My first impression begs me to contend that her audience is the intellectual community of literary critics. However, as I continue to read (almost approaching chapter three) I begin to think it is for those academics who privilege highly the classics and those who dismiss it without a fair critique. Now after reading 'Romancing the Shadow' I think it is for a larger community in academe (Sociology, African American studies, etc.). While overall, i still believe it is for the academic community, I wonder how much of that is guided by her writing style and how I think it to be so dense in nature and not really accessible to the "non-academic community." There are moments that I believe she is speaking to writers and those who plan to write. What are your thoughts?
Some questions that she raises in the chapters to follow: (i noted in my book that i also believe them to be the research questions)
- How does literary utterance arrange itself when it tries to imagine an Africanist other?
- What are the signes, the codes, the literary strategies designed to accomodae this encounter?
- What does the inclusion of the Africans or African Americans do to and for the work?
I am definitely enjoying the text and I feel a little shortchanged that I did not read the works she is analyzing.
Peace!
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