Otherness and Pathology: The Fragmented Self and Madness in Contemporary African Fiction

By Andrew Nyongesa, Gaita Murimi, Justus Makokha

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1779255780
• ISBN13: 9781779255785
• Release Date: December 2021
• Publisher: Mwanaka Media and Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.3"