Diasporic patterns: A complex systems approach to the African diaspora

Recent academic interest in the African diaspora stems from the intersection of studies on globalization, critical race studies and other theoretical models. The list of prominent theorists who use the terms of non-linear dynamical systems is quite extraordinary, ranging from Appadurai to Gilroy to Glissant even if the language is not always used in coherent ways. Having formulated a theoretical lens which intertwines post-colonial, globalization theory, and African American literary studies with the language of physics, my dissertation offers a new perspective on Glissant and Gilroy's ideas on the Black Atlantic and "chaos-monde".;My project develops the methodology of complex systems, which originated in theoretical physics and biology and is now a fundamental aspect of informatics, cognitive science, and many data mining approaches, in relation to the cultural system of the African diaspora. By examining the models of resistance offered within the diaspora, newly emerging sites and their quick (and sometimes unfortunate) commodification, I offer a critical approach that allows for the interaction between parts to be as "messy" as we find it in real life, while allowing for a relatively "clean" overview. In the four chapters of my dissertation, I explore the theoretical system offered by complexity and chaos in order to offer a new perspective on our own cultural mappings through theory as well as the form and content of the African diaspora. In particular, I focus on the African American and Afro-German populations. Chapters one and three develop this theoretical frame and place complex adaptive systems theory as a linguistic device and model into dialogue with contemporary theories which inflect our conception of the diaspora. In chapter three, I also utilize contemporary queer theory and Edward Soja's model of Thirdspace as a way of interrogating space and time in ways not often done within diaspora theory. The second and fourth chapters primarily analyze cultural texts through the theoretical frame suggested by complex adaptive systems. While the second chapter is primarily literary, the fourth chapter utilizes computer data mining techniques in order to study the linguistic basis of the Afro-German population.