Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics

254 Pages·2011·9.8 MB·English

by  Akinwumi Adesokan

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“Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics What happens when social and political k
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processes such as globalization shape n A r t i s t s
thinks politics, art, aesthetics, modes of
cultural production? Drawing on a
media production, and ideas about home, range of writers and filmmakers from P An d • G l o bAl
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always dynamically, through the lens of Africa and elsewhere, Akin Adesokan
s A e s t h e t i c s
expatriation. The book offers a necessary explores the forces at work in the pro-
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duction and circulation of culture in a c
alternative to ‘globalization’ and lends
globalized world. He tackles problems o
‘postcoloniality’ a shot in the critical
such as artistic representation in the era l
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and theoretical arm. It not only brings of decolonization, the uneven develop-
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ment of aesthetics across the world, and
together various postcolonial locales (the
i
the impact of location and commodity A
Caribbean, the Asian subcontinent, Africa,
culture on genres, with a distinctive ap- l
the diaspora), but enacts how they should
proach that exposes the global processes A
be thought together.” transforming cultural forms. r
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—Grant farred, CorneLL University i
Akin ADesokAn
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is Assistant Professor of t
“This book is a significant intervention in Comparative Literature s

at indiana University A
debates on postcolonialism and a model
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Bloomington and au-
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of intellectual ambition in its constant
thor of the novel Roots •
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crossing of disciplinary and generic
in the Sky. His writ- l
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boundaries.” ings have appeared in Screen, Textual o
Practice, Chimurenga, and Research in b
—Jonathan haynes,
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lonG islAnd University African Literatures.
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AfricAn expressive cultures
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Patrick McNaughton, editor t
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Bloomington & Indianapolis
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Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics MECH.indd 1 7/25/11 1:30 PM
Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics
African Expressive Cultures
Patrick McNaughton, editor
associate editors
Catherine M. Cole
Barbara G. Hoffman
Eileen Julien
Kassim Koné
D. A. Masolo
Elisha Renne
Zoë Strother
AKi n A D E So K An
Postcolonial Artists
and Global Aesthetics
inDiAnA UnivERSity PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
indiana University Press
601 north Morton Street
Bloomington, indiana 47404–3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800- 842- 6796
Fax orders 812- 855- 7931
Orders by e- mail [email protected]
© 2011 by Akin Adesokan
All rights reserved
no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The
Association of Americ an University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes
the only exception to this prohibition.
> The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the Americ an
national Standard for information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, AnSi Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adesokan, Akinwumi.
Postcolonial artists and global aesthetics / Akin Adesokan.
p. cm. — (African expressive cultures)
includes bibliographical references and index.
includes filmography.
iSBn 978-0-253-35679-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-0-253-22345-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion
pictures—Social aspects—Africa. 2. Motion pictures and globalization. 3. Africa—in motion pictures.
4. intercultural communication in motion pictures. 5. Literature and globalization. 6. African diaspora in
literature. 7. Literature and society. i. title.
Pn1993.5.A35A34 2011
302.23′43096—dc22
2011014035
1 2 3 4 5 16 15 14 13 12 11
to nusiratu Asake and tolani Arike, mother and daughter

in acknowledging that we are part of the Third World we are, to
paraphrase José Martí, “affirming that our cheek feels the blow struck
against any man, anywhere in the world.”
Thomas Sankara, “Freedom Can Be Won only
Through Struggle” (1984)
Finally, a word on the possible “sexism” of my language. This issue has
dogged my steps for a while and i want to state my position on it once
and for all. English is not my language. Though i have developed a
taste for it, it was once forced upon me . . . now that after thirty years
of toil i have acquired reasonable competence in the language, i am
told by the progeny of those who first imposed it on me that i have
been taught the wrong English by their forefathers; that i must now
relearn the language. Frankly, i am too old to do so.
Ashis nandy, preface to The Intimate Enemy (1983)

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
introduction: Generic transformations at the Crossroads
of Capital 1
1. C. L. R. James Sees the World Steadily 30
2. Fitful Decolo ni za tion: Xala and the Poetics of Double
Fetishism 57
3. tunde Kelani’s nollywood: Aesthetics of Exhortation 81
4. Jean- Pierre Bekolo and the Challenges of Aesthetic
Populism 108
5. imaginary Citizenship: Caryl Phillips’s Atlantic World 133
6. Spirits of Bandung: A Sarcastic Subject Writes to Empire 156
Conclusion: Being African in the World 178
notes 185
List of References 203
Filmography 219
index 223