“Black Storm Clouds and a Queer Yellow Light: Reading the Affective Edges of Symbolism in Maru”

My project is to read postcolonial novels that have typically been analyzed as representations of postcolonial politics and instead attend to the nonrepresentational aspects of their language: namely, their affect and literariness. In this talk I focus on Bessie Head’s novella Maru (1971), which itself is concerned with identity, racial prejudice, and tribal politics, as well as representation as mode of signification and figuration, and which has often been read as an allegorical romance. I argue that reading the effect of the novel’s language against its symbolism troubles this allegory and thus appeals for a new mode of politics.

Friday Forum Fall 2016 Schedule:

Fridays 12:20-2pm
Humanities 1 Room 202

A weekly interdisciplinary colloquium series for sharing graduate research across the humanities. Join us for light refreshments and weekly presentations by your fellow graduate students.

October 14th- Mikki Stelder, Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness
October 21st- Kali Rubaii, Anthropology
October 28th- Mitchell Winter, HAVC
November 4th- Hahkyung Darline Kim, Film and Digital Media
November 18th- Sophi Pappenheim, Literature
December 2nd- Nicole Vandermeer, History