On interregna
Tejumola Olaniyan and the radical normality of theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13048856 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew H Brown (0009-0000-1520-5111, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 173-185 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the African Literature Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2167-4736 • E-ISSN: 2167-4744 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21674736.2024.2336348 |
| OpenAlex | W4394813137 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
In this brief meditation on Tejumola Olaniyan's theoretical writing, I explore the entanglements between Olaniyan's widely-cited concept of the "postcolonial incredible" and the notion of an "interregnum," drawn from Antonio Gramsci. By reconsidering Olaniyan's use of terms like "overthrow," "presupposed," and "normality," I argue that Olaniyan theorizes the crisis of African postcolonial politics as a crisis of modernity itself. Given that Gramsci used the concept of interregnum to describe a transitional context in which some old order was already dying, while a new one could not yet be born, I ask what it might mean for Olaniyan and the subjects he has researched, such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Femi Osofisan—or indeed any radical activist, rebel, or theorist—to overthrow the transition
Normality · Sociology · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Psychology · Social Psychology
Agency, Performativity, And The Feminist Subject
The Black Man's Burden
The Crippled Giant
Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World
Historicising Agency
The Cosmopolitan Nativist
Let's talk about the interregnum
The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century
Ruling the Interregnum
Power in Africa
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |