The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism
by Bianca C. Williams
Duke University Press, 2018 Paper: 978-0-8223-7036-9 | Cloth: 978-0-8223-7025-3 | eISBN: 978-0-8223-7213-4 Library of Congress Classification E185.86.W555 2018
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In The Pursuit of Happiness Bianca C. Williams 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. Williams'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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Bianca C. Williams is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
REVIEWS
"Breathtaking. . . . Simply reading this book felt like an act of self-care for me—a breath of fresh air."
-- Erica Lorraine Williams Anthrodendum
"This book will be of interest to scholars in many fields, such as Black feminist studies, transnational and diaspora studies, and the anthropology of tourism and mobility. I particularly want to highlight the book’s contribution to affect studies, given Williams’ careful attention to the ways in which her interlocutors’ emotions are influenced by their racial, gendered, classed, and national subjectivities."
-- Dannah Dennis Journal for the Anthropology of North America
"The Pursuit of Happiness is an insightful and engrossing book about African-American women on topics few readers are privileged to hear about or understand."
-- Jualynne E. Dodson American Journal of Sociology
"The Pursuit of Happiness challenges white-centric understandings of Caribbean tourism, male-centric understandings of black diasporic connections, and youth-centric notions of leisure and emotional fulfillment. Williams's positioning of African American women as agents is especially remarkable. ... [This book] makes a vital contribution to transnational black feminist thought and feminist geography, African Diaspora studies, critical race studies, Caribbean studies, tourism studies, and cultural anthropology by centering black women's emotions and transnational mobilities within these fields."
-- Nicosia Shakes Anthropological Quarterly
"The Pursuit of Happiness is a beautifully written text which humanizes the lives, experiences, and desires of Black women. There are few exceptions wherein scholarly texts examines the experiences of U.S. Black women beyond the borders of the U.S. Williams' work is a guiding light as to how this may be successfully and meaningfully done in future works."
-- Antwann Michael Simpkins Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix Introduction. "Jamaica Crawled Into My Soul": Black Women, Affect, and the Promise of Diaspora 1 Interlude 27 1. More Than a Groove: Pursuing Happiness as a Political Project 31 Interlude 63 2. "Giving Back" to Jamaica: Experiencing Community and Conflict While Traveling with Diasporic Heart 65 Interlude 95 3. Why Jamaica? Seeking the Fantasy of a Black Paradise 99 Interlude 121 4. Breaking (It) Down: Gender, Emotional Entanglements, and the Realities of Romance Tourism 123 Interlude 159 5. Navigating (Virtual) Jamaica: Online Diasporic Contact Zones 163 Interlude 185 Epilogue. Lessons Learned 187 Notes 197 Bibliography 209 Index 221
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If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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The Pursuit of Happiness: Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism
by Bianca C. Williams
Duke University Press, 2018 Paper: 978-0-8223-7036-9 Cloth: 978-0-8223-7025-3 eISBN: 978-0-8223-7213-4
In The Pursuit of Happiness Bianca C. Williams 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. Williams'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.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Bianca C. Williams is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
REVIEWS
"Breathtaking. . . . Simply reading this book felt like an act of self-care for me—a breath of fresh air."
-- Erica Lorraine Williams Anthrodendum
"This book will be of interest to scholars in many fields, such as Black feminist studies, transnational and diaspora studies, and the anthropology of tourism and mobility. I particularly want to highlight the book’s contribution to affect studies, given Williams’ careful attention to the ways in which her interlocutors’ emotions are influenced by their racial, gendered, classed, and national subjectivities."
-- Dannah Dennis Journal for the Anthropology of North America
"The Pursuit of Happiness is an insightful and engrossing book about African-American women on topics few readers are privileged to hear about or understand."
-- Jualynne E. Dodson American Journal of Sociology
"The Pursuit of Happiness challenges white-centric understandings of Caribbean tourism, male-centric understandings of black diasporic connections, and youth-centric notions of leisure and emotional fulfillment. Williams's positioning of African American women as agents is especially remarkable. ... [This book] makes a vital contribution to transnational black feminist thought and feminist geography, African Diaspora studies, critical race studies, Caribbean studies, tourism studies, and cultural anthropology by centering black women's emotions and transnational mobilities within these fields."
-- Nicosia Shakes Anthropological Quarterly
"The Pursuit of Happiness is a beautifully written text which humanizes the lives, experiences, and desires of Black women. There are few exceptions wherein scholarly texts examines the experiences of U.S. Black women beyond the borders of the U.S. Williams' work is a guiding light as to how this may be successfully and meaningfully done in future works."
-- Antwann Michael Simpkins Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix Introduction. "Jamaica Crawled Into My Soul": Black Women, Affect, and the Promise of Diaspora 1 Interlude 27 1. More Than a Groove: Pursuing Happiness as a Political Project 31 Interlude 63 2. "Giving Back" to Jamaica: Experiencing Community and Conflict While Traveling with Diasporic Heart 65 Interlude 95 3. Why Jamaica? Seeking the Fantasy of a Black Paradise 99 Interlude 121 4. Breaking (It) Down: Gender, Emotional Entanglements, and the Realities of Romance Tourism 123 Interlude 159 5. Navigating (Virtual) Jamaica: Online Diasporic Contact Zones 163 Interlude 185 Epilogue. Lessons Learned 187 Notes 197 Bibliography 209 Index 221
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE