Afrika Kolloquium: “Comparing" American and South African literatures (through Afrofuturism): methodology and challenges

17.01.2023 17:15

Speaker: Indiana Lods, Université de Bourgogne.

My original thesis project was ‘Representations of monstrosity in afrofuturist American and South African literature’, and it was meant as a follow up to my master’s thesis which consisted in analyzing monstrosity in short story collections by an African American and a South African author: Friday Black (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 2018) and Intruders (Mohale Mashigo, 2018). I had used afrofuturism not as my main focus then, but as a subchapter in my work, When I started working on my thesis project, I took the term ‘afrofuturism’ for granted when applied to South African works, but the texts I have read and the (South African) encounters I have had have led me to rethink my work and my approach. This presentation therefore aims to give an account of my research focusing on the questions and challenges I have faced, and on my methodology itself.

After studying sociology and English, Indiana Lods passed the Agrégation in 2019, thanks to which she was able to do a Research Master’s at the Université de Dijon, Bourgogne. She is now a 2nd Year PhD Student working on the representations of monstrosity in Afrofuturist South African and American literatures. She is a member of JorLitSAF, a collaborative project which focuses on narrative journalistic traditions in South Africa and in France around the Second Anglo-Boer War and the post-apartheid period.

Chair: Daniela Waldburger/ Rémi Tchokothe

Tuesday, 17th January 2023, 5:15 pm
Department of African Studies - Online
Zoom Link: https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65988059038?pwd=em0xMzdiQWprZGsyR1hYdFVQRHdpZz09
afrika@univie.ac.at,  afrika.univie.ac.at