Sketches of Black Europe in African and African Diasporic Narratives
CompLit. Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society

This special issue of CompLit. Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society engages with Black literary imaginations of Europe that reverse or complicate the (neo-)colonialist European gaze at the “African Other.” It brings together five original research articles exploring literary imaginations of Europe/ans in African and African diasporic narratives. These are followed by a series of interviews with eight international literary scholars on Black European research perspectives, theories, and future challenges and needs, as well as by a thematic review section. By focusing on the analysis of literary texts in different languages, the special issue aims to balance the predominance of historical and sociological research within African European studies and to demonstrate the important role of comparative literature for this emerging interdisciplinary field (and vice versa).

Table of contents

• Introduction. Sketches of Black Europe: Imagining Europe/ans in African and African Diasporic Narratives [PDF]
  Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco | 13–42

Articles

• Beyond the Word. Aesthetic Principles of Afropolitanism in Sharon Dodua Otoo’s Adas Raum
  Mahamadou Famanta | 45–67
• A Letter to Jan van Riebeeck. Rethinking Transnational Connections in Contemporary Vernacular Afrikaans Poetry
  Margriet van der Waal | 69–89
• The White Continent of Night. Re-Imagining Europe in Women’s Neocolonial Enslavement Narratives: On Black Sisters’ Street and Joy [PDF]
  Sandra Folie | 91–115
• Provincialising Europe “from the Inside”. James Baldwin’s and Vincent O. Carter’s Writings about Switzerland [PDF]
  Gianna Zocco | 117–141
• Growing Up Afro-Czech During the Cold War. Tomáš Zmeškal and Obonete S. Ubam
  Dobrota Pucherová | 143–166

Interview series

• Sketches of Black European Comparative Literature Studies. A Series of Interviews [PDF]
  Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco | 169–211
• Book reviews [PDF]
  215–249
• Résumés [PDF]
  251–257