MADNESS IN BESSIE HEAD’S NOVELS: A PSYCHOANALYTIC READING OF A QUESTION OF POWER AND MARU

Abstract

This paper is a study of madness in Besie Head’s novels, A Question of Power and Maru. Employing Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis which focuses on the treatment of mental disorders by recognising the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious mind, the study shows how Head uses the madness as a strategic tool for revealing the evils of apartheid in South Africa. Head’s novels reflect the problematic situation of children born by South Africans in the apartheid era and the social and political pressures they experienced, which predisposed them to psychological trauma. It is against this backdrop that the author highlights madness as an ingredient necessary for humanity to come to terms with the value of life and self-acceptance. The research found that there is a complex link between living under oppressive, traumatising social and political conditions such as the blacks in South Africa experienced in the apartheid era and a subculture of madness and that madness is a purgative cauldron for inner psychic conflicts. The study thus concludes that the hope for a free, just and prosperous post-apartheid South Africa lies in a combination of efforts made by both South African and non-South African citizens in a global context to right the deep rooted negative effects of racial oppression.