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AUTHOR
Indiana Lods
„Comparing“ American and South African literatures (through Afrofuturism): methodology and challenges (online seminar)
My original thesis project was ‘Representations of monstrosity in afrofuturist American and South African literature’, and it was meant as a follow up to my master’s thesis which consisted in analyzing monstrosity in short story collections by an African American and a South African author: Friday Black (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 2018) and Intruders (Mohale Mashigo, 2018). I had used afrofuturism not as my main focus then, but as a subchapter in my work, When I started working on my thesis project, I took the term ‘afrofuturism’ for granted when applied to South African works, but the texts I have read and the (South African) encounters I have had have led me to rethink my work and my appro…
Mapping futuristic South African literature: the intersection between history, crime fiction and the future in Masande Ntshanga’s Triangulum (2019)
Friday Black et Intruders : lecture croisée au prisme de l'afrofuturisme
This article contrasts “The Finkelstein 5” and “Zimmer Land”, from Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah’s short story collection Friday Black (2018) with the “Untitled” series from Mohale Mashigo’s Intruders (2018), using Mark Dery’s definition of Afrofuturism as a reading grid and a starting point. While both collections draw on the codes of science fiction and dystopia to portray racialized characters in futuristic settings to examine their relation to technology and their place in fictional ‘future’ societies, they take on different approaches. The article concludes that Adjei-Brenyah’s writing, in Friday Black, leans towards what could be termed ‘Afropresentism’ based on François Hartog’s definitio…
“Historical fiction is back”: (Non)Fictional Pasts and Presents in Fred Khumalo’s metahistorical romance, The Longest March
International audience; This article examines the ways Fred Khumalo’s second historical novel, The Longest March, blends different genres – from the use of gothic tropes to the rewriting of historical romances – to reflect on both the fabricated and limited nature of narrative, as well as its necessity in the South African context. The article concludes that The Longest March qualifies as a “metahistorical romance”, as it blurs the boundary between fiction and nonfiction while questioning historical discourse.
Superhéros et identités nationales : de l'adhésion à la subversion
The aim of this lecture was first to explore the issues around the figure of the superhero – its origins, definition, and its status in academia – and to expose the relation between the representation of superheroes and American national identities. The lecture then consisted in a diachronic analysis of emblematic superheroes (in novels, comics, and movies) in relation to the major conflicts involving the United States in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, conflicts which redefined American identities (the First and Second World Wars, the Vietnam war, and the ‘war on terror’). The following works were mentioned: A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912 ; Captain America Comics …