Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation

Focusing primarily on the work of Samuel Beckett, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, and J. M. Coetzee, Ato Quayson launches a thoroughly cross-cultural, interdisciplinary study of the representation of physical disability. Quayson suggests that the subliminal unease and moral panic invoked by the disabled is refracted within the structures of literature and literary discourse itself, a crisis he terms "aesthetic nervousness." The disabled reminds the able-bodied that the body is provisional and temporary and that normality is wrapped up in certain social frameworks. Quayson expands his argument by turning to Greek and Yoruba writings, African American and postcolonial literature, depictions of deformed characters in early modern England and the plays of Shakespeare, and children's films, among other texts. He considers how disability affects interpersonal relationships and forces the character and the reader to take an ethical standpoint, much like representations of violence, pain, and the sacred. The disabled are also used to represent social suffering, inadvertently obscuring their true hardships.

Literature & Fiction

Quayson, Ato

History & Criticism

Columbia University Press

Focusing primarily on the work of Samuel Beckett, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, and J. M. Coetzee, Ato Quayson launches a thoroughly cross-cultural, interdisciplinary study of the representation of physical disability. Quayson suggests that the subliminal unease and moral panic invoked by the disabled is refracted within the structures of literature and literary discourse itself, a crisis he terms "aesthetic nervousness." The disabled reminds the able-bodied that the body is provisional and temporary and that normality is wrapped up in certain social frameworks. Quayson expands his argument by turning to Greek and Yoruba writings, African American and postcolonial literature, depictions of deformed characters in early modern England and the plays of Shakespeare, and children's films, among other texts. He considers how disability affects interpersonal relationships and forces the character and the reader to take an ethical standpoint, much like representations of violence, pain, and the sacred. The disabled are also used to represent social suffering, inadvertently obscuring their true hardships.

"... a sophisticated and thoughtful study." ―Leeds African Studies Bulletin
"A very impressive work... in the concreteness of its research documentation as well as in its theoretical scope, this study brings a truly innovative dimension to African literary scholarship, and indeed to the whole field of African studies." ―Abiola Irele, Ohio State University
"The discussion reveals a combination of formidable analytical and critical strength with a refreshingly open-minded and sensible approach to his field." ―Karin Barber, University of Birmingham

Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing: Orality and History in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Ben Okri

Indiana University Press

"... a sophisticated and thoughtful study." ―Leeds African Studies Bulletin"A very impressive work... in the concreteness of its research documentation as well as in its theoretical scope, this study brings a truly innovative dimension to African literary scholarship, and indeed to the whole field of African studies." ―Abiola Irele, Ohio State University"The discussion reveals a combination of formidable analytical and critical strength with a refreshingly open-minded and sensible approach to his field." ―Karin Barber, University of Birmingham

Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing: Orality & History in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka & Ben Okri

Indiana Univ. Pr

Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process?

This important new book provides a critical introduction to the rapidly expanding field of postcolonial studies.

Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice, or Process?

Polity Pr

This important new book provides a critical introduction to the rapidly expanding field of postcolonial studies.

Polity

Calibrations: Reading for the Social

Proposes an entirely new socially and politically conscious way of reading. Ato Quayson explores a practice of reading that oscillates rapidly between domains--the literary-aesthetic, the social, the cultural, and the political--in order to uncover the mutually illuminating nature of these domains. He does this not to assert the often repeated postmodernist view that there is nothing outside the text, but to outline a method of reading he calls calibrations: a form of close reading of literature with what lies beyond it as a way of understanding structures of transformation, process, and contradiction that inform both literature and society. Quayson surveys a wide array of texts--ranging from Bob Marley lyrics, Toni Morrison's work, Walter Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History, and Althusser's reflections on political economy--and treats a broad range of themes: the comparative structures of alienation in literature and anthropology, cultural heroism as a trope in African society and politics, literary tragedy as a template for reading the life and activism of Ken Saro-Wiwa, trauma and the status of citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa, representations of physical disability, and the clash between enchanted and disenchanted time in postcolonial texts.

Univ. of Minnesota Press

Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism

In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana's capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra's most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city's evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra's salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards. Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city—and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s—prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today.

History

Africa

Duke University Press Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Quayson, Ato. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Quayson, Ato

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Quayson, Ato. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation

Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation

Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing: Orality and History in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka and Ben Okri

Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing: Orality & History in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka & Ben Okri

Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice, or Process?

Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process?

Calibrations: Reading for the Social

Calibrations: Reading for the Social

Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism

Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism