Litnet

You are invited to a
Wits University Press & WiSER Book Talk on The Disorder of Things : A Foucauldian Approach to the Work of Nuruddin Farah

By John Masterson
Speakers:
John Masterson (English, Wits University),
Achille Mbembe (WiSER, Wits University) 
Tina Steiner (English, Stellenbosch)

The Somali-born, Cape Town-based writer Nuruddin Farah is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated voices in contemporary world literature. The author of eleven previous novels, his books have been translated into seventeen languages and have brought him numerous awards. Michel Foucault is revered as one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, with his discursive legacy providing inspiration for scholars working in a range of interdisciplinary fields. The Disorder of Things offers a reading of the Somali novelist through the prism of the French philosopher. The book argues that the preoccupations that have remained central throughout Farah’s forty year career, including political autocracy, female infibulation, border conflicts, international aid and development, civil war, transnational migration and the Horn of Africa’s place in a so-called ‘axis of evil’, can be mapped onto some key concerns in Foucault’s writing. As such, Masterson’s book offers the first theoretically substantial reading of one of the most respected of contemporary world authors.
The Disorder of Things analyses Farah’s most recent work, including Knots (2007) and Crossbones (2011) and looks at how and why it corresponds with the provocative non-fiction Farah has published in recent years. This includes his study of the Somali diaspora, alongside his numerous interventions as a journalist and commentator on events in the Horn of Africa.

When: Wednesday 8th May at 6pm-7:30pm
Where: Wits Institute for Social & Economic Research (WISER), 
6th Floor, Richard Ward Building at WiSER, 
Wits University, East Campus
Find a map to WiSER here
Link to WiSER here
RSVP: by Tuesday 7th May to corina.vanderspoel@wits.ac.za
Books will be on sale at the event
If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please email corina.vanderspoel@wits.ac.za
For more info about Wits University Press Books, go to www.witspress.co.za

About the book:

It is extremely exciting to see John Masterson’s thoroughgoing critical engagement with the work of the leading African writer Nuruddin Farah come into the world, especially a study that does proper justice to the writer’s expansive oeuvre, his political complexity, his preoccupations with body politics in and of the nation, and his fi ne attention to style. No Africanist should be without this masterful study.
— Elleke Boehmer, University of Oxford

In both the colonial past and the postcolonial present, Somalia is typically represented as an incubator of disorder: whether in relation to internecine confl ict, international terrorism or contemporary piracy. Through his work, both fictional and non-fictional, Farah strives to present alternative stories to an expanding global readership. The Disorder of Things analyses the politics and poetics that underpin this literary project, beginning with Farah’s first fictional cycle, Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship (1979-1983), and ending with his Past Imperfect trilogy (2004-2011), which includes his latest novel, Crossbones. Farah’s writing calls for a more refined, substantial reading of our current geo-political situation. As such, it both warrants and compels the kind of critical engagement foregrounded throughout The Disorder of Things.

About the author:

John Masterson is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has published work on a range of writers, including Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kiran Desai, Dave Eggers and Abdulrazak Gurnah, and on topics, including the Rwandan genocide and postcolonial conflict.