Against the Idea of Africa as “Absolute Dystopia”

P. Coetzee
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Abstract

This paper examines two works that anticipate Africa-centred futures as positive and possible, without promising utopia. Americanah and After the Flare both embrace contradiction and complexity. Furthermore, their treatment of societies (mis)shaped by historical violence includes acknowledgement of their own imbrication in global structures of capitalist modernity. Against the grim backdrop of rising inequality, resurgent racism and the effects of climate change – a moment in which dystopic visions tend to predominate – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Deji Bryce Olukotun’s novels embody a kind of hope. Nonetheless, these alternatives to dystopia do not imagine that the problems and abuses of the present might easily be overcome. Thus, despite their employment of popular genres that invite rather than disavow pleasure, these fictions do not simply offer a form of escapism to distract us as the world burns. Rather, I would argue, they provide useful perspectives on Africa, on race and on humanity, that also have relevance in terms of current discourses of the Anthropocene. Before elaborating my argument in relation to Adichie and Olukotun’s works, I will examine some aspects of the contexts within and against which they operate – in terms of history, geography and representation concerning race, blackness, humanity, and Africa.
反对非洲是“绝对反乌托邦”的观点
本文考察了两部作品,它们预测以非洲为中心的未来是积极和可能的,而不是有希望的乌托邦。《美国》和《战后》都包含矛盾和复杂性。此外,他们对历史暴力(错误地)塑造的社会的处理包括承认他们自己在资本主义现代性的全球结构中的重叠。在不平等加剧、种族主义死灰复燃和气候变化影响的严峻背景下——这是一个反乌托邦愿景往往占主导地位的时刻——奇曼达·恩戈齐·阿迪奇和德吉·布莱斯·奥卢科顿的小说体现了一种希望。尽管如此,这些反乌托邦的替代方案并不认为当前的问题和弊端可以轻易克服。因此,尽管这些小说采用的流行类型是邀请而不是拒绝快乐,但这些小说并不仅仅是在世界燃烧时提供一种逃避现实的形式来分散我们的注意力。相反,我认为,它们提供了关于非洲、种族和人类的有用视角,也与当前人类世的论述相关。在详细阐述我对Adichie和Olukotun作品的观点之前,我将从历史、地理和种族、黑人、人类和非洲的表现等方面,来考察他们的作品所处的背景。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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