A Critique of Monist Afrocentrism in Toni Morrison's 'Paradise'

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Literature, University of Nottingham (School of Canadian and American Studies), course: American Studies, language: English, abstract: In rewriting her people's history in 'Paradise', Morrison touches upon the issue of Afrocentrism as a cornerstone in the social, political and cultural understanding of black America. Her steadfast interest in black peoples' lives and destinies may be read as a self-evident concern with Afrocentrism. Both her literary art and cultural criticism overlap, in one way or another, with moderate forms of Afrocentrism. First coined by W.E.B. Du Bois in the early 1960s then popularised by Asante a couple of decades later, the term Afrocentrism represents a talking back against the hegemonic attitudes and discourses that have been disfiguring and marginalising the African Americans' cultural legacies and historical realities both before and after the Transatlantic Passage.

Mohamed Sghir Syad has a Licence in English Language and Literature (Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco), an MA in Drama and Theatre (The School of Comparative Studies, Essex University, UK), and a PhD in American Studies (The School of American and Canadian Studies, University of Nottingham, UK). He lectures at Cadi Ayyad University and Sultan Moulay Slimane University (Beni Mellal, Morocco), and is currently director of The Research Laboratory in Culture and Communication at Sultan Moulay Slimane University. His current research interests include Critical Race Theory, African American Studies, Women's Writing, Feminism and Postmodernism.