The algorithmic age of personality : African literature and cancel culture / James Yékú.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yékú, James, author.

Series:

African humanities and the arts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African literature--Social aspects.

African literature.

African literature--Appreciation.

Authors, African--Public opinion.

Authors, African.

Literature and society--Africa.

Literature and society.

Cancel culture.

Social media.

social media.

Physical Description:

xlix, 206 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"In James Yékú's The Algorithmic Age of Personality: African Literature and Cancel Culture, the affordances of authorship and reading practices on social media are best understood as intensely mediated by algorithmic curations that encourage closer attention to the author's personality as fundamental to literary production. This book challenges utopian framings of the digital world by exploring how algorithms engender a culture of outrage, conflict, and personality-driven battles that distract from aesthetic considerations of literary texts. In Yékú's careful attention to how contemporary African literary practices are significantly marked by the extractivist and affective logics of social media algorithms, he articulates the current state of debating in the critical universe of African literature and connects this to the phenomenon of "cancel culture." Rather than a Manichean understanding of cancel culture, Yékú demonstrates how the politics of both conservative and liberal polarization imbricates to shape what can or cannot be said in online commentaries on African literary forms. The outcome is a work that situates postcolonial classics by Chinua Achebe and Joseph Conrad in online debates on cancel culture and decolonization, while responding to social media discussions on Western literary prizes, ethnicity, and sexuality involving writers like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Chimamanda Adichie"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781611865332

1611865336

OCLC:

1456754454