Humanitarian Fictions: Africa, Altruism, and the Narrative Imagination

by Megan Cole Paustian

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781531505493
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	01/02/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

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 | 1

1. The Moral Cause | 33

2. The Emancipated African | 67

3. The Universal Human | 101

4. The Benevolent Gift | 134

5. The Nongovernmental Organization | 169

Epilogue: Rearticulating the Humanitarian Atlantic | 207

Acknowledgments | 215

Notes | 219

Works Cited | 251

Index | 267

Editorial Reviews

. . . [A]n original essay studying the engagement of both colonial and postcolonial literary texts with humanitarian discourse. Paustian persuasively traces this grand narrative, heavily driven by white missionary saviorism, to the moral outlook to save the less fortunate. The narrative is resilient and adjustable. . . Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

A key intervention achieved by Paustian’s writing is her ability to seamlessly move between close analysis of the production of literary fiction both out of and about the position of Africa in the global imaginary, and sophisticated examination of the humanitarian mission’s historic reliance upon grand narratives frequently based in fiction.

Anthropos

Paustian 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

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 University

From the Publisher