Contemporary African Mediations of Affect and Access by Helene Strauss & Sarah Olutola & Jessie Forsyth

Author:Helene Strauss & Sarah Olutola & Jessie Forsyth [Strauss, Helene & Olutola, Sarah & Forsyth, Jessie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138636392
Google: nSIgvgAACAAJ
Goodreads: 32834390
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-01-15T07:43:19+00:00

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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1Baym, Personal Connections in the Digital Age, 5.

2Synchronous affect refers to CMC that enables an almost simultaneous response, and hence, an immediate transmission of affect. As opposed to asynchronous forms of communication, email or snail mail, for example, which depend on the time constraints of the receiver and the mode of transmission, CMCs such as Skype or FaceTime allow for what appears to be instantaneous communication, with only the speed of one’s connection, and the costs to achieve that, being the primary restrictions on the immediacy of communication. The ability to perceive affect and the speed with which it is transmitted often lead users to view synchronous CMCs as “real.”

3Rose M. Kadende-Kaiser, “Interpreting Language and Cultural Discourse,” 121.

4This paper will engage with the work of Homi Bhabha, Benedict Anderson, and Paul Gilroy, among others. Bhabha’s work on liminality is particularly useful in considering the diasporic figure’s interstitial placement between host and home countries, even in a digital age. Similarly, Anderson’s argument about the pivotal role of language in imagined communities provides a fitting starting point for conceptualizing the way nation states coalesce. Lastly, Gilroy’s work on the Black Atlantic configures the theoretical space of the ocean as a possible site of identity for transatlantic figures.

5Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Ramona S. McNeal, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society and Participation.

6Dean, Blog Theory, 38.

7Mauro Santaniello and Francesco Amoretti (“Electronic Regimes,” 370) argue that the “history of digital networks would also be very different without the epochal investment plans made by the US Government since the early 1990s, starting with the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 promoted during the Clinton Administration under the leadership of Vice-President Al Gore.”

8Hardt and Negri, Empire, 166.

9Ibid., 169.

10Ibid., 4.

11Urry, Mobilities, 154.

12Adichie, Americanah, chap. 51.

13Homi Bhabha, Location of Culture, 1–2.

14Jacqueline Bhabha, “Arendt’s Children,” 413. Bhabha describes the plight of migrant children as akin to a semi-human state. Their undocumented status as migrants reflects their perceived unformed status as humans: “Many terms are used to describe members of this population, including ‘semi-citizens,’ liminal or ‘in between citizens,’ and ‘alien citizens.’ […] Child migrants who begin their journeys or residences ‘statefully’ (to coin a phrase) with regular visitor, asylum seeker, or student status, for example, can become irregular by overstaying or otherwise failing to comply with the restrictive requirements of their visas. By doing so, they may lose access to key state protections.” It is precisely these lost state protections that result in the failure to see these migrant children as humans deserving of rights.

15Bulawayo, We Need New Names, “This Film Contains …”

16Brand, Map to the Door, 56.

17Ibid., 61.

18Gilroy, Black Atlantic, 14.

19Ibid., 17.

20Driver, “Virtually Queer Youth Communities,” 230. Driver researches gender, sexuality, and mass media.

21Berlant, Cruel Optimism, 227.

22Turkle, Alone Together, 1.

23Rak, “The Digital Queer,” 175.

24Pybus, “Accumulating Affect,” 240.

25Rak, “The Digital Queer,” 176.

26Bulawayo, New Names, “This Film Contains …”.

27Weinstock, “Respond Now,” 368. Weinstock cites several sources who argue that affect is disabled in email and other forms of

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