Decolonization, Appropriation and the Materials of Literature in Africa and its Diaspora

LITAID解决了关于文学材料的基本问题——诗歌、戏剧、小说和故事的创作材料——以及这些材料如何从一种文学文化挪用到另一种文学文化中。它通过关注非洲及其散居的文学非殖民化来做到这一点，因为在这里，挪用的意义特别令人烦恼。LITAID特别关注加纳的文学领域，这是撒哈拉以南非洲第一个脱离英国独立的国家，也是早期去殖民主义运动和艺术的焦点。它从(a)当地艺术家和机构的角度考虑这个领域的跨国维度；(b)为自己的社区寻求非殖民资源的文学旅行者。推动LITAID的研究问题是：在文学非殖民化的要求中产生并回应了什么样的挪用模式？该项目产生了一种原创的挪用策略类型学；描述了南南跨国主义的独特形式；概述了面向非洲及其侨民的世界文学批评的新方法；阐述了艺术在非殖民化中的作用以及艺术非殖民化的手段；并考察文学材料的性质和可移植性。为此，LITAID采用了世界文学、文学社会学、图书史、诗学与叙事学、教育史、数字人文等方法论相结合的创新方法。它对(1)加纳印刷文化进行了开创性的描述；(2)艺术教育政策与学校和大学在文学非殖民化中的作用；(3)加纳文学文化的跨国维度；(4)加纳、南非、加勒比和非裔美国文学文化之间的关系；(5)几位主要作家的职业生涯，包括Efua Sutherland， J. H. Nketia, Richard Wright， Kamau Brathwaite和Guy Butler。其产出将包括9篇期刊文章和4部专著。

LITAID addresses fundamental questions about the materials of literature - the stuff from which poems, plays, novels and stories are made - and about how these are appropriated from one literary culture for another. It does this by focusing on literary decolonization in Africa and its diaspora, because here the meanings of appropriation are particularly vexed. LITAID looks especially at the literary field in Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African nation to achieve independence from Britain and an early focus of decolonial activism and art. It considers this field's transnational dimensions from the perspective of (a) local artists and institutions; and (b) literary travellers who came seeking decolonial resources for their own communities. The research question driving LITAID is: what modes of appropriation arise within and respond to the demands of literary decolonization? The project produces an original typology of appropriative strategies; describes distinctive forms of South-South transnationalism; outlines a new methodology for world literary criticism oriented to Africa and its diaspora; gives an account of the role of the arts in decolonization and the means of decolonizing the arts; and examines the nature and portability of literary materials. To these ends, LITAID adopts an innovative approach combining methodologies of world literature, literary sociology, book history, poetics and narratology, the history of education, and digital humanities. It gives ground-breaking accounts of (1) Ghanaian print culture; (2) arts education policy and the role of schools and universities in literary decolonization; (3) the transnational dimensions of Ghanaian literary culture; (4) relations between Ghanaian, South African, Caribbean and African American literary cultures; and (5) the careers of several major authors including Efua Sutherland, J. H. Nketia, Richard Wright, Kamau Brathwaite and Guy Butler. Its outputs will include 9 journal articles and 4 monographs.