Pursuit of Happiness

Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism

AvBianca C. Williams

Häftad, Engelska, 2018

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Beskrivning

In The Pursuit of Happiness Bianca C. Williams traces the experiences of African American women as they travel to Jamaica, where they address the perils and disappointments of American racism by looking for intimacy, happiness, and a connection to their racial identities. Through their encounters with Jamaican online communities and their participation in trips organized by Girlfriend Tours International, the women construct notions of racial, sexual, and emotional belonging by forming relationships with Jamaican men and other "girlfriends." These relationships allow the women to exercise agency and find happiness in ways that resist the damaging intersections of racism and patriarchy in the United States. However, while the women require a spiritual and virtual connection to Jamaica in order to live happily in the United States, their notion of happiness relies on travel, which requires leveraging their national privilege as American citizens. Williams's theorization of "emotional transnationalism" and the construction of affect across diasporic distance attends to the connections between race, gender, and affect while highlighting how affective relationships mark nationalized and gendered power differentials within the African diaspora.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2018-02-13
Mått:152 x 229 x 14 mm
Vikt:363 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:240
Förlag:Duke University Press
ISBN:9780822370369

Utforska kategorier

Antropologi inom Samhälle och politik
Genusvetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Etnicitet inom Samhälle och politik

Mer om författaren

Bianca C. Williams is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Recensioner i media

"Breathtaking. . . . Simply reading this book felt like an act of self-care for me-a breath of fresh air." - Erica Lorraine Williams (Anthrodendum) "This book will be of interest to scholars in many fields, such as Black feminist studies, transnational and diaspora studies, and the anthropology of tourism and mobility. I particularly want to highlight the book’s contribution to affect studies, given Williams’ careful attention to the ways in which her interlocutors’ emotions are influenced by their racial, gendered, classed, and national subjectivities." - Dannah Dennis (Journal for the Anthropology of North America) "The Pursuit of Happiness is an insightful and engrossing book about African-American women on topics few readers are privileged to hear about or understand." - Jualynne E. Dodson (American Journal of Sociology) "The Pursuit of Happiness challenges white-centric understandings of Caribbean tourism, male-centric understandings of black diasporic connections, and youth-centric notions of leisure and emotional fulfillment. Williams's positioning of African American women as agents is especially remarkable. ... [This book] makes a vital contribution to transnational black feminist thought and feminist geography, African Diaspora studies, critical race studies, Caribbean studies, tourism studies, and cultural anthropology by centering black women's emotions and transnational mobilities within these fields." - Nicosia Shakes (Anthropological Quarterly) "The Pursuit of Happiness is a beautifully written text which humanizes the lives, experiences, and desires of Black women. There are few exceptions wherein scholarly texts examines the experiences of U.S. Black women beyond the borders of the U.S. Williams' work is a guiding light as to how this may be successfully and meaningfully done in future works." - Antwann Michael Simpkins (Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology)

Innehållsförteckning

Acknowledgments ixIntroduction. "Jamaica Crawled Into My Soul": Black Women, Affect, and the Promise of Diaspora 1Interlude 271. More Than a Groove: Pursuing Happiness as a Political Project 31Interlude 632. "Giving Back" to Jamaica: Experiencing Community and Conflict While Traveling with Diasporic Heart 65Interlude 953. Why Jamaica? Seeking the Fantasy of a Black Paradise 99Interlude 1214. Breaking (It) Down: Gender, Emotional Entanglements, and the Realities of Romance Tourism 123Interlude 1595. Navigating (Virtual) Jamaica: Online Diasporic Contact Zones 163Interlude 185Epilogue. Lessons Learned 187Notes 197Bibliography 209Index 221