A Critical Analysis of the Intersection between Masculinity and Sodomy in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Novels

Abstract

Masculinity Studies, also referred to as Critical Men’s Studies, is an evolving area of research that is gaining momentum within academia, particularly in contemporary African Studies. Critical Men’s Studies scrutinizes the roles and behaviours associated with being male. The locus of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s narratives draw their craft mostly around men, masculinities, and problematics. The methodology employed in this paper is qualitatively deductive. This enables a discussion in Masculinity Studies that elucidates the multifaceted ways in which masculinity is constructed, performed, and challenged within the African social fabric. Utilizing the theoretical concept of hegemonic masculinities as articulated by R.W. Connell, this paper focuses on the primary theme, the intersection between masculinity and sodomy. Notably, sodomy emerges as a prominent theme in the oeuvre of Gurnah’s portrayal of East African Zanzibar. This study delves at length into addressing how and why adult men and teenage boys glorify hegemonic masculinities, unbridling sodomy on the weaker sections of men, children, and street trodden people. As a secondary aim, this article proposes the conceptualization of sodomy as belonging to the category of male child rape, initiating a study that has not yet been explored in the works of Abdulrazak Gurnah. The primary works for this study are Paradise and Memory of Departure.