Muse Magazine

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

LIFE: Stuck in a stereotype: Introducing































We can't take credit for this new recurring item we're about to introduce called, Stuck in a Stereotype. A friend actually suggested it. But we snatched it up, with his blessing. And so...we'll be recounting real-life surreal moments that seem too stereotypical too be true. Feel free to send in your's and we might post them here.

Stereotype #1

Setting: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reading with Dave Eggers at the 92nd St Y on Manhattan's Upper East Side
The problem: Chimamanda is from Nigeria, which apparently made her the representative for all of Africa and black authors in general. While Eggers received questions from the audience during the Q&A session about his choice of character in "What is the What" and creative process, Chimamanda, author of "Half of a Yellow Sun" was stuck with the following:

-"How has Toni Morrison influenced your work?"
-"How do you feel about the use of the African village in African literature?"

Never mind that Adichie's novel has nothing to do with the concept of the African village, we find the Toni Morrison question even more baffling. The audience might as well have asked her about Alice Walker, Bebe Moore Campbell, Langston Hughes, Teri McMillan and every other writer (talented or not) whose work has ever sat on the African American lit bookshelves in stores.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

was it not good then?

4:10 PM  
Blogger MissJ said...

Ughhhh. People can be so ignorant, although I doubt they meant any harm, really. I detest the branding of Africa. Africa this, Africa that. The continent is too diverse and massive to sum up with one word or ideal. Chi is a marvelous writer.

1:56 AM  

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