RECALCITRANT MATERIALITY An Analysis of Things’ Agency and Human Objectification in By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurna

Sammanfattning

This essay analyzes the interactions between characters and objects in AbdulrazakGurnah’s novel, By the Sea, through the theoretical frameworks of Bill Brown’s thing theoryand Jane Bennett’s thing-power. The present study focuses on the distinction between “objects”and “things”, and the moments of disjunction between these states of being within the colonialand postcolonial contexts of the Indian Ocean. In this analysis, attention is paid to matter-energyformations of entities such as the maps and the ud-al-qamari in their different states.Specifically, the maps’ influence on the interconnected lives of Jaafar Musa and Saleh Omar isanalyzed. Furthermore, through the lens of assemblage, the transformation of the ud-al-qamarifrom an aloe tree into a powerful actant is explored. This investigation is not limited to objects;drawing on Bennett’s framework of instrumentalism, the analysis illustrates how the characterslike Rajab Shaaban and Saleh Omar lose their own vitality and agency, adopting a passivemanner that reduces them to objects to be used by others. By analyzing these interactions in Bythe Sea, this research aims to trace the transition of materiality across the depiction of differentstates of being, demonstrating how “things” take over the characters’ lives and shape the novel’stragic outcome.