The African American writer and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison radically changed American literature with her writing, with her uncompromising focus on black stories and experiences, and with her unique blend of realism and what might be called speculative fiction, but what she herself called a form of “enchantment” steeped in a “black cosmology.”
Morrison has also been highly influential for a great number of African writers – evident upon her passing in 2019, when writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Okri, and Chigozie Obioma spoke about her vital importance to their work. Morrison, for her part, often emphasized the significance of African literature in her own development as a writer. In what ways have these connections shaped American and African literature?
Zambian American writer Namwali Serpell is Professor of English at Harvard University, and her book On Morrison will be published by Penguin Random House next year. Serpell was named one of the Africa 39, the Hay Festival’s list of the best young sub-Saharan African writers. A winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, she is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, the tour de force debut The Old Drift, and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, The Furrows.
At the House of Literature, Serpell will delve into the writing and legacy of Toni Morrison and her relationship to Africa.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A between Serpell and author and academic Kristina Leganger Iversen.
The lecture will be in English.
The event is supported by NORAD.
