000 01953 a2200205 4500
008 220317b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020 _a9780822370369
082 _a305.48896073
_bWIL
100 _aWilliams, Bianca C.
245 _aPursuit of happiness: black women, diasporic dreams, and the politics of emotional transnationalism
260 _bDuke University Press,
_c2018.
_aDurham:
300 _axii, 226p.;
_bpbk;
_c23cm
504 _aincludes bibliography and index
520 _aIn 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. https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-pursuit-of-happiness
650 _aJamaica
650 _aAfrican American women--Race identity
650 _aUnited States
650 _aRacism
942 _2ddc
_cTD
999 _c56214
_d56214