Narrating the New African Diaspora

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Introduction

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 1-11

3. Contexts: New African Diaspora, Nigerian Literature, and the Global Literary Market

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 13-36

4. Biafra and Nigerian Identity Formation in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 37-60

5. City of Stories: The Lagos Imaginary in Chris Abani’s GraceLand (2004) and Sefi Atta’s Swallow (2010)

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 61-83

6. The Prison of 1990s Nigeria: Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel (2002)

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 85-106

7. Leaving Nigeria: Ike Oguine, Sefi Atta, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 107-126

8. Exploring the Limitations of Afropolitanism in Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go (2013)

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 127-145

9. Second-Generation Nigerians in England: Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl (2005) and the Negative Experience of Hybridity

   • Maximilian Feldner

   Pages 147-163

10. Returning to Nigeria: Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief (2007) and Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come (2005)

    • Maximilian Feldner

    Pages 165-184

11. Return Migration in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013)

    • Maximilian Feldner

    Pages 185-199

12. Conclusion

    • Maximilian Feldner

    Pages 201-208

13. Back Matter

    Pages 209-212

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This book provides the first comprehensive survey and collection of Nigerian diaspora literature, offering readings of novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta, Helon Habila, Helen Oyeyemi, Taiye Selasi, Chika Unigwe, Chris Abani, and Ike Oguine. As members of the new African diaspora, their literature captures experiences of recent Nigerian migration to the United States and the United Kingdom. Examining representative novels, such as Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, Habila’s Waiting for an Angel, Abani’s GraceLand, and Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl, the book discusses these novels’ literary and narrative methods and provides detailed analyses of two of the most common themes: depictions of migratory experiences and representations of Nigeria. Placing the novels in their relevant historical, sociological, philosophical, and theoretical contexts, Narrating the New African Diaspora presents an insightful study of current anglophone Nigerian narrative literature.

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Sefi Atta
• Helon Habila
• Helen Oyeyemi
• Taiye Selasi
• Chika Unigwe
• Chris Abani
• Ika Oguine
• Migration
• Homeland
• Diaspora
• Postcolonial

• University of Graz, Graz, Austria

  Maximilian Feldner

Maximilian Feldner is Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Graz, Austria.

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