"Human Beings Have a Hard Time Relating to That Which Does Not Resemble Them": Queering Normativity in Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon. (3rd May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ncube, Gibson
• Is Part Of: Scrutiny2. Volume 25:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 69
• Page End: 81
• Publication Date: 2020-05-03
• Subjects: queer -- Afrofuturism -- shapeshifting -- gender identity -- futurity; English philology -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Periodicals; South African literature (English) -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa -- Periodicals; 428
• DOI: 10.1080/18125441.2020.1826568
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1812-5441

Abstract

Abstract: In this article, I analyse the ways in which Nnedi Okorafor's Afrofuturist novel Lagoon (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2014) challenges stable and so-called normative identities and ways of being. Lagoon narrates the story of aliens landing in Lagos, Nigeria. Through its presentation of shapeshifting aliens, as well as the use of a plurivocal narrative technique enmeshed with Nigerian folktales and myths, the novel destabilises the notions of stable and fixed identities upon which heteropatriarchy rests. Drawing largely on queer and Afrofuturist theories, I argue that Okorafor's novel imagines alternative futures in which identities and desires are liberated from the rigidity of what is idealised and considered normal. I also argue that Lagoon 's Afrofuturist perspective is unequivocally invested in undoing and working against Western hegemony, especially relating to imagining African realities. I highlight, ultimately, that the reader is integral in the process of creating new African realities.