Of Magic : Ben Okri’s The Mystery Feast and The Magic Lamp

dc.contributor.authorGray, Rosemary A.
dc.date.accessioned2020-05-06T07:55:42Z
dc.date.issued2019-10
dc.description.abstractBen Okri does not seem to see African art in terms of “magic,” yet he constructs a magic/science/myth poetics in The Mystery Feast (2015) and The Magic Lamp (2017). In these two texts, intuitive creativity and the magic of being bring about a triangulated synthesis of rational, non-rational and supra-rational domains. In his discussion of magic, James Frazer conceives of two principles of magic: “like produces like” and things once in contact forever retain that influence. As a system of natural law, magic, science and religion form the triumvirate for Frazer. In its exploration of “magic,” this article adopts and adapts Frazer’s views on the nature of magic in his acclaimed The Golden Bough. The approach braids a magic, science, and myth triad for a reading of select ekphrastic prose-poems or “proems” from The Magic Lamp, each a microcosm reflecting a measured and orderly universe. The argument is supported by Okri’s storytelling aesthetics in The Mystery Feast. Each petit poème en prose (“little poem in prose”) in The Magic Lamp is a codification of naturalia and mirabilia (“the natural” and “the wonderful”). The broad framework upon which the discussion is premised is the visible/invisible theory of French philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1928–1961).en_ZA
dc.description.departmentEnglishen_ZA
dc.description.embargo2021-04-01
dc.description.librarianhj2020en_ZA
dc.description.urihttps://upjournals.co.za/index.php/Imbizoen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationGray, R. 2019, 'Of Magic : Ben Okri’s The Mystery Feast and The Magic Lamp', Imbizo : International Journal of African Literary and Comparative Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1-15.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2078-9785
dc.identifier.other10.25159/2663-6565/5580
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/74496
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUNISA Pressen_ZA
dc.rights© Unisa Press 2019en_ZA
dc.subjectMagicen_ZA
dc.subjectJames Frazer (1854-1941)en_ZA
dc.subjectMaurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961)en_ZA
dc.subjectBen Okri (1959-)en_ZA
dc.subjectGolden boughen_ZA
dc.subjectMagic lampen_ZA
dc.subjectMystery feasten_ZA
dc.titleOf Magic : Ben Okri’s The Mystery Feast and The Magic Lampen_ZA
dc.typePostprint Articleen_ZA

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