Launch of The Disorder of Things : A Foucauldian Approach to the Work of Nuruddin Farah
WiSER and Wits University Press invite you to the Launch of a new Book by
John Masterson
The Disorder of Things : A Foucauldian Approach to the Work of Nuruddin Farah
08th May 2013
6:00-7:30
Speakers: John Masterson (English, Wits University), Achille Mbembe (WiSER, Wits University) and Tina Steiner (English, Stellenbosch University)
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), looking 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.