Humanitarian Fictions: Africa, Altruism, and the Narrative Imagination by Megan

The Nile on eBay   Humanitarian Fictions by Megan Cole Paustian

This book argues that the novel can enrich the critique of white saviorism while also imagining alternatives.

FORMATPaperback CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

Humanitarianism has a narrative problem. Far too often, aid to Africa is envisioned through a tale of Western heroes saving African sufferers. While labeling white savior narratives has become a familiar gesture, it doesn't tell us much about the story as story. Humanitarian Fictions aims to understand the workings of humanitarian literature, as they engage with and critique narratives of Africa.Overlapping with but distinct from human rights, humanitarianism centers on a relationship of assistance, focusing less on rights than on needs, less on legal frameworks than moral ones, less on the problem than on the nonstate solution. Tracing the white savior narrative back to religious missionaries of the nineteenth century, Humanitarian Fiction reveals the influence of religious thought on seemingly secular institutions and uncovers a spiritual, collectivist streak in the discourse of humanity. Because the humanitarian model of care transcends the boundaries of the state, and its networks touch much of the globe, Humanitarian Fictions redraws the boundaries of literary classification based on a shared problem space rather than a shared national space. The book maps a transnational vein of Anglophone literature about Africa that features missionaries, humanitarians, and their so-called beneficiaries. Putting humanitarian thought in conversation with postcolonial critique, this book brings together African, British, and U.S. writers typically read within separate traditions. Paustian shows how the novel-with its profound sensitivity to narrative-can enrich the critique of white saviorism while also imagining alternatives that give African agency its due.

Author Biography

Megan Cole Paustian is Associate Professor of English at North Central College.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The White Savior Narrative and the Third Sector Novel | 11. The Moral Cause | 332. The Emancipated African | 673. The Universal Human | 1014. The Benevolent Gift | 1345. The Nongovernmental Organization | 169Epilogue: Rearticulating the Humanitarian Atlantic | 207Acknowledgments | 215Notes | 219Works Cited | 251Index | 267

Review

Humanitarian Fictions manages throughout to be critical without being dismissive and constructs a humanitarian vision that is acutely sensitive to its own predicament.---Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Johns Hopkins UniversityPaustian shows how imaginative literature by African writers equips us to move beyond Eurocentric representations of Africa that depend on colonialist and naïve neoliberal ideas. The book sets out engaging readings of African literature, using the notion of 'humanitarian fictions' as an analytical category and a political challenge that takes us toward big questions of ethics, history, and ongoing human interactions.---Olakunle George, Brown University

Details ISBN1531505481 Author Megan Cole Paustian Pages 288 Publisher Fordham University Press Year 2024 ISBN-13 9781531505486 Format Paperback Publication Date 2024-01-02 Imprint Fordham University Press Subtitle Africa, Altruism, and the Narrative Imagination Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2024-01-02 NZ Release Date 2024-01-02 US Release Date 2024-01-02 UK Release Date 2024-01-02 Audience Professional & Vocational ISBN-10 1531505481 DEWEY 809.3935 We've got this

At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!

TheNile_Item_ID:159456587;