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Abstract Summary The present thesis attempts to probe into the wisdom of madness, or rather the reasons which lead to neurosis as revealed in the fiction of Bessie Head, the South African writer. Many Africans knew that they could change their reality and resist the white master who controlled their lives. Many others however fell victims to mental and psychological disorders which are logical consequences to the horrors of colonial racist regimes. Neurosis can be accompanied with hallucinations when the patient imagines either good or bad things in his mind. Head‟s novels are the most remarkable articulation of such hallucinations and neurotic manifestations. These novels are A Question of Power (1973), When Rain Clouds Gather (1969) and The Cardinals (1993). A Question of Power is an autobiography of Head‟s own life under mental and psychological disorders. Both When Rain Clouds Gather and The Cardinals also feature neurotic characters who barely tolerate Apartheid and exile. In WRCG, Head shows how Makhaya, the hero of the novel, suffers psychologically due to white colonialism. White colonialism causes Makhaya, Paulina and other characters in the novel to suffer from an identity crisis. Head indicates the relation between these psychological disorders and the racism of the white colonialists. QP, the second novel this thesis analyses, is a representation of neurosis. Head is particularly a neurotic patient, and she represents her mental illness through Elizabeth, the protagonist of the novel. The white colonial evil powers are symbolized in Dan, Medusa and Sello, three imaginary characters that appear in Elizabeth‟s hallucinations. They humiliate Elizabeth and oppress her. The Cardinals is the third novel that describes the traumatic effect of racial discrimination on South Africans. Mouse, the silenced protagonist of the novel deals with white oppression by resorting to silence. Mouse suffers from an identity crisis. Mouse is an expressive name for her because she is a submissive and surrendering character. Fanonian criticism is selected in this thesis as the most appropriate frame of reference for studying Head. As a black psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon is able to understand and to deal with black African psychology. In Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth Fanon finds practical solutions for the black crises. In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon urges blacks to throw off their white masks and embrace their blackness (Vottler 70-71).Fanon argues that “The colonised could not „cope‟ with what was happening because colonialism eroded his very being, his very subjectivity” (Loomba 142-43). The white colonizer wants to destroy the African identity and to enslave the Africans. This lead to mental and psychological disorders from which the colonized had to suffer. Bessie Head probes into the logic of “the madness” suffered by her many characters. She portrays such “madness” in the larger context of colonial and racial insanity. Compared to the atrocities of white colonialism and its harsh rules of Apartheid, “the madness” of black people has its own wisdom. Readers of Head‟s fiction, like 144 those of the books of Frantz Fanon can gain a unique understanding of the link between mental disorders on the one hand and the oppressive systems of colonialism and racism |