Janus-Faced Madness in Bessie Head’s A Question of Power

This paper is an attempt to discuss the concept of madness and its differentcauses and functions in Bessie Head’s semiautobiographical novel A Question ofPower. It aims to explore the multifaceted insanity of Elizabeth the exiled coloredprotagonist in terms of different theories. We will see how once a devastatingtrauma turns out to be a habilitating schizophrenia. Head challenges the readers’normalized responses with this controversial concept (i.e. madness) and throws anew light on the capability of apparently silenced and insane people. Withstandingthe long preserved devastating epistemology of the institutionalizing power, sheclarifies that one can avoid being inside a power archive through insanity likeShakespearean fool.

Keywords:

Madness , Schizophrenia , Unreason , Bessie Head , A Question of Power