African Identity Today in the Writings of John Maxwell Coetzee and Ben Silver Okri

African Identity Today in the Writings of John Maxwell Coetzee and Ben Silver Okri is a comparative study of the writings of the South African author John Maxwell Coetzee and the Nigerian author Ben Silver Okri. It charts the thematic and technical presentation of cultural identity in the literary output of both authors, with special reference to their respective trilogies, namely: Coetzee’s Scenes from Provincial Life and Okri’s The Famished Road. Through examining these texts, the book explores the dilemmas faced by many contemporary authors while discussing issues related to the construction of cultural identity in a postcolonial world. Studying Coetzee’s and Okri’s texts from a postcolonial perspective reveals how their very different writings share a range of commonalities. Both authors seek to find a middle ground between colonised and colonising cultures as they attempt to deconstruct the stereotypical images of the Other, creating a world purified of racial influences.