The Spatiality of Memory: Postcolonial Topographies in Nigerian Diasporic Fiction and the Politics of Place-naming

Project Abstract

This study interrogates how memory spatializes within Nigerian diasporic fiction, revealing how postcolonial topographies are constructed through the politics of place-naming and the erasures, reinventions, and solidarities that accompany translation across borders. Drawing on a corpus of diasporic novels, short stories, and narrative memoirs produced in the post-1990s with substantial Nigerian émigré readerships, the analysis foregrounds memory as a navigational instrument that maps interior psychic geographies onto external landscapes. Theoretically, it engages postcolonial spatial theory, memory studies, and narratology to examine how places—streets, homes, borders, cities, and bodies—are not mere settings but active agents that shape subjectivity, memory transmission, and cultural belonging. The politics of place-naming emerges as a crucial mechanism by which writers negotiate lineage, trauma, and identity, contest colonial cartographies, and reassert authority over discursive space. The research identifies three interlocking modalities of memory spatiality (i) mnemonic topographies that physically inscribe family histories and collective traumas onto migrant landscapes, (ii) hybrid placenames and toponymic reterritorialization that destabilize fixed national geographies through cosmopolitan, multilingual, and translocal naming practices, and (iii) palimpsestic landscapes where present narratives partially erase, revise, or archive colonial memory through archival fragments, myth, and oral tradition. Methodologically, the project adopts close-reading and toponymic tracing, complemented by semiotic and spatial analysis of maps, gazetteers, and digital diasporic networks to illuminate how memory mobilizes space as resistance, memory-politics as identity work, and spatial storytelling as epistemic authority. The study also investigates how diasporic authors represent the home country as a mutable affective terrain, complicating binaries of homeland and hostland by presenting the nation as a layered palimpsest continually remade through diasporic consciousness. In addition, it examines gendered and diasporic difference in the mobilization of space, attending to how women writers, queer narrators, and non-binary figures recalibrate normative topographies to expose marginalized memories and alternative histories. The anticipated contribution includes theoretical refinements to postcolonial spatiality by articulating a calibrated model of memory-grounded topography that accounts for diaspora-specific dynamics, as well as a methodological framework for analyzing toponymic politics across multilingual Nigerian diasporic archives. The findings aim to broaden understandings of how memory sustains solitudes, builds communal ties, and negotiates political sovereignty in transnational spaces, revealing how the politics of place-naming becomes a crucial site for reimagining Nigerian literary imaginaries within global circulations. Ultimately, the research demonstrates that space in Nigerian diasporic fiction is not a passive backdrop but a constitutive, performative field where memory, identity, power, and resistance intersect to reconfigure postcolonial narratives of belonging.

Project Overview

What This Project Is About

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A plain-language overview of the topic and what the project investigates.

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The Problem It Addresses

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What problem or gap this project tackles and why it matters to the field or society.

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Objectives of the Project

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1. Clarify how memory shapes characters’ sense of space in Nigerian diasporic fiction.
2. Explore how place-naming reflects identity, migration, and power dynamics.
3. Show how postcolonial histories influence contemporary storytelling.
4. Develop a framework to analyze spatial memory for future studies.

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What You Will Do Step by Step

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1. Review key novels and short stories from Nigerian diasporic writers.
2. Identify scenes where places and memories interact (settings, names, landmarks).
3. Explain meanings of place-naming using accessible examples.
4. Illustrate how memory without a fixed homeland affects characters.
5. Compare different authors to highlight common patterns and differences.
6. Draft an organized argument linking memory, space, and identity.
7. Write up findings with clear, non-technical explanations.
8. Present implications for readers and for future research.

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Expected Outcome

Hard-to-morrow: A clear, student-friendly analysis showing how place-naming and memory together shape identity in Nigerian diasporic fiction, with practical insights for readers and scholars.