Reimagining Modernity through Oneness and Mnemonic Myths: A Comparative Study of Ben Okri's In Arcadia and Zakes Mda Heart of Redness

This study explores the agency of Oneness and Mnemonic myths as social-reconstruction tools in the selected novels by Ben Okri and Zakes Mda. “Oneness” is defined as a single, grand narrative which serves as a cognitive mode of understanding the feelings, aspirations, and apprehensions of members of other larger communities. “Mnemonic” is a particular way of thinking, or a way of organizing memories to redesign modern reality either by avoiding the inhumane repetitiveness of history or by creatively appropriating the values of the past. In In Arcadia (2002), Ben Okri draws on common aspirations and apprehensions such as the quest for nationhood, feelings of alienation, identity crises, insecurity, and environmental degradation to create “Oneness” as an archetype which this study identifies as Okri’s imaginative tool for cross-boundary communication. In The Heart of Redness (2000), Zakes Mda engages in recurring historical retrospections such as ancestorship, the Xhosa cattle killing, rape, and child abuse, which this study argues as instantiating “Mnemonics” as an archetype for trans-national discussion. With close reference to aspects of Christopher Flood’s Political Myth (2002), this study situates “Oneness” and “Mnemonics” as the writers’ artistic tools for reimagining modernity. Flood’s theory on myth criticism reinforces this comparative discussion of Okri and Mda as crucial to the literary discourse on trans-national narratives because their novels reveal some progressive humanistic patterns such as regional dialogues, harmonized traditions, social movements, and cultural exchanges, all of which are ways of reimagining modern existence.