Klaus Benesch

Geneviève Fabre

In the humanities, the term 'diaspora' recently emerged as a promising and powerful heuristic concept. It challenged traditional ways of thinking and invited reconsiderations of theoretical assumptions about the unfolding of cross-cultural and multi-ethnic societies, about power relations, frontiers and boundaries, about cultural transmission, communication and translation. The present collection of essays by renowned writers and scholars addresses these issues and helps to ground the ongoing debate about the African diaspora in a more solid theoretical framework. Part I is dedicated to a general discussion of the concept of African diaspora, its origins and historical development. Part II examines the complex cultural dimensions of African diasporas in relation to significant sites and figures, including the modes and modalities of creative expression from the perspective of both artists/writers and their audiences; finally, Part III focusses on the resources (collections and archives) and iconographies that are available today. As most authors argue, the African diaspora should not be seen merely as a historical phenomenon, but also as an idea or ideology and an object of representation. By exploring this new ground, the essays assembled here provide important new insights for scholars in American and African-American Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, and African Studies. The collection is rounded off by an annotated listing of black autobiographies.

Consciousness and Imagination

African Diasporas in the New and Old Worlds

Genevieve Fabre

Dixon's translation of Fabre's Le Theatre Noir Aux Etats-Unis assesses contemporary black theatre since 1945. Placing it in historical and cultural context as a platform for political statement, Fabre isolates two emerging strains: the militant theater of protest and the ethnic theater of black experience. She provides examples and analyzes obscure as well as well-known plays by militant writers such as Amiri Baraka, Douglas Turner Ward, Ted Shine, Ben Caldwell and Sonia Sanchez, who examine relations between blacks and whites and tell stories of victims, rebels and traitors and of rituals of vengeance. She also examines the theater of black experience embracing the rituals of daily life, the liturgy of the black church, traditional music and folklore, and the works of James Baldwin, Melvin Van Peeples, Ed Bullins and Edgar White, and predicts the future of black theater in the United States. ISBN 0-674-21678-4 : $20.00.

Contemporary Afro-American Theatre

Drumbeats, Masks, and Metaphor

William P. French

A Guide to Information Sources

Afro-American Poetry and Drama, 1760-1975

La quête identitaire passe le plus souvent par la confrontation à l'autre. Celle des groupes ethniques dans les Etats-Unis d'aujourd'hui est étudiée ici comme un déplacement à travers un espace, privé ou public, dont les limites, les frontières, les repères et les codes sont constamment redéfinis. Quelques parcours exemplaires et singuliers sont analysés dans ce recueil - à partir de textes et de documents précis - afin de mieux cerner le travail de la mémoire et de l'imaginaire (individuels et collectifs), les rites de passage, la construction de sens et l'élaboration symbolique. Chaque trajectoire est imprimée de mouvements ambigus, complexes et contradictoires. Il se dégage de ces exemples une problématique de l'exil, de la rupture et des échanges culturels qui remet parfois en question les modèles proposés ou prescrits par la société dominante

Geneviève Fabre

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