Restoring the Kingdom of the Mind: Trans-realism and Transgressing Aesthetic Boundaries in Ben Okri’s Fiction
This paper reads Ben Okri’s The Famished Road in the light of his lesser-known novel Astonishing the Gods, which illuminates his aesthetic aspirations, particularly his desire to alter the way we perceive and interact with the world. Okri transgresses aesthetic boundaries through what he terms “tran...
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| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ces, |
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| Autor Principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
Commonwealth Essays and Studies
2021
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| Acceso en liña: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | This paper reads Ben Okri’s The Famished Road in the light of his lesser-known novel Astonishing the Gods, which illuminates his aesthetic aspirations, particularly his desire to alter the way we perceive and interact with the world. Okri transgresses aesthetic boundaries through what he terms “trans-realism” – a form of writing that he says is both “inside and outside realism,” and which critics have variously called magical, spiritual, sacred, and animist realism. I consider how Okri’s approach engages questions of perception and vision, and how it consistently transcends rigid categorisations. |
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