Difficult Diasporas: The Transnational Feminist Aesthetic of the Black Atlantic

283 Pages·2013·2.65 MB·English

by  Samantha Pinto

Difficult Diasporas
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Difficult Diasporas
The Transnational Feminist Aesthetic
of the Black Atlantic
samantha pinto
a
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.
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their
binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use
environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent
possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c10987654321
p10987654321
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 vii
Introduction: The Feminist Disorder of Diaspora 1
1 The World and the “Jar”: Jackie Kay and the Feminist
Locations of the African Diaspora 18
2 It’s Lonely at the Bottom: Elizabeth Alexander,
Deborah Richards, and the Cosmopolitan Poetics
of the Black Body 44
3 The Drama of Dislocation: Staging Diaspora History
in the Work of Adrienne Kennedy and Ama Ata Aidoo 77
4 Asymmetrical Possessions: Zora Neale Hurston,
Erna Brodber, and the Gendered Fictions of Black Modernity 106
5 Intimate Migrations: Narrating “Third World Women”
in the Short Fiction of Bessie Head, Zoë Wicomb,
and Pauline Melville 142
6 Impossible Objects: M. NourbeSe Philip, Harryette Mullen,
and the Diaspora Feminist Aesthetics of Accumulation 175
Coda: The Risks of Reading 201
Notes 209
References 233
Index 265
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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 Dia-
mond put in countless hours working with me. Brent Edwards contin-
ues 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 the-
ory 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 inter-
locutors. 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 disser-
tation 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.
viii / acknowledgments
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 part-
ners 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 mem-
ber whom I could leave off of my thank-you list. Penn Szittya, Jason Rosen-
blatt, and Kathy Temple have been the most supportive chairs a junior fac-
ulty could imagine while writing this book. Donna Even-Kesef and Karen
Lautman have kept this whole operation afloat, administratively. The Eng-
lish 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 proj-
ect. 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 interdisciplin-
ary 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
acknowledgments / ix
most fantastic writing group partners you could ask for—with or without
the presence of delicious baked goods! Ricardo Ortiz has been a mentor,
a friend, a conference organizer extraordinaire, an invaluable colleague, a
savvy reader, and a wonderful dinner companion from the very start. Pam
Fox has never been too busy to give me copious notes, to try to protect me
from my own inability to say no to service, to talk through the finer points
and frustrations of feminism with me, or to invite me to spend time with
her wonderful family. It is not enough to just say thank you to her, Mark,
Ana, and Jackie, but it will at least repay a small bit of what I owe them for
their generosity and friendship.
Thanks to the Harry Ransom Center, particularly to Molly Schwartz-
burg and Gabby Redwine, my chapter on Adrienne Kennedy is that
much stronger, and I have got many future texts to study. The University
of Texas at Austin gave me invaluable leave time in the home stretch
of manuscript revisions. The African and African Studies Department
was the ideal interdisciplinary home in this late stage. I would not have
been there without Ted Gordon, Frank Guridy, and, especially, the self-
less generosity of Eric Tang. Omi Jones, Jennifer Wilks, and Neville
Hoad eagerly talked shop with me about this project. Meta Jones read
my work with a level of detail I only wish I could return, with a depth of
knowledge about poetics that I can only approximate. Tatiana Kuzmic
and Judy Coffin listened to my angst about the book regularly. Many
other friends kept me singing karaoke, going to yoga, and eating cheese-
cake like the Golden Girls in the last year of this book. Julia Lee was my
Austin guide, my NYU pioneer, and my dog park buddy; she made my
Austin time possible, and impossibly fun.
And just to prove how generous the academy can be sometimes, I have
to thank colleagues at totally unrelated institutions who helped me refine
this book. The DC Queers reading group has, in so many ways, been my
greater DC intellectual home. Holly Dugan has read drafts of chapters
and met me for cupcakes so many times. Yolanda Padilla, Shane Vogel,
and Kandice Chuh have given me invaluable comments on parts of this
book, as has Sangeeta Ray, whose frank and exuberant advice is always
on point. And many thanks go to my NYU and ALI colleagues Eric
Zinner, Ciara McLaughlin, Alicia Nadkarni, Tim Roberts, and Andrew
Katz for their perseverance and patience, as well as to my anonymous
readers for their thoughtful, honest, and kind readings of my work. It is
a far better project because of their input.
I am deeply grateful to the authors and publishers who generously
allowed me to use their work in the following pages. They have given