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Difficult Diasporas
Difficult Diasporas
The Transnational Feminist Aesthetic of the Black Atlantic
Samantha Pinto
New York University Press
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London www.nyupress.org
© 2013 by New York University. All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pinto, Samantha.
Difficult diasporas : the transnational feminist aesthetic of the Black Atlantic / Samantha Pinto.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-5948-6 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8147-7009-2 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Feminism—Africa. 2. African diaspora. 3. African American women authors. 4. African American women—Intellectual life. I. Title.
HQ1787.P56 2013
305.42096—dc23
2013005250
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
A book in the American Literatures Initiative (ALI), a collaborative publishing project of NYU Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia Press. The Initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Feminist Disorder of Diaspora
1. The World and the “Jar”: Jackie Kay and the Feminist Locations of the African Diaspora
2. It’s Lonely at the Bottom: Elizabeth Alexander, Deborah Richards, and the Cosmopolitan Poetics of the Black Body
3. The Drama of Dislocation: Staging Diaspora History in the Work of Adrienne Kennedy and Ama Ata Aidoo
4. Asymmetrical Possessions: Zora Neale Hurston, Erna Brodber, and the Gendered Fictions of Black Modernity
5. Intimate Migrations: Narrating “Third World Women” in the Short Fiction of Bessie Head, Zoë Wicomb, and Pauline Melville
6. Impossible Objects: M. NourbeSe Philip, Harryette Mullen, and the Diaspora Feminist Aesthetics of Accumulation
Coda: The Risks of Reading
Notes
References
Acknowledgments
I feel like I have had such a charmed intellectual existence that I do not know where to begin expressing gratitude for the writing of this book. I suppose a sort of intellectual history would organize it as well as any: At Rutgers, I had the good fortune of stumbling into classes with some of the smartest, most generous professors and peers I have found since: Courtney Marshall, Beth Hutchison, Marianne DeKoven, and Elin Diamond put in countless hours working with me. Brent Edwards continues to astound me with his willingness to gracefully transition from my undergraduate mentor to my full-fledged colleague in the field. I would not have put together my “weird” texts with diaspora and feminist theory without him.
At UCLA, so many people took a critical interest in the early stages of this project, even when they had no vested interest in its—and my—success: Joseph Bristow, Rafael Perez-Torres, Ali Behdad, Arthur Little, Caroline Streeter, and Helen Deutsch, to name a few of my faculty interlocutors. Thanks also go to the English Department for their generous support throughout my tenure at UCLA, as well as to Signs journal. Richard Yarborough, Françoise Lionnet, Elizabeth DeLoughrey, and Harryette Mullen logged significant time talking me through my dissertation and combing through my writing. Yogita Goyal gave up precious junior faculty hours working with me on every last draft and continues to do so to this very day. Only after I was slogging through research, teaching, and meetings at my own job did I realize what she gave up to help my project take shape, all the while producing amazing scholarship. She is the sole reason that I got an education in African literature. And Jenny Sharpe was the adviser to end all advisers; she meted out tough love when it was called for (especially on my writing!) and buoyed me with just the right words when I needed to push through to finish. Her pragmatism and theoretical savvy are unparalleled; I am so lucky to have worked with her on this book.
Meg Lamont and Loren Blinde suffered through an early writing group with me. Lisa Hills, Kathleen Washburn, Wendy Belcher, Keidra Morris, and Elizabeth Graham accompanied me on many walks and hikes while I worked through early versions of my chapters. Joyce Lee and Melanie Ho always made sure I was well fed, as did Phil Fibiger. Ally Hamilton kept me sane. La’Tonya Rease Miles kept me sharp and kept me laughing, as did the antics of my LA family, Rob, Jabari, Zoe, and Gloria. Sam See remains one of the most important intellectual partners in my life. Denise Cruz continues to be my much-smarter sounding board for every piece of writing I produce and a beacon of sanity, humor, professionalism, and cookies. This book would not be here without her, though she is not at fault for its flaws. Emily Russell is my academic and personal rock, putting up with way more crazy, upset phone calls and visits than anyone should. Her eminently reasonable advice belies her unbelievably acute intellect and incredibly warm friendship for over a decade. She and Phil cook up a mean short rib, to boot.
At Georgetown, I would be hard-pressed to find a faculty or staff member whom I could leave off of my thank-you list. Penn Szittya, Jason Rosenblatt, and Kathy Temple have been the most supportive chairs a junior faculty could imagine while writing this book. Donna Even-Kesef and Karen Lautman have kept this whole operation afloat, administratively. The English Department, Georgetown University, and The Graduate School have supported me in every endeavor to finish this book. Special thanks goes to the Lafferty family for a semester leave at a crucial time for the project. The African Studies Program has given me the invaluable company of fellow Africanists and the support of Scott Taylor and Lahra Smith. The Women’s and Gender Studies Program has been an interdisciplinary home for workshopping early drafts of one chapter. Henry Schwarz, Lori Merish, Dana Luciano, Patrick O’Malley, Lindsay Kaplan, Jennifer Fink, Lyndon Dominique, Sarah McNamer, and Louise Bernard have read drafts, laughed over drinks, given advice, and commiserated with me too many times to count. Matthew Tinkcom has done all of the above, again and again; he is the hostess with the mostess. I miss Michael Ragussis’s wit and compassion every day. Caetlin Benson-Allot and Mimi Yiu are the