Warum muss sich der Mensch aus der Wirklichkeit flüchten...?

Lisa Maria Oberbichler
2014 unpublished
This diploma thesis deals with the question, how imaginative literature can be used in order to initiate moments of critical education. I am interested in the potential of subversive storytelling respectively a deconstructive way of reading, if subalterns should win their voices back and start to participate in the global creation of meaning. In order to approach the object of research, I will focus on the examination of Wizard of the Crow, written by the Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong´o. My
more » ... ce is based on wa Thiong´o attaching language to the claim of social change. Accordingly, Wizard of the Crow was originally written in wa Thiong´o´s mother tongue Gikuyu in order to adopt its oral tradition to the written novel. So he is able to generate comic effects of alienation and to highlight performativity, which, in turn, subverts the universalized western category of truth. It is, however, not only an argument of responsibility on the part of the writer but also a question of the role of the reader. What can and should they do in order to contribute to a social change via language? In this diploma thesis I argue that the purpose of aesthetic education is neither to feel empathy for the subaltern nor the imitation of the postcolonial subject represented in the novel. This diploma thesis shows that aesthetic education should be used in order to initiate epistemological change. If we shift the examination of our aesthetics to the field of the imaginative, we could try to access our modes of cognition and train our epistemological performance in order to change them. Due to the subversive and deconstructive potential of Wizard of the Crow, the novel can further support this project. Reading Wizard of the Crow thereby obviously combines the training of epistemological performance with the representation of the subaltern as wa Thiong´o incorporates de-centered worldviews in his novel.
doi:10.25365/thesis.31755 fatcat:5cqt7pkcqrbgzc7gorfpb6uvvi