Modernism III | Clarissa's Blog
I'm not that much fixated on realism, but like very dense poetic prose. Marechera's work, BLACK SUNLIGHT, makes me laugh because it is so multi-layered. There's an autobiographical layer, layers of political critique, a layer of Greek mythology and references to other literature, and yet another layer, being the narrative line itself. I think there is also a strong influence of Bataille's VISIONS OF EXCESS in the writing.
In terms of the interrelating meanings, if we understand that Marechera had been threatened to be "sent down" from Oxford if he did not take psychiatric drugs, we can read the narrative of BLACK SUNLIGHT as his exploration of what it would mean to take these when he didn't consider himself ill.
In the narrative line, he splits from himself into "Chris" a photographer, and "Christian" or Pilgrim's Progress, who also descends into the underworld as a black Orpheus. He wreaks anarchistic havoc on the world, but then repents of his actions, which he attributes to "having taken Chris's drugs".
The whole book wonderfully subverts John Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, because the protagonist and his double take a journey that does not end with enlightenment, but with certain knowledge that one has been trapped in "Devil's End". The devil eventually excretes the pilgrim and he looks back on his anarchist mayhem in a more balanced and experienced way. He had not been himself, because he had taken drugs belonging to another.
The final passages of the novel are particularly evocative, philosophical and beautiful. They reflect on the meaning of life -- our differences and interconnectivity.
I'm not that much fixated on realism, but like very dense poetic prose. Marechera's work, BLACK SUNLIGHT, makes me laugh because it is so multi-layered. There's an autobiographical layer, layers of political critique, a layer of Greek mythology and references to other literature, and yet another layer, being the narrative line itself. I think there is also a strong influence of Bataille's VISIONS OF EXCESS in the writing.
In terms of the interrelating meanings, if we understand that Marechera had been threatened to be "sent down" from Oxford if he did not take psychiatric drugs, we can read the narrative of BLACK SUNLIGHT as his exploration of what it would mean to take these when he didn't consider himself ill.
In the narrative line, he splits from himself into "Chris" a photographer, and "Christian" or Pilgrim's Progress, who also descends into the underworld as a black Orpheus. He wreaks anarchistic havoc on the world, but then repents of his actions, which he attributes to "having taken Chris's drugs".
The whole book wonderfully subverts John Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, because the protagonist and his double take a journey that does not end with enlightenment, but with certain knowledge that one has been trapped in "Devil's End". The devil eventually excretes the pilgrim and he looks back on his anarchist mayhem in a more balanced and experienced way. He had not been himself, because he had taken drugs belonging to another.
The final passages of the novel are particularly evocative, philosophical and beautiful. They reflect on the meaning of life -- our differences and interconnectivity.
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