Wed. April 6, 2011 · 12:00 p.m · 537 Heller Fernando Arenas Brown Bag Flier 04-06-2011-4.pdf
ICGC Brown Bag Series
"Book Presentation: Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence (University of Minnesota Press, 2011)"
Fernando Arenas
Professor of Lusophone African, Brazilian, & Portuguese Studies
Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies
Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence is a study of the contemporary cultural production of Portuguese-speaking Africa and its critical engagement with the processes of globalization and the aftermath of colonialism, especially since the advent of multiparty politics and the market-oriented economy. It offers a multidisciplinary approach drawing from the fields of popular music, film, literature, cultural history, geopolitics, and critical theory, while providing a conceptual framework through which to understand recent cultural and historical developments in Portuguese-speaking Africa as a whole and in its parts: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Furthermore, it explores the relationship of Lusophone Africa to a larger African context, the evolving relationship with Portugal (its former colonial power) as well as with its sister country Brazil, in addition to the location of Portuguese-speaking Africa on the map of contemporary global forces. This presentation will synthesize some of the main arguments of this newly published book while offering examples of textual analysis of film and literature emerging from the book itself.
