Atlantic Bound

«In this first comparative study of novels by Léonora Miano and Fatou Diome, Charlotte Mackay provides a convincing mapping of the evolution of the two authors’ thinking from a somewhat polarized, ‘colonial’ notion of ‘Afropean’ identity towards a more engaged formulation of diasporic identity in a more forward-looking Afro-Atlantic space.»

(Nicki Hitchcott, University of St Andrews)

«Mackay’s monumental work is a thorough and timely contribution to the growing field of Francophone Afropean Studies. Drawing heavily on Francophone, as well as Anglophone scholarship, Atlantic Bound convincingly displays the strongly ‘Atlantic’ influence on the writing of Diome and Miano, beyond ‘just’ Africa and Europe.»

(Christopher Hogarth, University of Bristol)

This book is the first to investigate the literary portrayal of African and Afrodescendant identities in early fictional works by Franco-Cameroonian writer Léonora Miano and Franco-Senegalese writer Fatou Diome. The study shows that the early fictions of these authors are characterized by changes in diasporic directionality and consciousness that increasingly engage with the Afro-Atlantic space. This space is positioned by both authors as the emancipatory site for a valorizing transglobal Africanity to which both continental and diasporic peoples can lay claim.

Through close readings of two novels by each author, Miano and Diome’s particular model of Afro-Atlantic diasporic consciousness is illuminated by theory drawn from decolonial, postcolonial, ecocritical, diaspora and feminist literary studies. This comparative reading ultimately suggests that the plight of African and Afrodescendant peoples remains very much present in the literary and affective sensibilities of Miano and Diome and positions them as engagé authors within the broader social context of international movements designed to end the discrimination that people of Sub-Saharan descent still experience globally.