Carmen in Diaspora

Download or read book Carmen in Diaspora written by Associate Professor of English African & African Diaspora Studies and Comparative Literature Jennifer Wilks and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-11-08 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carmen in Diaspora is a cultural history of Carmen adaptations set in African diasporic contexts. Beginning with Prosper Mérimée's novella and Georges Bizet's opera and continuing through twentieth- and twentieth-first century interpretations in literature, film, and musical theatre, the book explores how opera's most famous character has exceeded the 19th-century French context in which she was created and taken on a life of her own. Through this transformation, the Carmen figure has sparked important conversations not only about French culture and canonical opera but also about Black womanhood, community, and self-determination.