Conclusion

Abstract

The concluding chapter argues that the insight into the relationship between narrative pasts, presents, and futures, which can emerge from comparative readings of African American and Black British writing, has clear and profound consequences for debates which frame the role of historical memory in the African diaspora, as well as in the contemporary moment more broadly. Whether the cultural memory of Africa is addressed in the remembered tradition of African pasts or forms part of the inventiveness of the individual imagination, it speaks strongly to questions of historical returns and haunting, and emphasizes the critical salience of narrative language in these negotiations.