Stranger Faces
Zambia

Stranger Faces

by Namwali Serpell

Society & Class Essays 2020

Summary

What can a face tell us about a person—and how often do we mistake what we see for the truth? In this thought-provoking collection of essays, Zambian writer and scholar Namwali Serpell examines the cultural assumptions we attach to human faces, questioning why we associate appearance with identity, beauty, authenticity, and moral worth. Moving between literature, cinema, philosophy, and digital culture, Serpell explores a fascinating range of faces: those marked by disability, those that challenge racial categorisation, the faces of the dead, and even the expressive faces we create through emojis. She considers figures such as Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man, and examines how society turns unfamiliar appearances into objects of fascination, fear, or pity. With intellectual curiosity, wit, and a playful approach to serious questions, Serpell challenges readers to reconsider the instinct to interpret other people through their appearance. Stranger Faces ultimately invites us to embrace ambiguity and imagine a more compassionate way of seeing one another—one that does not demand that every face conform to our expectations.

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Country
Zambia
Africa
About the author
Namwali Serpell
Namwali Serpell

Namwali Serpell (born 1980) is a Zambian-American novelist, essayist, and literary scholar, born in Lusaka, Zambia. She studied at Yale University and earned a PhD in English from Harvard University before pursuing an academic career. Her writing is known for its intellectual ambition, formal experimentation, and exploration of race, identity, technology, and the legacies of colonialism. Serpell first attracted international attention with her short story The Sack, which won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her debut novel, The Old Drift (2019), established her as a major contemporary literary voice and received several prestigious awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her later works include Stranger Faces, a collection of essays examining how we perceive unfamiliar faces and bodies, and The Furrows, a novel exploring grief and memory. Serpell is a professor of English at Harvard University, where her scholarship and creative work examine the possibilities of contemporary literature.

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Details
Published
2020
Author
Namwali Serpell