Exile and Return in African and Caribbean Literature by Nikiema, Patoimbasba;

Long description:

Exile is often perceived as an irreversible rupture, a state of loss and estrangement. Yet, in African and Caribbean literature, exile and return form a dynamic interplay that reshapes personal, collective, and national identities. This book challenges traditional notions of exile as suffering and return as simple reconnection with homeland and loved ones, arguing that in many instances exile fosters deep introspection and transformation, while return serves as active engagement with the homeland’s sociopolitical and cultural realities. Through close readings of works by transnational writers, namely Khadi Hane, Malika Mokeddem, Dany Laferrière, and Alain Mabanckou, this study explores how exile and return create new forms of belonging, political consciousness, and cultural renewal. It gives voice to exiles navigating the displacement, alienation, and contradictions of the return. At a time when migration remains a polarizing issue in political discourses across Europe and the United States, this book reconsiders exile beyond narrative despair, revealing its potential as a space of reinvention. By bridging exilic imagination and homeland realities, this book offers a fresh perspective on how African and Caribbean writers envision the return as an Afrotopian project, a participative endeavor that rethinks the future of Africa and the Caribbean as a space of possibilities.

“[This book] offers a new perspective on literary representations of exile by focusing on the return journeys made by male and female protagonists… [it] is well researched, and its theoretical framework is convincing.” – Dr Antonia Wimbush, University of Melbourne

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter I: Khadi Hane’s Afropean Redefinition of Exilic Presence

Chapter II: Malika Mokeddem’s Narrative of Return as an Assertive and Sociopolitical Move

Chapter III: Intersecting Return and Cultural Rehabilitation in Laferrière’s Pays sans chapeau

Chapter IV: Mabanckou’s Afrotopian Vision: A Symbolic Return from Exile in Les cigognes sont immortelles

Conclusion

Bibliography