"Where the mask ends and the face begins is not certain": Mediating ethnicity and cheating geography in Jonny Steinberg's Little Liberia
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Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
Mixing historical commentary, reportage, biography and personal stories, South
African writer Jonny Steinberg takes up the tale of a fractured African nation and its
diaspora in Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York City (2011). The "little
Liberia" founded in New York's urban jungle may have represented, for many of its
inhabitants, a way to "cheat geography" by recreating a home away from home, but
Little Liberia shows the reader it has not allowed them to cheat history. The book
deals with the lives of two inhabitants of Park Hill Avenue on Staten Island, where
nearly everyone is Liberian. Their conflict threatens to implode the community, igniting
suspicions and accusations that had been bottled up since their exile. The article
focuses on the interface of mediated ethnicity and citizenship related to the struggle
for power in the diasporic Liberian community on Staten Island. Attention is also paid
to feelings of identity of Little Liberia's author.
Description
Keywords
Travel writing, Jonny Steinberg, Liberia, Community
Citation
Nas, L. (2013). "Where the mask ends and the face begins is not certain": Mediating ethnicity and
cheating geography in Jonny Steinberg's Little Liberia. Journal of Literary Studies, 29(1): 33-49