What is the Approach?

Thanks to its pioneering approach that combines postcolonial & digital media studies and (African) diaspora & Afroeuropean studies with Romance literary and cultural studies, the project will offer innovative insights into the digital presence of diasporic groups and their positionings that go beyond a sociological analysis. By having a closer look at the rhetorical and poetic strategies used in cyberspace, it studies not only what is said there but also how it is said. Such an approach enables me to identify the answers to related questions:

• What symbols and tropes do the websites refer to?
• To which intertexts do they relate or refer to imagine a community?
• And what genres (e.g., autobiographical, autofictional or testimonial writing, essayistic/journalistic texts or poetry) do they use to conceptualize Afrodiasporic identities?

A literary and cultural studies’ perspective is essential here to adequately understand the variety of text genres used on the websites and to identify subliminal cross references to specific cultural artefacts and established rhetorics of cultural movements and traditions. Moreover, it allows us to investigate linguistic, literary and cultural transfer and translation processes (between different host societies, between homeland and hostland, between lateral diasporic constellations) that unveil hidden networks.

• With what other cultural systems of reference do the website engage in a dialogue?
• How and with what textualities do they play?

Accordingly, this project builds not only my comprehensive methodological knowledge as a trained literary and cultural studies’ scholar and my prior experience of and networking within interdisciplinary research. It also profoundly benefits from my extensive expertise in Afrodiasporic communities in France and Spain, and my considerable experience in using literary and cultural studies methods in the context of digitality.