Transforming the Body, Transculturing the City: Nalo Hopkinson's Fantastic Afropolitans

Abstract

This article explores the intersections between Afropolitanism and the speculative fiction of Afro-Caribbean Canadian writer Nalo Hopkinson. Interpreting her work under the theories of Afropolitanism brings to the foreground and problematises the disjunction between the modern African diaspora (Afro-American/Afro-Caribbean) and the contemporary African diaspora, the one Taiye Selasi addresses in her conceptualisation of Afropolitanism. In aligning the Afro-Caribbean fantastic context with the figure of the Afropolitan, the author addresses some of the incompatibilities that may arise between them, as well as the productive and creative possibilities of their conjunction for the definition of emerging, transnational African identities.