Decolonial Trans Futures in Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater

• In Event: Trans of Color and Postcolonial Literatures: Subaltern States, Feminist Responses, and Decolonial Futures

Abstract

Transgender studies has been challenged to interrogate its whiteness (Roen 2006; Haritaworn and Snorton 2013), but more work needs to be done to look closely at its relationship to a largely North American settler culture and to unpack the importance of decolonial work to trans futures. Referencing the groundbreaking work of critics such as Chela Sandoval, María Lugones, and Emma Pérez, this proposed paper takes up a literary text, Akwaeke Emezi’s 2018 novel Freshwater, that anticipates decolonial trans futures, unpacking the multiple legacies of the European colonial project globally as they apply to gender-nonconforming knowledge and life.

Presenter

• Lisa Hinrichsen, University of Arkansas