New Transatlantic Passages: African Immigrant Writers and Contemporary Black Literature in America

Abstract

The rise of globality and the arrival of non-European immigrants in North America over the past several decades have changed the contours of the United States as a multicultural nation. This paper will concentrate on first- and second-generation African immigrant writers who have recently emerged as new black voices in multiethnic American literature. We will examine the way they articulate new transcultural subjectivities. Through their fictional works, these displaced artists-such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dinaw Mengestu, or Chris Abani-offer new perspectives on the myths and realities of Africa and North America, addressing the vexed questions of race and national identity. Given their growing presence and success on the literary scene, we need to explore how these writers contribute to the rich diversity of an African Diaspora aesthetic. We aim to focus on similarities, overlaps and differences between this emergent transnational literature and a well-established African American literary tradition so as to gain more insight into the recent ramifications of black fiction and its evolving canons.