When chaos is the god of an era : rediscovering an Axis Mundi in Ben Okri’s Starbook (2007)

Abstract

The article begins by contextualizing Ben Okri’s concept of reality within a traditional, cultural framework. A brief discussion of the trajectory of African writing and the standard classifications of the mode of the Okri oeuvre as either non-realist or magical realism follows. The argument challenges both appellations in reference to my recent interview of the author (16 February 2011) in which Okri redefines ‘reality’ in terms of the full keyboard of life. The stance, ultimately, eschews classification of a paradise lost and regained, thus avoiding any classification that might contradict the mercurial unfoldment of the Spirit in Starbook (2007). This article proceeds to provide the rationale for the title chosen by quoting from both Okri’s Stars of the New Curfew (1988) and Starbook (2007), and by linking the ideas of chaos and consolation as integral to enlightenment. Short discussions on cosmic consciousness, transpersonal experience, the sublime, the myth of eternal return and what is understood by an axis mundi follow – drawing principally on Mircea Eliade and Gerald Larue and showing how these concepts can be applied to a reading of Okri’s eleventh prose work.