Otherness and Pathology

The Fragmented Self and Madness in Contemporary African Fiction

Andrew Nyongesa

• Publisher: Mwanaka Media and Publishing Pvt Ltd
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781779255785
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781779272645
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Otherness and Madness: Psychological and Post-colonial Reading of Selected Works of African Fiction
• Chapter One - Otherness and the Fragmented Self in Contemporary African Fiction
• Chapter Two - Fragmented Natures in Selected works of African Drama
• Chapter Three - Otherness and Madness in African Fiction
• Chapter Four - Otherness and Madness in African Drama
• Chapter Five - SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
• Works Cited
• Back cover