The politics of strangeness in Nigeria prose fiction

Abstract

National and transnational human migration have appeared to be inevitable as a result of various situations across countries of the world. These migrants are often faced with double troubles of home challenges and issues of lack of acceptance of and sense of belonging of migrants and other negative impacts in their host communities. Employing the concept of otherness from a psychoanalytical and postcolonial theoretical perspective, this study textually analyze Afolabi’s three short stories (Monday Morning, The Wine Guitar and Arithmetic) in A Life Elsewhere (2007) in order to mirrors the ordeals of migrants and reactions of host communities as represented in the literary text. It is observed that experiences of migrants are diverse as their geographical locations. The study concludes that promotion and encouragement of a culture of positive reaction to strangers will abate the fears, worries and regrets of the migrants.

Keywords: Culture, Migrants, Politics, otherness, Strangers