The Infinite Longing for Home: Desire and the Nation in Selected Writings of Ben Okri and K.S. Maniam

by David C.L. Lim

The Infinite Longing for Home is a groundbreaking study of Ben Okri’s and K.S. Maniam’s literary problematization of ‘home’ in relation to subjectivity and the nation within and beyond the context of Nigeria and Malaysia. Drawing on Lacan, Žižek, Laclau and Mouffe, and weaving through history, politics, philosophy and literature, this book critically examines the motives and means by which peoples forced to live together in a country love and hate each other, and overlook the truths about themselves, their actions and beliefs. It looks into why some embrace heterogeneity and open-endedness while others are internally compelled to over-identify passionately with their religion and race, and to posit theirs as irreducibly distinct from and superior to others’. The Infinite Longing for Home also traces through Okri’s and Maniam’s writings a The Infinite Longing for Home is a groundbreaking study of Ben Okri’s and K.S. Maniam’s literary problematization of ‘home’ in! relation to subjectivity and the nation within and beyond the context of Nigeria and Malaysia. Drawing on Lacan, Žižek, Laclau and Mouffe, and weaving through history, politics, philosophy and literature, this book critically examines the motives and means by which peoples forced to live together in a country love and hate each other, and overlook the truths about themselves, their actions and beliefs. It looks into why some embrace heterogeneity and open-endedness while others are internally compelled to over-identify passionately with their religion and race, and to posit theirs as irreducibly distinct from and superior to others’. The Infinite Longing for Home also traces through Okri’s and Maniam’s writings a way out of today’s political aporia, a path to the re-creation of a new society humbled and unified by the recognition of its participation in flawed humanity.DAVID C.L. LIM is Lecturer in English at Open University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. His research and writing focus on postcolonial fiction, popular culture, and the discourse on ethics, alterity and freedom in Southeast Asian literatures. Contents Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations ix Introduction xi PART I . NATION(S) 1 Conceptions 3 2 Becoming Nigeria, Malaysia 17 PART I I . BEN THE ABIKU TRILOGY 3 The Famished Road 59 4 Songs of Enchantment 89 5 Infinite Riches 101 PART I I I . K.S. TWO NOVELS 6 The Return 123 7 In A Far Country 159 Conclusion 197 Appendix 1: Synopsis of K.S. Maniam’s Unpublished Novel Delayed Passage 205 Works Cited 209 Index 223

249 pages, Hardcover

First published September 21, 2005

Reviews

[YZ]

Just the parts on K.S. Maniam's "The Return."