Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature

Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature examines the popular literary stereotype, the tragic mulatto, from a transnational perspective. Mafe considers the ways in which specific South African and American writers have used this controversial literary character to challenge the logic of racial categorization.

"Mafe's book is a smart and timely transnational renegotiation of the American trope of the tragic mulatto. Mafe not only argues for the significance of the narrative history of mixed race representation in South African fiction and poetry, but also maps how this later body of work transforms what has become a cultural stereotype. Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature offers a rich comparative analysis that asks students and scholars of African, African American, and especially African diaspora literature to rethink their framing - and teaching - of Black cultural studies across national and continental borders." - Samantha Pinto, Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University, USA, and Author of Difficult Diasporas: The Transnational Feminist Aesthetic of the Black Atlantic "Diana Adesola Mafe's work is both useful and timely, filling a gap in the literary study of colouredness and the transnational study of mixed race literature. Through her close readings of the tragic mulatto in South African and American literature, Mafe illustrates the transnational significance of this literary figure and the common ways writers have adopted it to explore both personal and national questions of being and belonging." - Research in African Literatures

Diana Adesola Mafe is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Denison University, USA.