African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
191 p, "[E]xplores the articulation of diasporic consciousness in two domains of post-colonial diaspora discourse: cultural critical theory and literature. Examined in the domain of cultural critical theory is a corpus of writings produced by Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, Kobena Mercer and Homi Bhabha. The literary texts examined are Buchi Emecheta's Second-Class Citizen, Joan Riley's The Unbelonging, Marlene Nourbese Philip's Harriet's Daughter, and Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine." (author)
The African diaspora's search for both a collective voice and a freedom of identity has led many writers to be liberated only at the expense of being marketed and made part of the publishing machine. Forbes compares this marketplace to the "trading post," referring to the contact points where African slaves were bought and sold. Searching for new targets, many times the African diaspora's voice is cut by sales driven marketing. In illustrating his points, Forbes focuses on five travel narratives in this essay, including books by such authors Mary Seacole, Marlene Nourbese Philip, Jamaica Kincaid, Terry McMillan, and John Edgar Wideman.;
