"AFROPEMOTIONS": Rethinking Emotions, Inequality, and Resistance through Afropean Women’s Fiction
In her presentation, Isabella Villanova shares insights from her current research project on the emotional entanglements that shape the experiences of Afro-descendant women in 21st-century Afro-European (or Afropean) women’s fiction (2003–2023). Written by authors of diverse African heritages and set across multiple European contexts, these narratives foreground the complex emotional experiences produced by intersecting forms of oppression (e.g. racism, sexism, classism, and tokenism), often rooted in colonial legacies and exacerbated by Eurocentric assumptions. To examine these dynamics, Villanova integrates affect theory with gender and intersectional perspectives, postcolonial criticism, and literary analysis. The short story "The Ostrich", from the collection Elsewhere, Home (2018) by Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela, based in Aberdeen, Scotland, will be used as a case study.
The event will be held in English.
