ABSTRACT
Modern ideas of freedom and human rights have been repeatedly contested and are hotly debated at the beginning of the third millennium in response to new theories, needs, and challenges in contemporary life.
This volume offers culturally diverse contributions to the debate on freedom from the literatures and arts of the postcolonial world, exploring experiences that evoke, desire, imagine, and perform freedom across five continents and two centuries of history.
Experiences of Freedom opens with an introductory philosophical essay by Achille Mbembe and is divided into four sections that consider:
• resisting history and colonialism
• the right to move and to belong
• the right to (believe in) free futures
• imaginative freedom and critical engagement.
Each section contains a piece of creative writing directly connected to these topics from authors Chris Abani, Anita Desai, Caryl Phillips, and Alexis Wright, followed by a selection of critical essays.
Contributors: Chris Abani, Rochelle Almeida, Gil Anidjar, Jogamaya Bayer, Elena Bernardini, Anne Collett, Carmen Concilio, Paola Della Valle, Roberto Derobertis, Anita Desai, Lorna Down, Francesca Giommi, Gareth Griffiths, Dave Gunning, John C. Hawley, Peter H. Marsden, Russell McDougall, Achille Mbembe, Cinzia Mozzato, Kevin Newmark, Berndt Ostendorf, Mai Palmberg, Owen Percy, Kirsten Holst Petersen, Caryl Phillips, Annel Pieterse, Christiane Schlote, Nermeen Shaikh, Patrick Williams, Alexis Wright, and Robert J. C. Young.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|82 pages
Resisting History and Colonialism
chapter 4|8 pages
“Saving Africa”
chapter 7|12 pages
“I am not a slave … I will be worthy of my native land”
part 2|70 pages
The Right to Move and to Belong
chapter 12|12 pages
Anglo-Indian Migrants
part 3|90 pages
The Right to (Believe in) Free Futures
chapter 19|11 pages
“Flying inna massa face”
chapter 22|10 pages
“Holding All the Pieces Together”
part 4|78 pages
Imaginative Freedom and Critical Engagement