The Pursuit of Happiness
eBook - PDF

The Pursuit of Happiness

Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Pursuit of Happiness

Black Women, Diasporic Dreams, and the Politics of Emotional Transnationalism

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.

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Yes, you can access The Pursuit of Happiness by Bianca C. Williams in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & African American Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Introduction. “Jamaica Crawled Into My Soul”: Black Women, Affect, and the Promise of Diaspora
  5. Interlude
  6. 1. More Than a Groove: Pursuing Happiness as a Political Project
  7. Interlude
  8. 2. “Giving Back” to Jamaica: Experiencing Community and Conflict While Traveling with Diasporic Heart
  9. Interlude
  10. 3. Why Jamaica? Seeking the Fantasy of a Black Paradise
  11. Interlude
  12. 4. Breaking (It) Down: Gender, Emotional Entanglements, and the Realities of Romance Tourism
  13. Interlude
  14. 5. Navigating (Virtual) Jamaica: Online Diasporic Contact Zones
  15. Interlude
  16. Epilogue. Lessons Learned
  17. Notes
  18. Bibliography
  19. Index