Conference Presentations by Ewa Adamkiewicz
The life journeys of Sonny and his older brother, the two main characters of James Baldwin’s shor... more The life journeys of Sonny and his older brother, the two main characters of James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” from 1957, are very different from each other: Whereas Sonny dropped out of school, fell into drug addiction, and became incarcerated, his older brother became an algebra teacher, started a family, and moved into a nice apartment with his wife and children. These life journeys represent quite contrasting experiences of sociocultural and socioeconomic mobility and immobility in Harlem. However, the two protagonists share an ambivalent relation to their home, which is represented in the story as place of alienation, of hopelessness, of frustrations. What unites Sonny and his older brother is their individual attempt to get away from Harlem.
In his 1948 essay “Harlem is Nowhere” Ralph Ellison similarly describes Harlem as a space of ambivalence and as “the scene and symbol of” African American’s “perpetual alienation in the land of his birth.” The essay discusses personal and institutional conditions of mobility and confines for Black Americans in Harlem. On the one hand, the essay points to Harlem as a space of opportunities and of economic and cultural mobility. On the other hand, it deconstructs the idea of Harlem as ‘Black mecca’ by alluding to exclusions from the colorblind promise of the Declaration of Independence declaring “that all men are created equal.” Ellison describes in particular how Harlem is often talked about as a place of “nowhere,” as a place where people feel displaced, alienated, and unable to move. Thereby he describes tensions arising from dynamics of what I will refer to as (im)mobility, which represent an overarching juxtaposition he attempts to theorize in his essay.
In this conference paper I seek to investigate these theorizations of (im)mobility based on an analysis of Ellison's “Harlem is Nowhere” and apply his theorizations to James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” in order to analyze how notions of (im)mobility in the story shape the protagonists’ experiences. I argue that by analyzing and contextualizing Ellison’s theorization of (im)mobility, applied to “Sonny’s Blues,” we can get a glimpse into cultural involvement with questions of Black existence and experiences of being Black, which are central to the philosophical discourse of Black Existentialism. I define (im)mobility in this project as concept that theoretically connects notions of mobility—that is, the ability to move or be moved physically, metaphorically, or mentally—to the larger philosophical discourse that is concerned with thinking about Black existence and experiences of being Black. That is, the term combines a critical reflection of epistemology, thinking about being, with ideas about moving through this world, and grasps the opportunity to move between this juxtaposition of mobility and immobility.
n her song "Cleaning Out My Closet" the US rapper Angel Haze addresses the traumatic experiences ... more n her song "Cleaning Out My Closet" the US rapper Angel Haze addresses the traumatic experiences of having been raped as a child, rapping about the reactions she received from her environment and the affect it had on her. Haze does so in a very explicit, harsh, and brusque way, speaking out what many victims perceive and experience as unspeakable-not only because the act itself, the physical assault, is so dreadful and inhumane, but also
Papers by Ewa Adamkiewicz
aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, 2020
To start, what sparked your interest in American studies? What is it like to be a young scholar i... more To start, what sparked your interest in American studies? What is it like to be a young scholar in American (Cultural) Studies. Have you noticed any changes or developments in the field? Dr. Ewa Adamkiewicz: Before I start, I would like to thank the editors of this year's issue for this opportunity and reaching out to me in a moment that was special to me in so many ways as it not only marked the peak of my academic career but also its end-at least for now. A few days before I received the request, I defended my dissertation at the University of Graz. Shortly after, I moved to Leipzig to start a non-academic position at the university. To write this essay as a young scholar in this phase of transitioning away from academia presented itself as a wonderful way to reflect on my personal experiences and scholarly interests.
aspeers: emerging voices in american studies
Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced a rise in heritage and plantation tourism that... more Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced a rise in heritage and plantation tourism that plays a significant role in passing on cultural narratives and constructing memories. In cases of plantation tourism, some narratives are constructed that deny the history of slavery or mention it only as a side effect. This absence of critical engagement commodifies a specific type of nostalgia: white nostalgia. White nostalgia exemplifies an attempt to escape issues of race by downplaying their implications and rejecting the legacy of slavery. Plantation tourism sites tend to celebrate personal narratives depicting the antebellum South as a time and place of union and jauntiness despite the fact that their histories are inseparably connected with slavery. Refusing to engage in critical discussions on slavery, these historical plantation sites can be regarded as comfortable spaces of refuge longing for an uncritical and colorblind—yet unrealistic—past. In this essay, the commodificatio...
Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced a rise in heritage and plantation tourism that... more Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced a rise in heritage and plantation tourism that plays a significant role in passing on cultural narratives and constructing memories. In cases of plantation tourism, some narratives are constructed that deny the history of slavery or mention it only as a side effect. This absence of critical engagement commodifies a specific type of nostalgia: white nostalgia. White nostalgia exemplifies an attempt to escape issues of race by downplaying their implications and rejecting the legacy of slavery. Plantation tourism sites tend to celebrate personal narratives depicting the antebellum South as a time and place of union and jauntiness despite the fact that their histories are inseparably connected with slavery. Refusing to engage in critical discussions on slavery, these historical plantation sites can be regarded as comfortable spaces of refuge longing for an uncritical and colorblind—yet unrealistic—past. In this essay, the commodification of white nostalgia will be investigated by looking at seven plantation websites, thereby examining how white nostalgia not only distorts the history of the antebellum South but how it sells history without racism and performs memory that distances itself from emotional legacies of slavery.
What has been referred to as the 'multiracial millennium' signifies the hype around multiracialit... more What has been referred to as the 'multiracial millennium' signifies the hype around multiraciality. Since the 1990s the United States has seen an increasing public interest with the multiracial experience and in the multiracial body. This fascination in individuals with ambiguous and non-identifiable appearances created a curiosity that became visible in various cultural, political, and social realms. Magazines published special issues on multiraciality, such as Times' "The New Face of America," and brands, such as United Colors of Benetton, started marketing multiculturalism and increasingly displaying models with a non-white appearance. These discourses on multiraciality, depicting multiracial individuals as future oriented, successful, fashionable, and attractive, contributed strongly to impact the public perception of multiracial individuals. In order to get an insight into how this popular discourse is tackled by contemporary US American fiction, this thesis engages in a reading of Senna's short story collection You Are Free and Teju Cole's novel Open City. Both texts comment on multiraciality, and by unraveling aspects and issues related to the experiences of multiracial individuals they contribute to a critical assessment of racialized discourses. By questioning and challenging ideas connected to the concept of a multiracial subject, both texts raise a critical voice against euphemizing the concept of multiracial subjects and its multidimensional racialized implications for the individual.
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Conference Presentations by Ewa Adamkiewicz
In his 1948 essay “Harlem is Nowhere” Ralph Ellison similarly describes Harlem as a space of ambivalence and as “the scene and symbol of” African American’s “perpetual alienation in the land of his birth.” The essay discusses personal and institutional conditions of mobility and confines for Black Americans in Harlem. On the one hand, the essay points to Harlem as a space of opportunities and of economic and cultural mobility. On the other hand, it deconstructs the idea of Harlem as ‘Black mecca’ by alluding to exclusions from the colorblind promise of the Declaration of Independence declaring “that all men are created equal.” Ellison describes in particular how Harlem is often talked about as a place of “nowhere,” as a place where people feel displaced, alienated, and unable to move. Thereby he describes tensions arising from dynamics of what I will refer to as (im)mobility, which represent an overarching juxtaposition he attempts to theorize in his essay.
In this conference paper I seek to investigate these theorizations of (im)mobility based on an analysis of Ellison's “Harlem is Nowhere” and apply his theorizations to James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” in order to analyze how notions of (im)mobility in the story shape the protagonists’ experiences. I argue that by analyzing and contextualizing Ellison’s theorization of (im)mobility, applied to “Sonny’s Blues,” we can get a glimpse into cultural involvement with questions of Black existence and experiences of being Black, which are central to the philosophical discourse of Black Existentialism. I define (im)mobility in this project as concept that theoretically connects notions of mobility—that is, the ability to move or be moved physically, metaphorically, or mentally—to the larger philosophical discourse that is concerned with thinking about Black existence and experiences of being Black. That is, the term combines a critical reflection of epistemology, thinking about being, with ideas about moving through this world, and grasps the opportunity to move between this juxtaposition of mobility and immobility.
Papers by Ewa Adamkiewicz
In his 1948 essay “Harlem is Nowhere” Ralph Ellison similarly describes Harlem as a space of ambivalence and as “the scene and symbol of” African American’s “perpetual alienation in the land of his birth.” The essay discusses personal and institutional conditions of mobility and confines for Black Americans in Harlem. On the one hand, the essay points to Harlem as a space of opportunities and of economic and cultural mobility. On the other hand, it deconstructs the idea of Harlem as ‘Black mecca’ by alluding to exclusions from the colorblind promise of the Declaration of Independence declaring “that all men are created equal.” Ellison describes in particular how Harlem is often talked about as a place of “nowhere,” as a place where people feel displaced, alienated, and unable to move. Thereby he describes tensions arising from dynamics of what I will refer to as (im)mobility, which represent an overarching juxtaposition he attempts to theorize in his essay.
In this conference paper I seek to investigate these theorizations of (im)mobility based on an analysis of Ellison's “Harlem is Nowhere” and apply his theorizations to James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” in order to analyze how notions of (im)mobility in the story shape the protagonists’ experiences. I argue that by analyzing and contextualizing Ellison’s theorization of (im)mobility, applied to “Sonny’s Blues,” we can get a glimpse into cultural involvement with questions of Black existence and experiences of being Black, which are central to the philosophical discourse of Black Existentialism. I define (im)mobility in this project as concept that theoretically connects notions of mobility—that is, the ability to move or be moved physically, metaphorically, or mentally—to the larger philosophical discourse that is concerned with thinking about Black existence and experiences of being Black. That is, the term combines a critical reflection of epistemology, thinking about being, with ideas about moving through this world, and grasps the opportunity to move between this juxtaposition of mobility and immobility.