Character and worldview in selected contemporary queer prose fiction from East Africa

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the worldview projected through characterization in selected contemporary Eastern African prose fiction. The texts to be studied are: Mark Behr's Embrace (2001), Monica Arac de Nyeko's 'Jambula Tree' (2008), Diriye Osman's 'Earthling' (201O),'Your Silence Will not Protect You' (2012), 'Shoga' (2013), and 'Tell the Sun not to Shine' (2013). In addition, this study seeks to examine the intersection of transnationalism and homosexuality in the selected texts. Through a qualitative approach, the study will utilize documentary research methods. The texts have been selected through theoretical sampling method and will be. subjected to textual analysis. The central presupposition of this study is that queer literary texts from East Africa project homosexuality as an experience that is fraught with fear, repression and uncertainties. Two theoretical approaches underpin this study; queer theory as postulated by Judith Butler, Diana Fuss and Eve Sedgwick among others, and border theory as postulated by scholars such as Gloria Anzaldua, Inge Boer and Walter Mignolo, among others. Border Theory is an important complement to queer theory as both are opposed to the binary discourses that condition subjectivity and are concerned with how this duality can be transcended. The study expects to make a significant contribution by foregrounding voices that challenge heteronormative sexuality in East Africa in particular and Africa in general