Dr. D. Nandi Odhiambo, associate professor of English at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu, authored a new book that addresses the question: How can we understand and relate responsibly to others who differ from us in our everyday concerns?
“The Minoritarian and Black Reason: A Philosophico-Literary Investigation,” Odhiambo’s fifth book, was published on May 15 by Lexington Books. The work uses primary texts and key concepts of European philosophy to discuss a diverse selection of literature from Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” to Dambudzo Marechera’s “House of Hunger,” Odhiambo said.
“In distinguishing between the majoritarian and the minoritarian as two uses of language and methods of thought, the book uncovers the acts of imagination that produced and continue to perpetuate vulgar or scientific and cultural or everyday racism,” he said.
According to the publisher’s website: “The work looks at theories about difference in a variety of philosophical texts and novels from the early modern and modern periods to examine their various approaches to the problem of representational language.”
Odhiambo discusses how these distinct methods of thought present the Black-figure, and critiques how imagined blackness or Black reason willfully looks away from the African presence.
“Hence, the book deconstructs a unified structuralist ontology to propose a line of flight from a model of logic used to objectify and reproduce the identities of people from a varied sphere of political rights,” Odhiambo said.
“The Minoritarian” can be purchased here. Odhiambo is also the author of “Smells Like Stars” and other works.