What can a body do? Deleuze, health, and the elaboration of a postcolonial symptomatological methodology

Abstract

Situated at the uncommon but fruitful intersection where health and human development meet literary and development studies, this book tests two propositions: Firstly, that aspects of the contemporary conditions and structures negatively impacting many of those who live in the Global South can be traced back to a colonial heritage. Secondly, this book contends that works of postcolonial fiction can be read symptomatologically. Much in the manner a symptomatological table enables a skilled clinician to better evaluate the details of a patient’s history and health indicators, this methodology renders visible and quantifies the effects of the key relations of force a postcolonial writer has identified as impinging upon what the members of a particular societal group are capable of doing and being. Using features of quantitative formalism, I have developed a common health and capabilities rubric upon which the components of such socio-literary diagnoses can be disaggregated and visually represented. This book is composed of five sections. The introductory chapter situates this symptomatological methodology within the fields of postcolonial theory and development studies. In the second, overtly theoretical chapter I construct this symptomatological methodology by combining aspects of Amartya Sen’s capabilities model of human development with several of Deleuze and Guattari’s key philosophical concepts. I establish that literature is an enterprise in health, and reconceptualise health as the extent to which a society establishes an environment where each person can realise his or her maximum affective capacities. This allows philosophical torque to be applied to an examination of the material conditions present in postcolonial countries. The third and fourth chapters are case studies of Angolan and Sudanese health as diagnosed by prominent writers from each country. Anticipating that few readers will be familiar with either the Sudanese-Arab writer, Tayeb Salih, or the Angolan writer, Pepetela, I briefly situate each of these writers literarily, biographically and historically before commencing the socio-literary analysis. The concluding chapter evaluates the success and limitations of this methodology, and looks to where it might be fruitfully employed in the future.