Reading Multiple Consciousness

Through close readings of literary texts by Camara Laye to Ata Aidoo, via Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison, this book re-evaluates the issue of double consciousness originally raised by W.E.B. DuBois and, in doing so, problematize the role of the intellectuals in relation to their community.

For over a century, the intellectual debate of scholars from African descent has been dominated by the idea of double consciousness spearheaded by W.E.B. DuBois. Interestingly, with many years of vexatious issues of the encounter between the West and Africa, many scholars approached the debate on the basis of the consciousness of the Self and the Other. However, this idea seems to overlook the multiplicities of being black/white. Reading Multiple Consciousness: Exploring the Complexity of Postmodern Identity suggests a different approach to the issue by taking more steps beyond double consciousness. It enriches the debate over race literature and colonization as it offers another way of reading texts. This book proposes that the complexity of postmodern identity is more accurately described by a theory of multiple consciousness. This study arises out of the necessity of a more nuanced theoretical framework for a younger generation of researchers on both sides of the Atlantic, a conceptual approach that does justice to the complexity of their experience.