Violence: Bodily Commodification and Resistance in Festus Iyayi’s Novel
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Abstract
Published in 1979, Violence takes place in the Nigerian city of Benin, during the oil boom of the 1970s. The story follows two married couples, who represent both ends of the social spectrum, and whose paths cross as they overcome diverse obstacles. Iyayi’s novel constitutes a Marxist critique of the violence of poverty and extreme inequality. Violence shows how certain human bodies are systematically objectified and exploited, while those that do not generate profit are discarded without a trace of humanity.
From the perspective of urban ecocriticism, this paper examines instances of bodily commodification in the novel and, specifically, of commodification of human energy and matter understood as natural resources. The study suggests that Iyayi not only critiques this commodification by presenting it as a consequence of the capitalist project, but also challenges it through acts of caring resistance which return objectified bodies their status as subjects. These acts of caring resistance constitute a way of rejecting the artificial separation of Humanity and Nature, contained in the dualism of mind and body, that has historically justified (neo)colonial capitalist exploitation and expropriation. The present paper thus contributes to the field of postcolonial studies, as well as urban ecocriticism and African literatures, focusing on a relatively ignored work and on issues that are still extremely relevant for contemporary Nigeria.
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