THE POLITICAL UNCONSCIOUS IN AFRICAN FICTION: A STUDY OF FESTUS IYAYI’S HEROES AND CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

Abstract

Interventions have been made by scholars to locate African literary production within the social, political and economic contexts in which they occur. While most Marxist interventions in African literary practice engage African literary texts on mechanical Marxist approaches typical of the rigid application of Marxist concepts of class and ideology, there is a lack of engagement of research on a more dialectical approach of Marxist criticism such as the Jamesian political unconscious. Many research works on Marxist criticism of African literature establish the broad concerns of Marxism by demonstrating the extent to which literary works follow or repudiate progressive politics without any engagement with some of Marxism’s methodologies. This has resulted in ideological criticism of African literature taking place without an accompaniment of their Marxist linkages and critical enquiries taking place in African universities demonstrate that there is an absence of research on the dialectical approach of Marxist criticism such as Fredric Jameson’s ideation of the political unconscious. Using Festus Iyayi’s Heroes and Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun as primary texts of study, this research paper restores a more dialectical approach to Marxist criticism by prioritizing questions of form over questions of content.