AFROPEMOTIONS examines the emotional entanglements shaping the experiences of Afro-descendant women in 21st-century Afropean (or Afro-European) 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. Affective dynamics—both negative (e.g. grief, anger, fear) and positive (e.g. love, affection, hope)—influence subjectivities and structure social relations, often informing women's forms of resistance, solidarity, and political engagement.
The project makes an innovative and timely contribution to the existing scholarship by:
providing the first affect-informed investigation of 21st-century Afropean women’s fiction, integrating affect theory with gender and intersectional perspectives, critical race theory, postcolonial criticism, and literary analysis;
developing a theoretical model for the thematic and formal analysis of emotional entanglements in fiction;
using Afropean narratives as a critical site to explore questions of emotional encounters, gender and racial inequality, and resistance in contemporary European societies, while engaging with EU strategies on equality and inclusion and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals on Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities;
raising awareness of prejudices and discriminatory practices against Afro-descendant women in Europe through literary analysis, focus groups with VUB international students, and targeted dissemination and communication activities.
AFROPEMOTIONS is carried out within the Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings (CLIC) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and includes secondments at:
- Freie Universität Berlin, CRC "Affective Societies"
- Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Center for Social and Cultural Psychology
