ISBN 9781779255785
Pages 160
Dimensions 210 x 148mm
Published 2021
Publisher Mwanaka Media and Publishing, Zimbabwe
Format Paperback

Otherness and Pathology

The Fragmented Self and Madness in Contemporary African Fiction

by Murimi Gaita, Wanjohi wa Makokha, Andrew Nyongesa

Scholars have problematized otherness and madness in diverse ways. There are those who hold that otherness is madness in itself of which leading voices are Michel Foucault and Gregory Reid. Other scholars contradict these voices and single out madness as a clinical condition that arises from strands of othering such as political, gender, class, age and racial. Frantz Fanon is the leading voice of this school of thought that demonstrates how othering destroys the psyche of the marginalised groups. This book extends Fanon's thesis with regard to madness in selected works of African fiction. Whereas Fanon stops at conceptualisation of the nexus between othering and madness, in this book, the authors incorporate the fragmented self, which is equally disabling.

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About the Authors

Murimi Gaita

Dr Murimi Gaita is a lecturer in the Department of Literature, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Nakuru Campus, Kenyatta University. He is a prolific literary critic and Deputy Director of Kenyatta University (Nakuru Campus). His recent published work is “Anatomy of Contemporary Story Telling: Performing National Culture in Kenya (2018)”.

Wanjohi wa Makokha

Dr. Justus. Kizito Makokha is based in the Department of Literature, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Kenyatta University. He is a widely published literary critic and editor of several volumes on literary criticism. His most recent work is Cultural Archives of Atrocities: Essays on the Protest Tradition in Kenyan Literature, Culture and Society (2019) co-edited with Dr. C. A. Kebaya and Prof. C. K. Muriungi. He is a poet. Nest of Stones (2010) is his debut book of verse. He serves on advisory boards of several peer reviewed journals including, Journal of Somali Studies (JOSS). His research interests include literary theory, diaspora and gender studies in Anglophone literature. He is also interested in media and society in Africa. He is a columnist for the Star Newspaper in Kenya.

Andrew Nyongesa

Andrew Nyongesa is a Kenyan novelist and teacher with great passion for English language and literature. Some of his published works are Worms in the Lounge (2012), The Rise of Rodedom (2013) and The Endless Battle (2016); all of which spin around postcolonial theory - the struggle of the underdog to subvert the values of the dominant group.