Introduction: transnational F(r)ictions: the Word, the Gaze, and the Narrative

The introduction places the book within the transnational framework. It argues for centering works on Africana women’s fiction within their own conceptual logics and in the feminist traditions from which they arise, disclaiming and rejecting any notion of otherness to which they may have previously prescribed. It also argues for the use of the term Africana as a cohering term to the multiplicitous forms of identifications found in the narratives, and as a compositional roadmap to the transnational framework of the book, which allows for the exploration of how similarities and differences intersect in the thematics of the narratives. Such thematics cover issues such as migration, engagement with coloniality, and the postcolonial state; patriarchy and feminist theorizing; ritual and the fantastical; and the quest for unique aesthetic models of creativity.