Coastal form: amphibian positions, wider worlds, and planetary horizons on the African Indian Ocean littoral

dc.contributor.authorSamuelson, M.
dc.date.issued2017
dc.description.abstractThis essay makes a case for the categories of littoral literature and coastal form through which it aims to take up the expansive possibilities of the maritime turn while keeping both the materiality of the ocean and the locality of the shore in sight. It elaborates the notion of coastal form through a focus on the African Indian Ocean littoral and with reference to the oeuvres of Mia Couto and Abdulrazak Gurnah. Both are shown to muddle the inside-outside binary that delineates nations and continents, and which has been particularly stark in framing Africa in both imperial and nativist thought. At the same time, coastal form is found to decenter, extend, and thicken constructions of world literature, while opening to a planetary perspective sensible to the prodigious and implacable forces of the Anthropocene.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityMeg Samuelson
dc.identifier.citationComparative Literature, 2017; 69(1):16-24
dc.identifier.doi10.1215/00104124-3794569
dc.identifier.issn0010-4124
dc.identifier.issn1945-8517
dc.identifier.orcidSamuelson, M. [0000-0002-5070-1046]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/117149
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherDuke University Press
dc.rights© 2017 by University of Oregon
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1215/00104124-3794569
dc.titleCoastal form: amphibian positions, wider worlds, and planetary horizons on the African Indian Ocean littoral
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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