Afro-Germans, multidirectional memory and French colonial aphasia: The legacy of the First World War in Galadio by Didier Daeninckx

This article offers an analysis of mnemonic traces in Galadio, Didier Daeninckx’s 2010 novel. I demonstrate that by fictionalizing the history of the persecution of Afro-Germans under National Socialism, the novel exposes antiblackness as a neglected phenomenon of the Third Reich. Synchronously, applying Michael Rothberg’s theoretical framework, the article discusses the dialogue between Jewish and Afro-German legacies of violence in the novel, as well as the intricate relation between colony, camp and what Paul Gilroy defines as camp mentality. Furthermore, I argue that Daeninckx engages with French colonial aphasia: in my interpretation, his oblique approach to the French imperial past conveys its simultaneous presence and absence, which is key to disabled memory. Finally, I focus on the ethics of commemoration in Galadio, which claims space for black soldiers in French collective memory of the two world wars, yet at the same time challenges imperial loyalties and homogeneous approaches to French national identity.

“‘It ain’t have no sort of family life for us here’”: Community and its Discontents in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners

<div>Sam Seldon's The Lonely Londoners depicts an emergent collectivity of black immigrants who lead literally and metaphorically subterranean lives in 1950s Britain. Against the backdrop of a city undergoing an ambivalent transition from colonial metropole to postmodern cosmopolis, Seldon's "boys" remain largely inscrutable to and estranged from not only white Londoners but also one another. Critics have associate a depoliticized preoccupation with the everyday and eschewal of critical consciousness in Seldon’s work with widely critiqued features of Anglophone modernism. The present analysis suggests several reasons why political collectivity remains elusive to Seldon's black male immigrant characters. Specifically, they face discriminatory access to the labor market and social services, loci of possible solidarity with working-class white Londoners where formal political resistance might be coordinated. These systemic pressures combined with an atmospheric racism cause many of the boys to internalize the racialist, individualist, consumerist, and heterosexist attitudes and behaviors of the dominant white culture, which they adopt as survival strategies, in effect undermining black group identity and cohesion. If a note of optimism is to be sounded amid the many challenges to inter- and intraracial community the novel presents, it is in the potential undoing of black cultural nationalism that cultural theorist Paul Gilroy sees as a crucial step in the making of an egalitarian, convivial postcolonial world. The novel contests the homogenizing impulses of essentialist identity politics by portraying the heterodox, sometimes paradoxical, affinities that emerge between characters and communities.</div>

“‘It ain’t have no sort of family life for us here’”: Community and its Discontents in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners

<div>Sam Seldon's The Lonely Londoners depicts an emergent collectivity of black immigrants who lead literally and metaphorically subterranean lives in 1950s Britain. Against the backdrop of a city undergoing an ambivalent transition from colonial metropole to postmodern cosmopolis, Seldon's "boys" remain largely inscrutable to and estranged from not only white Londoners but also one another. Critics have associate a depoliticized preoccupation with the everyday and eschewal of critical consciousness in Seldon’s work with widely critiqued features of Anglophone modernism. The present analysis suggests several reasons why political collectivity remains elusive to Seldon's black male immigrant characters. Specifically, they face discriminatory access to the labor market and social services, loci of possible solidarity with working-class white Londoners where formal political resistance might be coordinated. These systemic pressures combined with an atmospheric racism cause many of the boys to internalize the racialist, individualist, consumerist, and heterosexist attitudes and behaviors of the dominant white culture, which they adopt as survival strategies, in effect undermining black group identity and cohesion. If a note of optimism is to be sounded amid the many challenges to inter- and intraracial community the novel presents, it is in the potential undoing of black cultural nationalism that cultural theorist Paul Gilroy sees as a crucial step in the making of an egalitarian, convivial postcolonial world. The novel contests the homogenizing impulses of essentialist identity politics by portraying the heterodox, sometimes paradoxical, affinities that emerge between characters and communities.</div>

The Artist is Absent: Non-Human Agency in the Situation of the Theatre / Puuduv kunstnik: mitte-inimese agentsus teatri kontekstis

The application of non-human agency in theatre is approached through the tendency for anti-humanist works to reproduce misanthropic outcomes within posthumanist, ecofeminist, and transhumanist thought. Alternatives to human supremacy suggest a role for theatre in reconciling questions of agency. This paper proposes theatrical presence as an answer, and extends this into social and political spheres, leading to what is called superhumanism in this article as a new situation of theatrical spectatorship – in close reference to fandom in superhuman films. Mitte-inimese agentsus on teoreetiline suund, mida rakendatakse nii tänapäevastes ökoloogilist kriisi käsitlevates kirjutistes kui ka posthumanistlikes tehnoloogilistes spekulatsioonides, uurides „mitte-inimeste” võimalikku agentsust. Üha enam kasutatakse seda ka mehhanismina, leidmaks võimalusi „eemaldada“ inimene ajaloolise narratiivi keskmest, et vabaneda kalduvusest pidada inimest ülimuslikuks (eelistades inimese subjektsust teiste olendite omale) kujunevas antropotseenis, ajastul, mil inimesi peetakse planeedi peamisteks mõjutajateks. Viimasel ajal on mitte-inimese agentsus jõudnud teatrisse selliste kontseptsioonide kaudu nagu kaaskohalolek ja sotsiaalse kaasamise praktika. Kuid millised on selle antihumanistliku positsiooni tagajärjed, kui see aktiveerub püsivalt humanistlikus teatris? Misantroopne korrapäratus Rosi Braidotti raamatus „Inimjärgne“ („Posthuman“) toimib hüppelauana uueks aruteluks igivanal teemal, kas humanismi kriitikud vihkavad inimesi. Selliseid misantroopseid tendentse analüüsivad oma uutes ökoloogilist kriisi käsitlevates kirjutistes näiteks Jane Bennett, Donna Haraway ja Timothy Morton, kes võivad alternatiivseid reaalsuse kujutlemise mudeleid otsides eirata potentsiaalselt kohutavaid tulemusi. Nendest pingetest Inimese selektiivse ülistamise ja eitamise vahel kerkib esile oluline küsimus: kuidas seda inimlikku perspektiivi uuesti kaaluda, säilitades samal ajal need väärtuslikud inimlikud sidemed – mida Paul Gilroy (2000) nimetab „seltsivuseks“ – ühiskondlikus ja poliitilises elus? Teatri uut rolli inimsubjekti ümbermõtestamisel puudutavad arutelud kohaloleku üle teatris. Suzanne M. Jaegeri esinejakeskset artiklit „Kehastus ja kohalolek“ („Embodiment and Presence“, 2008) kasutatakse käesolevas artiklis lavale omase kehalise kohaloleku tutvustamiseks ning seda fenomenoloogilist lähenemist vaadeldakse koos Hans-Thies Lehmanni postdramaatilise teatriga („Postdramatisches Theater“) kui vahendit, mis võimaldab laienemist sotsiaalsetesse ja poliitilistesse sfääridesse, võttes arvesse ka publiku kohalolekut. Küsimärgistatakse kunstniku enesepresentatsiooni ülima autorikujuna läbi jaatamise ja eitamise protsessi. Kohaloleku ümbermõtestamine sünnitab uue teatriolukorra vormi, nn superhumanismi, mis tähistab koosvaatamist, mis väldib humanismi ajalooliselt koloniaalseid pretensioone ja antihumanismi võimalikku misantroopiat. Arutletakse uue „koosvaatamise“ viisi üle, analüüsides Hollywoodi superkangelastele pühendatud filmide fännidest vaatajaskonda. Neis filmides võib tekst toetada teatud kollektiivse vaatamise viise ning olla mõttevahetuse ja vaatajatepoolse tegevuse aluseks. Selline vaatenurk pakub uusi võimalusi ka teatrile. Superhumanism, mille juured on mustanahalisust ja Paul Gilroy „planetaarset humanismi“ puudutavates diskursustes, pakub välja uued vaatamisviisid, mis soovivad koostöös publikuga korraga nii kahtluse alla seada kui ka taaskehtestada inimagentsuse, kuid seda muudetud kujul. Nietzsche kuulus „inimlike piiride ületamine” teoses „Nõnda kõneles Zarathustra“ on uuesti sõnastatud kui inimlike piiride kollektiivse ületamise akt ühise vaatamise kaudu. Üks tuntud kohalolekut lahkav kunstiteos on Marina Abramovići „Kunstnik on kohal“ („The Artist is Present“). Selle kunstiteose juurde naastakse (taas), kuna see on esimene näide praegu tekkivast koosolemise vormist teatris, mis loob uue „super-kollektiivse“ olemise seisundi. Kunstiteos juhib sellele olukorrale tähelepanu, kirjutades humanistlikud põhimõtted ümber etendussündmuseks, täites nii Frantz Fanoni optimistlikke soove, et humanism peab oma lubadustest kinni pidama pragmaatiliselt ja silmakirjatsemata. See kunstiteos pakub selget fantaasiat kollektiivsest sekkumisest oludes, milles etendaja ja vaataja kohalolek on teineteisest sõltuvad, ning on seega eelkäija uuele kollektiivsele vaatamisviisile, mida nimetatakse superhumanismiks.

'I Can Tell You This Is a Fine Country': Identity Construction in the British-New Zealand Imperial Diaspora

<p>This thesis uses diaspora theory to analyse late-nineteenth-century texts written by women in New Zealand. The texts include a number of novels as well as non-fictional journals and memoirs. Robin Cohen's definition of diaspora provides a framework for understanding the British settler community in New Zealand as an imperial diaspora. My approach modifies Cohen's framework by also employing constructivist theories of diaspora, in particular by Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and James Clifford. These theorists see identity as continuously produced within representation and diaspora as furthering cultural crossover and hybrid identities. This view of the British diaspora reveals fissures within the teleological ideology of the nation-state, which underlies imperialism. Rather than focusing on a binary of imperial centre and colonial periphery, I understand the diasporic community in New Zealand as part of an international network in which mobility and a shared print culture provided manifold connections. The main research question asks how the texts participate in the construction of identity in the diasporic community in New Zealand and how they situate themselves within a wider context of diasporic print culture. It focuses both on the identity of women within the community and on the significance of notions of women‟s role, femininity and women's writing for the identity production of the community as a whole. The three sections, "Journey", "Settling" and "Community", trace the diaspora's narrative production of its collective identity through time and space. They consider the diaspora‟s textual imagining of its journey to New Zealand, its project of settling there, and its building of a distinct community. It emerges that the texts usually attempt to reconcile a number of contradictions and conflicting discourses, at the basis of which lies a fundamental tension between the diaspora's dispersal from the homeland and its need to produce a collective identity. This tension leads to an underlying instability within the texts and frequently causes them to deconstruct their own ostensible ideologies. However, at the same time the texts offer a number of powerful ideas and narratives which allow the diaspora to create a complex but meaningful collective identity.</p>

'I Can Tell You This Is a Fine Country': Identity Construction in the British-New Zealand Imperial Diaspora

<p>This thesis uses diaspora theory to analyse late-nineteenth-century texts written by women in New Zealand. The texts include a number of novels as well as non-fictional journals and memoirs. Robin Cohen's definition of diaspora provides a framework for understanding the British settler community in New Zealand as an imperial diaspora. My approach modifies Cohen's framework by also employing constructivist theories of diaspora, in particular by Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and James Clifford. These theorists see identity as continuously produced within representation and diaspora as furthering cultural crossover and hybrid identities. This view of the British diaspora reveals fissures within the teleological ideology of the nation-state, which underlies imperialism. Rather than focusing on a binary of imperial centre and colonial periphery, I understand the diasporic community in New Zealand as part of an international network in which mobility and a shared print culture provided manifold connections. The main research question asks how the texts participate in the construction of identity in the diasporic community in New Zealand and how they situate themselves within a wider context of diasporic print culture. It focuses both on the identity of women within the community and on the significance of notions of women‟s role, femininity and women's writing for the identity production of the community as a whole. The three sections, "Journey", "Settling" and "Community", trace the diaspora's narrative production of its collective identity through time and space. They consider the diaspora‟s textual imagining of its journey to New Zealand, its project of settling there, and its building of a distinct community. It emerges that the texts usually attempt to reconcile a number of contradictions and conflicting discourses, at the basis of which lies a fundamental tension between the diaspora's dispersal from the homeland and its need to produce a collective identity. This tension leads to an underlying instability within the texts and frequently causes them to deconstruct their own ostensible ideologies. However, at the same time the texts offer a number of powerful ideas and narratives which allow the diaspora to create a complex but meaningful collective identity.</p>

The possibility of a creolised planet

In this interview Paul Gilroy talks to Femi Oriogun-Williams about his love of folk music of all kinds. He discusses its songs of expropriation, suffering, soldiering, impressment and migration; its relationship to the countryside - often a dangerous and menacing place - and to Englishness, including English nationalism; and the role of Black performers inside the world of folk, including Nadia Cattouse, Dorris Henderson, and Dav(e)y Graham. He also discusses the cosmopolitan of musicians, and their appetite for music that operates across cultural and national boundaries; the plasticity, pliability and nomadic aspects of musical forms mean that Nina Simone can make a song by Sandy Denny her own, and Kathryn Tickell can experiment with South Asian sources; it allows songs to appear in many different versions, as with 'The Lakes of Pontchartrain'. The folk traditions of the Atlantic world exhibit all of the recombinant cultural DNA that went into them. This creates the possibility of reading the culture of the Atlantic world, North and South, with the idea of a Creole culture - and the possibility of thinking with a creolised planet in mind.

Introduction

In the twenty-first century, Asian American studies has turned increasingly toward diasporic and transnational frameworks, even as some scholars have raised concerns about the loss of an Asian American identity and politics grounded in cultural nationalism. Drawing in part on the work of Paul Gilroy, I propose a new theory of “Asian diaspora” in which “Asian” identity emerges from a dialectic of national and transnational forces. Since the 1970s, this category of Asian identification has circulated among the United States, Canada, and Australia, white settler colonies with histories of Asian immigration and exclusion. The work of Asian poets in these locations registers, in content and form, the history of diaspora that gives rise to Asian identity.

Quare Times: An Introduction to a Queer Perspective on Afrofuturism and a Reading of Sun Ra’s Space Is the Place

The film Space Is the Place (1974), directed by John Coney, stars Sun Ra who was also co-author of the script. This chapter explores Sun Ra’s Afrofuturism as shown in the film, bringing it into relation with José Muñoz’s notion of a queer future. Rather than focusing on Sun Ra’s sexuality, this chapter argues that his quareness (E. Patrick Johnson’s useful term drawn from African American vernacular) emerges in the sonic and performative aspects of his work. Sun Ra’s spaceship offers a future-oriented response to the slave ship and Middle Passage (as described by Paul Gilroy) and to the limitations of the here and now. The notion of assemblage (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari) articulates the quareness of Sun Ra’s collective improvisational practices.

Candomblés e carnavais: corpos desfilantes de Joãozinho da Goméia

O trabalho investiga a presença de Joãozinho da Goméia enquanto “destaque de luxo” em desfiles de escolas de samba da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, no final da década de 1960 e no início da década de 1970. Objetiva-se, com isso, o estabelecimento de conexões entre o universo dos “barracões” das religiões de matrizes africanas e a complexidade dos “barracões” das agremiações carnavalescas. De início, as relações históricas entre escolas de samba, cosmogonias negro-africanas e sociabilidades de terreiros são problematizadas, com base em proposições teóricas de nomes como Paul Gilroy e Muniz Sodré. Num segundo momento, a partir da prospecção bibliográfica e do recorte de fragmentos jornalísticos, são apresentados apontamentos sobre a importância dos destaques de carnaval, com ênfase em personagens desempenhados por João da Goméia em desfiles de 1969 e 1970, em escolas como Império Serrano, Império da Tijuca e Imperatriz Leopoldinense. Depois, as lentes investigativas são direcionadas para a reinterpretação visual de algumas fantasias utilizadas pelo Babalorixá, conforme o proposto no decorrer do desfile de 2020 do GRES Acadêmicos do Grande Rio, cujo enredo Tata Londirá: o Canto do Caboclo no Quilombo de Caxias dedicou um “setor” (o equivalente a um capítulo de uma narrativa) aos corpos desfilantes do personagem homenageado. Conclui-se, por fim, que João da Goméia pode ser compreendido enquanto agente mediador que transitava por círculos culturais distintos, mesclando, na sua corporeidade carnavalesca, os saberes trocados nos terreiros de Candomblé e as vivências nas quadras (outrora chamadas “terreiros”) e nos barracões do “maior show da Terra”.