The pursuit of happiness
Subtitle: black women, diasporic dreams, and the politics of emotional transnationalism
By: Bianca C. Williams
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
ISBN-13: 9780822370253; 9780822370369
Subjects: Travel; African American women; Race identity
Description: The author traces the experiences of African American women as they travel to Jamaica, where they address the perils and disappointments of American racism by looking for intimacy, happiness, and a connection to their racial identities. Through their encounters with Jamaican online communities and their participation in trips organized by Girlfriend Tours International, the women construct notions of racial, sexual, and emotional belonging by forming relationships with Jamaican men and other "girlfriends." These relationships allow the women to exercise agency and find happiness in ways that resist the damaging intersections of racism and patriarchy in the United States. However, while the women require a spiritual and virtual connection to Jamaica in order to live happily in the United States, their notion of happiness relies on travel, which requires leveraging their national privilege as American citizens. The author's theorization of "emotional transnationalism" and the construction of affect across diasporic distance attends to the connections between race, gender, and affect while highlighting how affective relationships mark nationalized and gendered power differentials within the African diaspora.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: "Jamaica crawled up into my soul": black women, affect, and the promise of diaspora interlude; title: More than a groove: pursuing happiness as a political project interlude; title: "Giving back" to Jamaica: community and conflict while traveling with diasporic heart interlude; title: Why Jamaica? Seeking the fantasy of a black paradise interlude; title: Breaking (it) down: gender, emotional entanglements, and the realities of romance tourism interlude; title: Navigating (virtual) Jamaica: online diasporic contact zones interlude; title: From girlfriend, to sistren, to ethnographer and back: lessons learned.