The Transnational Imaginaries of M. G. Vassanji Diaspora, Literature, and Culture

"This is a rich and timely collection of essays. The excellent scholars contributing to this book do much more than celebrate M. G. Vassanji's critically acclaimed and popular writing. Attending to the singularity and multiplicity of his work, they bring important new insights to Vassanji's novels, short stories, and life writings. This book will feel particularly vital to anyone with an interest in story telling from and about East Africa, South Asia and North America; and not least because it is energised by a shared and urgent commitment to a 'transnational' understanding of geography and history. This is an important book for any reader with an interest in stories about location and dislocation, and about what transnational storytelling might mean for being postcolonial, diasporic, or worldly in any way. Most importantly, perhaps, the book is vibrantly attuned to Vassanji's 'deeply humanistic outlook'. Through the rigorous exercise of close literary, historical, geographical and political analyses, the authors of «The Transnational Imaginaries of M. G. Vassanji» pursue an acute engagement with what literary culture means for being human today." Stephanie Jones, University of Southampton

Karim Murji is a professor in the Graduate School at the University of West London and was previously based at the Open University, UK. His recent books include Racism, Policy and Politics (2017) and, edited with John Solomos, Theories of Race and Ethnicity: Contemporary Debates and Perspectives (2015). With Sarah Neal, he is the Editor of Current Sociology.
Asma Sayed is a professor in the Department of English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on Indian Ocean studies, postcolonial literature, and South Asian diaspora in Canada. Her work has appeared in leading academic journals, including the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, Canadian Literature, South Asian Review, Transnational Literature, and the Journal of South Asian Diaspora. Her recent books include M. G. Vassanji: Essays on His Work (2014), Writing Diaspora: Transnational Memories, Identities and Cultures (2014), and Screening Motherhood in Contemporary World Cinema (2016).