The Performance of Madness as Resistance in Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame

Loại tài liệu:

Article

Tác giả:

Colson, Robert L.

Đề mục:

Literature

Nhà xuất bản:

Johns Hopkins University Press

Ngày xuất bản:

October 2015

Định dạng:

pdf

Nguồn gốc:

Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, Volume 46, Number 4, October 2015, pp. 1-35

Ngôn ngữ:

eng

Lượt xem:

Lượt tải:

Nội dung

This article explores the representation of madness in Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame (1983) as a performance of resistance against the Somali dictatorship of Mohammed Siyad Barre. I argue that Farah presents madness as a performance rather than a manifestation of mental illness in order to protect those who speak and act out against tyranny as well as their associates and families. The novel’s presentation of these counter-hegemonic performances has implications for the study of narrative representations of dictatorship in Africa as well as for understanding the linkage between the colonial and neocolonial disciplinary attitudes toward resistance fighters in East Africa. In particular, I consider the “Mad Mullah” and J. C. Carothers in light of their contributions to colonial discourse about madness and resistance. Farah’s novel explicitly makes connections between colonial history and Barre’s dictatorial regime, yet the place of madness within that history and the function of madness in Close Sesame have not been adequately explored. In focusing on resistance in Farah’s text, this article also provides a broader reading of resistance and repression in colonial states and neocolonial dictatorships.

Tập tin đính kèm

Loại file Tên file Dung lượng Chi tiết
201504ARIEL1-35.pdf 513482 Kb Xem Tải

The Performance of Madness as Resistance in Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame

THƯ VIỆN ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC HUẾ