In The Forger’s Tale Stephanie Newell draws on queer theory, African gender debates, and “new imperial history” to chart the story of the English novelist and poet John Moray Stuart-Young (1881–1939) as he traveled from the slums of Manchester to West Africa in order to escape the homophobic prejudices of late-Victorian society.
Stephanie Newell is a professor of English at the University of Sussex, UK, and the author of West African Literature: Ways of Reading, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana, and Ghanaian Popular Fiction: How to Play the Game of Life.
“In Stuart-Young, literary scholar Stephanie Newell has found a
fascinating subject for a study of race, class, and sexuality in
West Africa and Britain between the 1880s and 1930s.... The
intriguing narrative at its center will appeal to a wide range of
readers, while specialists in the history of colonialism, West
Africa, and sexuality should find this study provocative and
insightful.”
*American Historical Review*
“Newell is to be commended for directing interest towards one of
the most fascinating personalities of colonial Nigeria.”
*Journal of African History*
“Beyond being a good read and telling a fascinating story, this
book makes significant new contributions to Queer, African, and
British imperial history.”
*African Studies Review*
“An innovative analysis of a very intriguing figure, The Forger's
Tale is beautifully and accessibly written. It will appeal to
scholars with specialized research interests in imperial history,
sexuality, and Nigeria.”
“Newell casts a meticulous eye over a wide range of sources,
including oral evidence from Igbo informants, to garner insight
into colonial and Igbo attitudes toward non-normative sexuality.
The Forger’s Tale challenges both monolithic conceptions of
colonial masculinity and presumptions about heterosexual,
timelessly homophobic “African sexuality.’”
“The Forger's Tale is an unusual but rattling good tale of Empire,
meticulously researched, truly enlightening, and very funny.”
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