Nomadic elocution: transnational discourse in Abdourahman Waberi's 'Transit'

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Periodical article

Title:	Nomadic elocution: transnational discourse in Abdourahman Waberi's 'Transit'
Author:	Treacy, Corbin M.
Year:	2012
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures (ISSN 0034-5210)
Volume:	43
Issue:	2
Pages:	63-76
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Djibouti France
Subjects:	boundaries nomads novels
About person:	Abdourahman Ali Waberi (1965-)
External link:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v043/43.2.treacy.pdf
Abstract:	An analysis of 'Transit''s representation of borders and mobility exposes the paradoxical and contradictory nature of national borders in twenty-first century Europe. This paper argues that Abdourahman Waberi's novel challenges and offers a nuanced response to the Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri definition of Empire, exposing the postcolonial nomad's 'infinite possibility' to be one of necessity, governed by class and social position. Specifically, the subaltern protagonist of 'Transit' functions as 'border artist' who subverts the regulatory machinery of the neocolonial nation-State through acts of what the atuhor terms 'nomadic elocution' that unsettle statist border structures while simultaneously and paradoxically rearticulating them. Waberi's text demonstrates that in place of the global smoothness championed by Hardt and Negri, globalization structures itself through centres and peripheries that are deeply rooted in the nation-State and a decidedly colonial calculus. Bibliogr., note, sum. [Journal abstract]