Intimations of Futurity: Masculinity and Spatial Representation in African Novels

Abstract

Examining the correlation between masculine representations, spatial reorganization and futurity, this thesis analyzes selected works of four African writers: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Ngugi wa Thiongo's Wizard of the Crow and Nawal El Saadawi's God Dies by the Nile. The study argues that these authors address fundamental questions about the nature of Africa's Utopia and the fact that African literature is forward-looking rather than the presupposed focus on the past. By investigating this claim of retrogressive focus in African literature, this thesis draws on the Postcolonial Literary theory, Bakhtin's theory of the Carnivalesque and Pitt and Fox's Performative Masculinity theory in order to unearth the anticipatory sensibilities deployed in the correlation between masculine representations, spatial re-organization and futurity as alternative ways in thinking about Africa's future. The findings reported in this thesis suggest that there is a relationship between forms of communities and forms of masculinities and that Africa's future is located within the evolution; that the fortunes of the new Africa are premised on polyphony, collectivity and balance.