African diasporic literatures in the virtual space: Narration, interaction and performance in Teju Cole’s Twitter story ‘Hafiz’ | Intellect Skip to content
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Textures of Diaspora and (Post-)Digitality: A Cultural Studies Approach
  • ISSN: 2632-5853
  • E-ISSN: 2632-5861

Abstract

African writers from the diaspora as much as from the continent have emphatically embraced the potential of new media technologies. A vast and tightly woven network of literary enthusiasts connects writers, scholars, publishers, journalists and readers, who often interact independently from western publishing houses. Digital diasporic literatures are thus created within multiple cyberplaces that are interlinked. My article focuses on ‘Hafiz’ (2014), a collaborative piece published on Twitter by Teju Cole. Thirty-five voices jointly tell a story, thereby conjuring the illusion of an event that simultaneously takes place in metropolises of Nigeria, South Africa, Europe, the United States and India. With regard to the performative collaboration displayed in ‘Hafiz’, my article discusses how Achille Mbembe’s conceptualization of Afropolitanism ([2010] 2021), the relational approach to digital diasporas by Candidatu and Koen, and concepts of digital literatures can be fruitful for the analysis of new media based literatures.

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2022-06-01
2024-04-26
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Afropolitanism; collaborative narration; digital diaspora; ephemerality; masculinity; polyphony; vulnerability

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