Konzeptionen von Europa in afrikanischen Literaturen seit der Negritude

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Susan Arndt
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2007 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 40915776

The European expansion and hegemony since 1492 constitutes a profoundly consequential event ¿ both for the history of Europe / the West and that of the nations of the "global South" formerly subjected to European colonial rule. This historically unique process, given its global scope and duration, has had formative influences on the social, political and economic systems, and therefore impacted on the areas of science, culture, literature and philosophy of the formerly colonized societies. To pursue the question of how Africans by means of literary practices and theoretical discourses responded to the European master narrative of modernity, civilisation and progress to legitimize colonialism and racism, will open up a so far negated perspective on Europe and raise awareness for the entangled (his)stories of the two continents. My research interest goes beyond a simple revision of the perspective that views Africans and people of African descent in Europe merely as colonized or discriminated passive participants of European modernity: The gaze onto Europe through the prism of African and African-diasporic authors and theorists also allows for a view of the various forms and interpretations of modernity which originated in Africa and its diasporas themselves, and how these have contributed to modernity in Europe.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants