Abstract Summary
In “Blogging while Black,” Catherine Knight Steele invites us to consider blogs as “sites where black women interrogate the intersectionality of race and gender from a black feminist perspective” (2). Because my project is rooted in English-language literature, I analyze the role of a blog written by the protagonist of Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Americanah. After employing traditional methodologies, such as textual analysis and discourse analysis, to analyze the literary work, I used my analysis of this fictional blog as a lens to further understand and examine the role of real-life digital activism communities, including the blogosphere and the rapidly growing realm of social media. I use this particular literary lens to inform my understanding of bloggings’ dual functionality as a space and tool for marginalized groups of people to negotiate and engage with the complexities of intersecting identifiers, such as race, nationality, and gender. This project explores blogging and social media’s overarching role as an innovative and effective method of activism in 21st century social movements, specifically within communities of color and among women.
