This panel proposes to examine the works of women writers from Africa and the African diaspora who have extensive oeuvres, which include creative work (often of multiple genres) as well as analytical writing (in forms such as essay, interviews, speeches, and other occasional pieces), to posit the argument that the creative work they produce performs theoretical work  in exploring the complexities, contradictions, and dilemmas facing the ever-changing postcolonial environment.  Different critics have identified these theoretical formations as “creative envisioning” which offers insights and perspectives not available elsewhere (Barbara Boswell); “indigenous theory” that rewrites existent feminist and postcolonial theories (Juliana Nfah-Abbenui); “literacy theorizing” that extends what is accepted as theory in the western academy (Katu Katrak); and imaginative writing that “deviates from the binary opposition which sees theory and praxis posited against each other in an exercise of polarity” (Pumla Dineo Gqola).

This call for papers invites abstracts that examine the work of a select woman writer of African or the African diaspora who has produced an extensive body of work, including creative and critical writings. Papers can interrogate how the creative work theorizes the dynamics of everyday life, how the creative work interacts with the writer’s critical work, how the creative work engages with or speaks back to similar content from more traditional forms of theory. Of primary concern for the panel will be the question of the potential for imaginative writing to generate a system of ideas that results in a heightened understanding of complex human circumstances as well as the implications of this theorizing impulse for women writers in Africa and the diaspora.

Please send abstracts of 250 – 300 words to schatteman@gsu.edu by Sept 15th. Panel to be presented at the SAMLA 2024 conference (November 15-17) in Jacksonville, FL.