“Is it possible to do Postmodern Philosophy Unbeknownst?”
On Sophie Oluwole’s and Maulana Karenga’s “Deconstruction” of the Ifá Literary Corpus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20220459 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emmanuel Ofuasia (0000-0002-2028-6005, Lagos State University), Oladipupo Sunday Layi (Aga Khan Foundation) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 83-106 |
| Publication date | 2021-10-18 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophia Africana (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1539-8250 • E-ISSN: 1944-7914 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/philafri.20.2.0083 |
| OpenAlex | W4285355229 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 18 |
This article takes its inspiration from Jacques Derrida to consider how deconstructionism can be done inadvertently. This possibility is underscored when one considers how a very significant phrase in Ifá texts— “A díá fún . . .” has been construed away from its transliteration as “Ifá divination was performed for . . .” by each of Oluwole and Karenga. Oluwole justifies her “deconstruction” on the grounds that such transliteration does not capture the philosophic cogs gravid within Ifá verses. Karenga, through his Kawaida methodology, “improvises” to suit the ethical inferences he seeks to deduce out of the corpus. On this showing, this research infers that each of these scholars have engaged in a reflective activity that passes, on Derrida’s reading, as deconstruction, unbeknownst to them. Would they admit that their intellectual drudgeries amount to postmodern philosophy? This is the primary research question that this disquisition interrogates
Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Postmodernism · African cultural and philosophical studies · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism
A Brief History of Time
African Philosophy, Second Edition
Epistemologies of the South
Education and Experience
Writing and Difference
Intimations of Postmodernity
The Microstructure of Logocentrism
Deconstruction the end of writing
Philosophical Hermeneutics
African Philosophy in Search of Identity
The Epistemic Decolonial Turn
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |