY Particularly useful to a range of students coming to this field for the first time, given that such a wide geographic range of fiction is considered. AFRICA IN WORDS.COM There are many noteworthy and fascinating deliberations in this book. JOURNAL OF POST-COLONIAL WRITING The scope of the study is vast . . . (Zabus) treats colonial and postcolonial writers, both Apartheid and post-Apartheid. . . . (T)he plethora of writers and works discussed is a major contribution. CHOICE

Particularly useful to a range of students coming to this field for the first time, given that such a wide geographic range of fiction is considered. AFRICA IN WORDS.COM There are many noteworthy and fascinating deliberations in this book. JOURNAL OF POST-COLONIAL WRITING The scope of the study is vast . . . (Zabus) treats colonial and postcolonial writers, both Apartheid and post-Apartheid. . . . (T)he plethora of writers and works discussed is a major contribution. CHOICE

There are many noteworthy and fascinating deliberations in this book. JOURNAL OF POST-COLONIAL WRITING

There are many noteworthy and fascinating deliberations in this book. JOURNAL OF POST-COLONIAL WRITING The scope of the study is vast . . . (Zabus) treats colonial and postcolonial writers, both Apartheid and post-Apartheid. . . . (T)he plethora of writers and works discussed is a major contribution. CHOICE

Author Information

Chantal Zabus is Chair of Comparative Postcolonial Literatures and Gender Studies at Université Paris 13-Sorbonne-Paris-Cité. She is author of Between Rites and Rights; The African Palimpsest: Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel, and The Future of Postcolonial Literatures. She is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Postcolonial Text.

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