The experience of homecoming in Teju Cole'sEvery Day Is for the Thief
An investigation into theothered'cosmopolitan stranger
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2179409 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ángela Suárez Rodríguez (0000-0002-5705-8049) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 789-802 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17449855.2020.1825512 |
| OpenAlex | W3108022661 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 19 |
Starting from the premise that the homecomer is, like the stranger, a subject in a position of displacement and dislocation, this article examines the homecoming experience narrated in Teju Cole's novella Every Day Is for the Thief in order to delve into the figure of the othered"cosmopolitan stranger". It thus brings into dialogue the debate about the nature of "Afropolitanism" and the emerging postcolonial approach to this new category of "stranger". The protagonist's experience in various sites in Lagos shows him negotiating a conflicting sense of belonging and unfamiliarity that finds expression in the recurrent spatial oppositions throughout the text. Importantly, his responses to the urban fragments explore the idea that cosmopolitan strangers are endowed with a "subjective objectivity". However, rather than offering a privileged stance that allows him to see things more clearly, his status as an othered cosmopolitan stranger reveals to him his lasting condition of strangeness
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Cosmopolitanism · Denial · Epistemology · Homecoming · Literature · Novella · Political science · Premise · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Subject (documents · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology · Spatial and Cultural Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
The Globalization of Strangeness
Afro-Cuban Diasporas in the Atlantic World
The Stranger Flâneuse and the Aesthetics of Pedestrianism
The Future of African Literature
Strangers
No Place like Home
The Sociology of Georg Simmel
Of Other Spaces
Making and Unmaking of Strangers
No Condition Is Permanent
What's wrong with globalization
Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture
Homecoming as displacement
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |