The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism

by Brent Hayes Edwards

A pathbreaking work of scholarship that will reshape our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance, The Practice of Diaspora revisits black transnational culture in the 1920s and 1930s, paying particular attention to links between intellectuals in New York and their Francophone counterparts in Paris. Brent Edwards suggests that diaspora is less a historical condition than a set of practices: the claims, correspondences, and collaborations through which black intellectuals pursue a variety of international alliances.

Edwards elucidates the workings of diaspora by tracking the wealth of black transnational print culture between the world wars, exploring the connections and exchanges among New York based publications (such as "Opportunity," "The Negro World," and "The Crisis") and newspapers in Paris (such as "Les Continents," "La Voix des Negres," and "L'Etudiant noir"). In reading a remarkably diverse archive--the works of writers and editors from Langston Hughes, Rene Maran, and Claude McKay to Paulette Nardal, Alain Locke, W. E. B. Du Bois, George Padmore, and Tiemoko Garan Kouyate--The Practice of Diaspora takes account of the highly divergent ways of imagining race beyond the barriers of nation and language. In doing so, it reveals the importance of translation, arguing that the politics of diaspora are legible above all in efforts at negotiating difference among populations of African descent throughout the world."

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Theory, History, Literature, Cultural Studies

408 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2003

Reviews

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loooooved this + it’s gonna be huuuuuge for my diss

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like this book is making a pretty small argument for its length and scope. You can pretty much get everything you need from the prologue. Black studies is perhaps too focused on English language and Western Blackness and misses out on 1) attempts at Black internationalism that have taken place and evidenced through various anthologies, collections, and translations and 2) the theoretical resonances and gaps (décalage) between English and non-English writings/thinkers. The next 300 pages are pretty much just close readings to support these claims which, honestly, seem pretty straightforward and not in need of much support. The one section I thought did have some potential to go somewhere was the discussion of Cedric Robinson and the relationship between Black and Western radicalisms. However, right at the point where Edwards should have been making a claim about this relationship, he just says it's complicated and leaves it at that.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. Interested in Black internationalisms, diaspora, and translation.

[Hafsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book! Not only is it interesting to read, but offers a critical engagement with existing theories on the notion of diaspora. By studying the print culture (letters, literature, periodicals) between the African American and French African community, Edwards makes a compelling argument of how diaspora is not a given, but rather, it must be practiced.

Of the notion of diaspora he states: “diaspora points to difference not only internally…but also externally….implies neither that it offers the comfort of abstraction, an easy recourse to origins, not that it provides a foolproof anti-essentialism: instead, it forces us to articulate discourses of cultural and political linkage only through and across difference.”

It becomes evident that Edwards is responding to the abstract notion of a unified, global pan-African diaspora that was perpetuated, perhaps for political ends, by black leaders and intellectuals over time. Black internationalism, the book suggests, "is less like a sturdy edifice or a definitive program than like the uncertain harmony of a new song.”

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so the prose is dense and one needs a machete to make their way through the forest of academic speak. But I think this book, building on Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, Penny Von Eschen even and others, is clearly reordering the way we think about diaspora, emphasizing cultural labor and persistent investment. The concept of decalage is especially key. The chapter on the Nardal sisters is the weakest, particularly disappointing in an overall strong book. But I take the text concept by concept with the graduate students(plus I think part of my job is to make sure they develop skill reading the thick stuff). I would suggest taking a look at Edwards' article "The Uses of Diaspora," the special Small Axe forum on the book, especially Michelle Stephens'commentary, and Stephens' own book, Black Empire.

[Justin]

What could be better than a close literary analysis of several literary works from the interwar period written by African American Francophiles? Well I can think of several things... hooking a car battery up to your genitalia, stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork, banging your head against a brick wall, gonorrhea, the list goes on...

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edwards's gender analysis (Ch.3) is glaringly weaker than the rest of the book--but the rest is very good indeed. "Prologue" and "Variations on a Preface" probe the issues around translation to reveal new dimensions in how we might understand ideas and their circulation in all contexts. A major contribution to critical theory.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smart and meticulously researched book. My main criticism is that its 60+ page chapters are far too long. There is a lot of repetition within the chapters, and they could be significantly shorter and still make the author's central argument. But, an important book for folk interested in African lit, African American lit, and transnational studies.

[Shavone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since reading this book, I keep wanting to use it (and often finagling things so that I can) in everything I write.