English

full disclosure i've had a kind of hectic day, with an extended meeting that took up the classtime set aside for reading, and i walked for an hour total this evening just to go to therapy for the first time and i'm adjusting to that! i honestly didn't get to read too far into Americanah and I wanted to post as soon as I could!

My fourth class this semester is a French class on francophone literature. Americanah in some ways reminds me of the books I have read for that class, in particular Le Ventre de l'Atlantique by Fatou Diome, which is narrated by a Senegalese woman living in France but focuses largely on her childhood and on the people she grew up with. An important theme of that book is "la colonisation mentale," the preoccupation with French culture that remained after the French government relinquished control. The inhabitants of the main character's hometown associate going to France with financial success, and her brother dreams of playing soccer for a French team. This "mental colonization" is present in Americanah as well.

I am interested in talking about the religious scenes in Americanah. I am intrigued by Ifemelu's mother's spiritual experiences, but don't really know what to make of them. This is my second time reading Americanah, and while I definitely picked up on the ways that religion provided Adichi interesting ways of portraying the family dynamic. Such as using praying as a tool to speak to the father's progression of loosing faith in himself, or just general discrepancies between  the members of the family. But I'm interested in taking a more spiritual approach, and thinking more about the mother's relationship with God, and how and why her feelings towards God changes. 

            Ifemelu associates smells with places she’s visited. As Ifemeleu questions United States’ sayings, she reveals how bizarre they are. Ifemelu comments on the different connotations of words. Ifemelu learns about how controlling language can be and how certain words, ideas, or phrases that one hears or sees should not be repeated. Ifemelu is constantly being pulled between two places and times: Nigeria and the USA. Ifemelu finds strength and power in independence. Ifemelu describes a feeling of discomfort while riding in a taxi with a Nigerian driver. Ifemelu has to go to a black neighborhood to get her hair braided.

 “‘Good riddance,’” says Billy Beede, the main character of Suzan-Lori Parks’s novel Getting Mother’s Body, after watching her mother, Willa Mae Beede, die from an attempted abortion (Parks 37, 112). But six years later, Billy is still not “rid” of her mother; she is haunted by Willa Mae’s words and lifestyle, and by the fear of following in her footsteps. Meanwhile, Billy’s childless aunt and uncle have tried to raise her as their own, but Willa Mae stands between them.

Silence, Language and Expertise in The Book of Salt

"Take no one's word for anything., including mine--but trust your experience... Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as, what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear. Please try to be clear, dear James, through the storm which rages about your youthful head today, about the reality which lies behind the words acceptance and integration. There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously.

“Anachronistic Encounters”:

Cross-Temporal Touch and the Expansive Present in Beloved

Introduction

Last class and the  electtion results both sent me into a downward spiral of emotions. I began my position in the childbearing discussion with this qute from Richard Wright's 12 Million Black Voices: The American Negro,  His History and Literature  

"Altways our deepest love is toward those children of our who turn their backs upon our way  of life, for our instincts tells us that those brave ones who struggle against the death are ones who bring new life into the world, even though they die to do so, even though our hearts broke when they do" 

Something that resonated with me from Coate's book was his trip to France. His cab driver said, "we are all united under Africa." Est-ce que tu es d'Afrique? As a foreigner I didn't want to be known as American. We don't have the best reputation overseas. Some thought I would be offended to be assumed to be African. Well, I don't think it's a bad thing to be African. And I know enough French history to know that there are indeed plenty of Africans in France. D'où es tu? I was proud to be assumed to be African, but I also used the question as an opportunity to claim a heritage I truly cared about. My mother's homeland, Trinidad.