The book breaks new ground by reconstructing previous readings of nationalism that ignore the gender paradigm, and by correlating this oversight to their celebration of postnationalism. . . .Her subsequent analysis of postindependent hone and belonging as elusive, exclusivist, inviting, and to heteropatriarchal for migrant African women is refreshing.
French Review
Studies of African literature on migration have ... Read moregone astray by failing to take account of gender in the diverging relationship between the individual and home. Ayo Coly brings contemporary theory back to the individual and her nation with sophisticated analyses of works by Bugul, Beyala, and Diome.
Thomas A. Hale, Pennsylvania State University Home Matters takes up what Ayo Coly views as the problematic pattern of 'celebratory insistence on disjunctures' in contemporary theorizing through which we read and consider identities, texts, and culture arising in Africa, as in other postcolonial worlds. The other side of that coin is the denigration of home, which, for postcolonial theory, is associated with stasis, comfort, lack of desire and questioning, and an absence of engagement with others across boundaries. Highlighting the way in which gender informs Francophone African exile and immigrant literary traditions, this rich and compelling study on ongoing attachment to home in the era of global nomadism is an important-indeed, critical—challenge to the migritude paradigm...
Eileen Julien, Indiana University Home Matters takes up what Ayo Coly views as the problematic pattern of 'celebratory insistence on disjunctures' in contemporary theorizing through which we read and consider identities, texts, and culture arising in Africa, as in other postcolonial worlds. The other side of that coin is the denigration of home, which, for postcolonial theory, is associated with stasis, comfort, lack of desire and questioning, and an absence of engagement with others across boundaries. Highlighting the way in which gender informs Francophone African exile and immigrant literary traditions, this rich and compelling study on ongoing attachment to home in the era of global nomadism is an important-indeed, critical—challenge to the migritude paradigm.
Eileen Julien, Indiana University The volume is well-researched and shows a broad and deep familiarity with existing critical work on the texts at hand. Coly perhaps nods to fellow theorists more than necessary in a work that makes so many significant contributions of its own. However, this may be a strength for its use in teaching; as it provides a fine overview of the field.
Research in African Literatures
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