REMINISCING THE BLANK SPACES OF SOJOURN: SUBLIMATING EMOTIONAL FLIGHTS IN TABAN LO LIYONG’S WORDS THAT MELT A MOUNTAIN

Taban Lo Liyong’s profundity as a prominent writer from East Africa is often showcased by his wilful eccentricity and dogged iconoclasm, which exuberantly dot the lines of his poetry collections. For much of his writing career, Liyong has sustained a cultivated equanimity towards the paradox of bein...

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Published inDiversitate si Identitate Culturala in Europa Vol. 10/1; no. 2013; pp. 177 - 192
Main Author Niyi AKINGBE
Format Journal Article
LanguageGerman
Published Editura Muzeul National al Literaturii Romane 01.05.2013
Subjects
emotional flight
Reminiscing
sublimating
Taban Lo Liyong
the blank spaces of sojourn
wilful eccentricity
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Summary:Taban Lo Liyong’s profundity as a prominent writer from East Africa is often showcased by his wilful eccentricity and dogged iconoclasm, which exuberantly dot the lines of his poetry collections. For much of his writing career, Liyong has sustained a cultivated equanimity towards the paradox of being widely accepted by the budding African literary critics, while being deliberately neglected by the Western critics. His maverick disposition to literary craftsmanship is stridently exhibited in the thematic strands of Words That Melt a Mountain : an unabashed treatment of controversial subject matters; an intrusive and digressive narrative technique; a confident assertive ego; an effervescent erudition in his writing and a disturbing frankness in the treatment of sex. This paper examines how the poetics of Words That Melt a Mountain are grounded in the experiences of Liyong’s sojourn in Japan. It highlights the way in which these reminiscences ferment the interplay of themes which oscillate between an audacious narrative of erotic explorations and a penetrating introspection into African mythopoesis.
ISSN:2067-0931