Transcending utopia
Understanding the reconstruction of queer African identities and the dialectics of post-utopian justice in Akwaeke Emezi's Pet
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6030311 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maanvender Singh Kadyan (0009-0004-5939-921X, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology Murthal, corresponding author), Dharmendra Singh (0000-0003-0966-6530, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology Murthal) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-13 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14725843.2025.2465492 |
| OpenAlex | W4407384364 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
The scholarly exploration of Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet offers a conflux of intricately woven coalescence of magical realism, queer identities, speculative fiction, and Afrofuturism that fuse to unravel the constructs of identity, morality, and justice in a post-utopian society. Set against the supposedly utopian town of Lucille, the narrative follows Jam, a voluntarily mute transgender individual of African ethnicity who navigates a civilisation that claims to have abolished all evils from the society only to uncover concealed evil within, suggesting a re-evaluation of the society. However, as Foucault elucidates through his discourses on institutions of prisons and hospitals, deeming people as criminal or insane leads to the creation of the ‘other’ as the ‘deviant’. The narrative disrupts this notion by referring to the nonconforming as normative while distancing itself from those who commemorate discriminatory ideologies. This reversal establishes an unprejudiced utopia, challenging societal norms and redefining its conventions. The current study will scrutinise the intricacies of post-utopian intersectionality, focusing on gender, race, power, and coexistence to deconstruct how identity and self-discovery evolve in an ideal society where identities co-exist and thrive. It will also examine the disruption of binaries and the prevalence of justice in a seemingly perfect world
Aesthetics · Criminology · Dialectic · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Queer · Sociology · Utopia · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
The Dialogic Imagination
Histoire de la sexualité, Tome I
The Concept of Law
Sweetness and power
The Lavender Scare
The Concept of Utopia
A Theory of Justice
Utopianism
Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex
Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex
Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation
Sociolinguistic Patterns
Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |