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Litshop presents: Danielle Dorvil, “Recuperating Black Women’s Wisdom in Maria Firmina dos Reis’ Úrsula” & Tadiwa Madenga, “Pleasuring Pan-Africanism: The Sexual Politics of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair”
April 6, 2023 @ 5:15 pm - 6:30 pm
Recuperating Black Women’s Wisdom in Maria Firmina dos Reis’ Úrsula
Presented by Danielle Dorvil
Diversity Predoctoral Fellow at the Literature Section, MIT
Abstract: Maria Firmina dos Reis’ debut novel has been acclaimed for her innovative depictions of enslaved Black subjects in nineteenth-century Brazilian literature. While the conversation has mostly centered on Reis’ Black male characters, I propose to examine her older, African female character’s unconventional—perhaps radical—view of emancipation. I will show how Susana’s thoughts on slavery and freedom betray Reis’ stance on the larger abolitionist debate occurring in Brazil at the time.
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Pleasuring Pan-Africanism: The Sexual Politics of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair
Presented by Tadiwanashe Farida Madenga
Diversity Predoctoral Fellow at the Literature Section, MIT
Abstract: Created in the wake of Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, the annual Zimbabwe International Book Fair was a space for national and Pan-African identities to be performed and re-invented. In 1995, former President Robert Mugabe banned the Gay and Lesbian organization from participating in the fair, provoking global debates on homosexuality and national sovereignty. In the midst of this censorship, Zimbabwean writers staged a political, social, and aesthetic critique of the state that centered on sexuality, or what some dreamers called erotic liberty, as a lens to reimagine national identity and freedom. By uncovering erotic subjectivities that were simultaneously imagined and camouflaged within the book fair itself, this talk explores how literature and performance mediate sexual politics.
