Moving Away and Traveling Toward: Urban Mobility in Aminatta Forna’s Autobiographical Writing

Mobility shapes the autobiographical narrative in relational and emotional contexts, as argued in this chapter which examines urban mobilities by different modes of transport in Aminatta Forna’s memoir The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter’s Quest and her essay collection Notes from a Life in Motion: The Window Seat. Autobiographical writing exists in between dichotomies such as truth vs. fiction, self vs. other, and the narrator vs. the persona narrated, and they often emerge through various forms of mobility and its connection with place; in this case, the city. The emotional and relational aspects of mobility are significant, as Forna’s memoir centers on experiences of political upheaval in Sierra Leone, eventually leading to her father’s execution, and on returns to visit family and to seek out the truth. The essay collection is burdened with the past to a lesser degree, and mobility addresses for example questions of race and place but also takes on more leisurely purposes. The various modes of transport in urban contexts capture these differences presented in the two primary texts and become vehicles through which the autobiographical narrative is brought to life and carried forward.