Full Description
Examining Afro-German artists' use of Afrofuturist tropes to critique German racial history The term Afrofuturism was first coined in the 1990s to describe African diasporic artists' use of science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy to reimagine the diaspora's pasts and to counter not only Eurocentric prejudices but also pessimistic narratives. Out of This World: Afro-German Afrofuturism focuses on contemporary Black German Afrofuturist literature and performance that critiques Eurocentrism and, specifically, German racism and colonial history. This young generation has, Priscilla Layne argues, engaged with Afrofuturism to disrupt linear time and imagine alternative worlds, to introduce non-Western technologies into the German cultural milieu, and to consider the possibilities of posthumanism. Their experiments in futurist and speculative narratives offer new tools for breaking with the binary thinking about race, culture, and gender identity that have been enforced by repressive ideological and state apparatuses, such as educational, cultural, and police institutions. Rather than providing escapism or purely imaginary alternatives, however, they have created a space—outer and artistic—in which their lives matter.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One: The (Im)possibility and Necessity of Hope
Chapter Two: Living with Postcolonial Specters in Michael GÖtting's Contrapunctus
Chapter Three: Hope and Intergalactic Travel in Olivia Wenzel's Mais in Deutschland und anderen Galaxien and We Are the Universe
Chapter Four: Nonhuman Interlopers in Sharon Dodua Otoo's Synchronicity and "Mr. GrÖttrup Sits Down"
Chapter Five: Posthumanism and Digital Diaspora in Simone Dede Ayivi's Performances
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
