
Humanitarian Fictions
Africa, Altruism, and the Narrative Imagination
Megan Cole Paustian(Author)
Fordham University Press
Published on 2. January 2024
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-5315-0547-9 (ISBN)
Description
Humanitarianism has a narrative problem. Far too often, aid to Africa is envisioned through a tale of Western heroes saving African sufferers. While labeling white savior narratives has become a familiar gesture, it doesn't tell us much about the story as story. Humanitarian Fictions aims to understand the workings of humanitarian literature, as they engage with and critique narratives of Africa.
Overlapping with but distinct from human rights, humanitarianism centers on a relationship of assistance, focusing less on rights than on needs, less on legal frameworks than moral ones, less on the problem than on the nonstate solution. Tracing the white savior narrative back to religious missionaries of the nineteenth century, Humanitarian Fictions reveals the influence of religious thought on seemingly secular institutions and uncovers a spiritual, collectivist streak in the discourse of humanity.
Because the humanitarian model of care transcends the boundaries of the state, and its networks touch much of the globe, Humanitarian Fictions redraws the boundaries of literary classification based on a shared problem space rather than a shared national space. The book maps a transnational vein of Anglophone literature about Africa that features missionaries, humanitarians, and their so-called beneficiaries. Putting humanitarian thought in conversation with postcolonial critique, this book brings together African, British, and U.S. writers typically read within separate traditions. Paustian shows how the novel-with its profound sensitivity to narrative-can enrich the critique of white saviorism while also imagining alternatives that give African agency its due.
Overlapping with but distinct from human rights, humanitarianism centers on a relationship of assistance, focusing less on rights than on needs, less on legal frameworks than moral ones, less on the problem than on the nonstate solution. Tracing the white savior narrative back to religious missionaries of the nineteenth century, Humanitarian Fictions reveals the influence of religious thought on seemingly secular institutions and uncovers a spiritual, collectivist streak in the discourse of humanity.
Because the humanitarian model of care transcends the boundaries of the state, and its networks touch much of the globe, Humanitarian Fictions redraws the boundaries of literary classification based on a shared problem space rather than a shared national space. The book maps a transnational vein of Anglophone literature about Africa that features missionaries, humanitarians, and their so-called beneficiaries. Putting humanitarian thought in conversation with postcolonial critique, this book brings together African, British, and U.S. writers typically read within separate traditions. Paustian shows how the novel-with its profound sensitivity to narrative-can enrich the critique of white saviorism while also imagining alternatives that give African agency its due.
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
562 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5315-0547-9 (9781531505479)
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E-Book
01/2024
Fordham University Press
€63.99
Available for download
Person
Megan Cole Paustian is Associate Professor of English at North Central College.
Content
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
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