The Disorder of Things

Offering a reading of the Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah through the prism of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, this book argues that the preoccupations that have remained central throughout Farah’s 40 year career—including political autocracy, border conflicts, international aid and development, civil war, transnational migration, and the Horn of Africa’s place in a so-called “axis of evil”—can be mapped onto some key concerns in Foucault’s writing. Farah’s writing calls for a more refined, substantial reading of the world’s current geo-political situation and as such, it both warrants and compels the kind of critical engagement foregrounded throughout The Disorder of Things. This book will appeal to students, academics, and general readers with an interest in the interdisciplinary study of literature. Its engagement with theorists, drawn from postcolonial, feminist, and development studies, set against the backdrop of a host of philosophical and sociological discourses and shows how such intellectual cross-fertilization can enliven a single-author study.