Rights War in Literature and Culture - From Literary Humanitarianism to Savior Victimism

It analyzes the cultural narratives through which imperialism, white supremacy, and misogyny appropriate rights discourse to pose at once as savior and victim. While literary humanitarianism promotes rights as a contest of victimhood and disconnects international spaces, it explores literary strategies for reimagining social justice.

List of contents

Acknowledgement
Credits
Introduction: Barriers to Indivisibility and Intersectionality in Rights Formations
Chapter 1: The Historical Arc of Institutionalized Racism and Rights in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and Claudia Rankine's Citizen
Chapter 2: Examining Cultural Narratives of Misogynist Ethnonationalism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah
Chapter 3: Reimagining Literary Engagement with State Discourse on Rights in Racially Divided Societies with Zoë Wicomb's David's Story and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's "Wolfpack"
Chapter 4: Second- and Third-Generation Resistance to Neoliberal Imperialism in Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven and Chris Abani's GraceLand
Chapter 5: Raced Configurations of Womanhood and Structures of Labor in Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy and Nicole Dennis-Benn's Here Comes the Sun
Conclusion: Reading in Place: Insights from Alabama's Civil Rights Triangle
Index

About the author

Jennifer Rickel is a Professor of English at the University of Montevallo. She holds a BA in English with honors from the University of California Santa Barbara and a PhD in English from Rice University. Her research and teaching focus on contemporary literature in English, postcolonial studies, human rights, and gender and sexuality. She co-founded and co-coordinates the Peace and Justice Studies program at the University of Montevallo. She has published articles in the Journal of Narrative Theory, Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, South Atlantic Review, LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, and Studies in the Novel.

Product details

• Authors: Jennifer Rickel
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.04.2025
• EAN: 9781032908816
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3290881-6
• No. of pages: 240
• Series: Routledge Literary Studies in Social Justice
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Sociology, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Politics, LITERARY CRITICISM / Feminist, Feminism & feminist theory, Literary studies: post-colonial literature, Feminism and feminist theory, Literary studies: postcolonial literature