The Politics of Exile: Ama Ata Aidoo\u27s Our Sister Killjoy

Ama Ata Aidoo\u27s Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-Eyed Squint is a relentless attack on the notions of exile as relief from the societal constraints of national development and freedom to live in a cultural environment conducive to creativity. In this personalized prose/poem, Aidoo questions certain prescribed theories of exile (including the reasons for exile)—particularly among African men. The novel exposes a rarely heard viewpoint in literature in English—that of the African woman exile. Aidoo\u27s protagonist Sissie, as the eye of her people, is a sojourner in the civilized world of the colonizers. In this article, I examine Aidoo\u27s challenge to prevailing theories of exile, her questioning of the supposed superiority of European culture for the colonial subject, and her exposé of the politics of exile for African self-exile. Through a combination of prose, poetry, oral voicing and letter writing, Aidoo\u27s Sissie reports back to her home community what she sees in the land of the colonizers and confronts those exiles who have forgotten their duty to their native land

Wilson Harris\u27s Divine Comedy of Existence: Miniaturizations of the Cosmos in Palace of the Peacock

Although the European world which accepted the allegory of Dante\u27s Divina Commedia no longer exists, the concept of a sovereign ideal, Christian and European, governing humanity is still prevalent in Western civilization. The idea of a homogeneous world has been imposed on all parts of society so that those groups and individuals outside this concept of society are inevitably suppressed as alien to it. This view of the unity of all minds has been a problematic one even within \u27homogeneous\u27 cultures (for example, Tuscany of Dante\u27s time), but it is completely ineffectual in dealing with the fragmented nature of the multi-cultural 20th century — the heterogeneous cultures of the New World in particular

(Re)Teaching Hemingway: Anti-Semitism as a Thematic Device in \u3cem\u3eThe Sun Also Rises\u3c/em\u3e

Explores reasons why Hemingway chose to portray Robert Cohn as a villainous Jew, and analyzes how Cohn’s lack of masculinity represents a future Hemingway was uncomfortable with. Wilentz reads Cohn’s character as a reflection of the irrational anxieties of early twentieth-century Americans over the influx of immigrants in post-industrial America

The Politics of Exile: Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy

Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-Eyed Squint is a relentless attack on the notions of exile as relief from the societal constraints of national development and freedom to live in a cultural environment conducive to creativity. In this personalized prose/poem, Aidoo questions certain prescribed theories of exile (including the reasons for exile)—particularly among African men. The novel exposes a rarely heard viewpoint in literature in English—that of the African woman exile. Aidoo's protagonist Sissie, as the "eye" of her people, is a sojourner in the "civilized" world of the colonizers. In this article, I examine Aidoo's challenge to prevailing theories of exile, her questioning of the supposed superiority of European culture for the colonial subject, and her exposé of the politics of exile for African self-exile. Through a combination of prose, poetry, oral voicing and letter writing, Aidoo's Sissie reports back to her home community what she sees in the land of the colonizers and confronts those exiles who have forgotten their duty to their native land

Gay Wilentz Responds [to Jesse Bier]

Notes the distinction between thematic and biographical interpretations of anti-Semitism in The Sun Also Rises. See Bier’s “A Comment on ‘(Re)-Teaching Hemingway: Anti-Semitism as a Thematic Device in The Sun Also Rises.’” College English 53, no. 4 (1991): 478-80

Gay Wilentz Responds

Wilentz justifies her interpretation as a socio-cultural reading of the anti-Semitic theme in the text. See Wilentz’s “(Re)Teaching Hemingway: Anti-Semitism as a Thematic Device in The Sun Also Rise.” College English 52, no. 2 (Feb. 1990): 186-93. See also Pearl Greenberg Berg, Maurice H. Cummings, and Sanford J. Smoller’s “Three Comments on (Re)Teaching Hemingway: Anti-Semitism as a Thematic device in The Sun Also Rises.” College English 52, no. 8 (Dec. 1990): 924-28

The Politics of Exile: Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy

Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-Eyed Squint is a relentless attack on the notions of exile as relief from the societal constraints of national development and freedom to live in a cultural environment conducive to creativity. In this personalized prose/poem, Aidoo questions certain prescribed theories of exile (including the reasons for exile)—particularly among African men. The novel exposes a rarely heard viewpoint in literature in English—that of the African woman exile. Aidoo's protagonist Sissie, as the "eye" of her people, is a sojourner in the "civilized" world of the colonizers. In this article, I examine Aidoo's challenge to prevailing theories of exile, her questioning of the supposed superiority of European culture for the colonial subject, and her exposé of the politics of exile for African self-exile. Through a combination of prose, poetry, oral voicing and letter writing, Aidoo's Sissie reports back to her home community what she sees in the land of the colonizers and confronts those exiles who have forgotten their duty to their native land