Obsidian

Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Vol. 12, No. 2

Genre: Multi-Form Anthologies (Adults) Publisher: Board of Trustees of Illinois State University (2011) ISSN: 0888-4412 (paperback) Paperback: 104 pages SYNOPSIS This issue of Obsidian focuses on the intersections between identity, memory, and subjectivity. The proverb that is represented by the adinkra symbol Hye Won Hye asks that we understand that, even in the multiple diasporas that define Obsidian, points of origin leave indelible marks, sustained by the memories that we use to define and to create identity. The texts that inform this issue of Obsidian live in the gaps between the past and the present, between the conditions that define and impact perceptions of identity and memory, between the real and imagined mechanisms that define subjectivity. We invite you into this issue to engage in these conversational divides. It is, in fact, these negotiations that sustain the diasporic identities that are the subject of the critical and creative texts in this issue. Each text asks that we understand the complex psychological journeys that enable us to reclaim "true" representations of the self in relationship with history, in love, within community. and against the collective narratives that define "truth." The texts contained in this issue explore the experience of finding the diasporic self within the context of migration, of love and of memory. The writers engage how gender, race and personality shape memory in the construction of the self. They also engage the diasporan's process of reconfiguring selfhood through the psychological, historical, and physical migrations that construct the self. Contributors: Charles Joyner • Ama S. Wattley • Emily Churilla • Marilynn Barner Anselmi • Melvin Lewis • Summer Edward • Rachel Ellis Neyra

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Praise & Reviews for Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora

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"A nurturing environment for the publication of African American literature and theoretical discourse."
    —The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature

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