"MLA 2023: Literary Prizes, Prestige, and Contemporary African Literatures"
An unprecedented wave of literary prizes were awarded to African writers in the past year. These include awards for Abdulrazakh Gurnah (Nobel), Boubacar Boris Diop (Neustadt), David Diop (Man-Booker), Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Goncourt) and Damon Galgut (Booker). This roundtable brings together scholars of African literatures and francophone studies to respond to these recent developments and reflect critically on what these awards mean for the field. Potential topics might include situating 2021 against other historical arcs of consecration in African literatures or how this recent wave relates to questions of genre, gender, and language of expression.
Please send a 250-word proposal (and bio) to Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi (jmphd@ncsu.edu) and Tobias Warner (tdwarner@ucdavis.edu) by March 15.
This is a non-guaranteed session sponsored by the Francophone and African Since 1990 MLA Forums.