The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh (review)

Abstract

160 out. As such, contemporary writers, notably Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Sefi Atta, continue to engage the idea of the state, attesting to its abiding presence, despite its colonial foundations. The predominance of male-authored texts analyzed in Kortenaar’s book is glaring. Some readers may find this jarring, mainly because Flora Nwapa is the only female writer whose novel is analyzed in the book. This gap highlights that many African women, including Ama Ata Aidoo, Efua Sutherland, Zulu Sofola, and Rebecca Njau, had little access to publishing spaces prior to the 1960s, when several African countries wrested independence from their European colonizers. There is also a predominance of West African novelists, which elides the perspectives of how writers from the Francophone, Lusophone, and Arabophone regions imagine relationships between the state and the citizenry. Again, this may be a source of concern for readers. Nevertheless, Kortenaar’s Debt, Law, Realism will resonate with scholars in diverse fields. Interdisciplinary in breadth, the book incorporates insights from economics, political philosophy, history, gender studies, and law, showing how literary studies intersects with disparate disciplines to amplify current debates regarding violence, human rights, capitalism, and sovereignty.