Goethe Annual Lecture 2020
"Some Kind of Tomorrow": Honouring the Visions of Black Feminist Creative Authors

Sharon Dodua Otoo gave our Goethe Annual Lecture series an impressive inauguration by exploring the structures that have excluded Black feminist authors and talking about their meaning to her, her writing and for the (literary) world.

Goethe Annual Lecture by Sharon Dodua Otoo

The creative writing of Black feminist authors has revolutionary potential. It challenges dominant assumptions on gender, sexuality and race and expands the horizons of the current literary audience by presenting a more nuanced and radically diverse cultural identity.
Yet, Black feminist authors are rarely afforded the patronage, recognition, and critical reception that their white male counterparts receive.

Sharon Dodua Otoo at the Goethe Annual Lecture 2020

Goethe Annual Lecture 2020
The End of the White Gaze

In her talk Some Kind of Tomorrow, the British writer honours her literary ancestors and mentors Toni Morrison, May Ayim, Bernardine Evaristo and Buchi Emecheta. At the same time Otoo condemns the structural deficits and racism responsible for the fact that these very same women writers did not receive the praise they actually deserved during their lifetimes. Otoo’s lecture comes at an important time: the year 2020 was characterised by the Black Lives Matter movement. All over the world, black people took to the streets to fight for their rights and against the discrimination they continue to endure. A discrimination that’s also reflected on the literature scene and in the way Black authors are treated.