Critical Perspectives on Cameroon Writing

21. A Psychoanalytical Reading of Asong’s No Way to Die

265 21 A Psychoanalytical Reading of Asong’s N No Way To Die by Charles Atangana Nama, Department of Modem Languages and Literatures University of Buea Psychoanalytic interpretation of African works of art in general and Cameroonian in particular are rare. Even though psychoanalytic criticism can be traced to Sigmund Freud or even earlier it has rarely been applied to elucidate or explicate works of art to illustrate the multiplicity of meanings which could be found in many of our artistically conceived masterpieces. Consequently, our study intends to convey and promote this school of criticism of Cameroonian works of art. Asong’ s No Way to Die (1993) is unquestionably a psychological novel in the sense that as Wellek and Waren (1949) remind us most of the themes and characters manifest behaviour patterns which are usually associated with schizophrenic characters -paranoids and obsessional neurotics. This does not in any way mean that all the characters in this fascinating novel could be classified into the categories mentioned above. Far from it. However, the majority of them are demented characters. In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan (1978) explicates the pillars of psychoanalytic criticism namely, the unconscious, repetition, the transference and the drive. For the purpose of this study, we shall limit ourselves to the unconscious as applicable to the major characters in the novel. We shall also examine the protagonist; Dennis Nunquam’s divided self or split personality, the dreamlike atmosphere of the novel, oedipal themes, castration and or emasculation, and the relationship between the Id, the Ego and Super-ego or the Subject and the other. Finally, comparisons will be made with other psychological novels. The psychological atmosphere which pervades the world of No Way to Die is essentially due to the divided self or split personality 266 demonstrated by the hero. Dennis Nunquam. In The Divided Self, the British psychoanalyst, R.D. Laing illustrates the characteristics of a patient suffering from schizophrenia. In such a patient’s schizoid condition, there is persistently a scission between the self and the body. This state is usually found in persons who find themselves enclosed in a threatening situation in which there is usually no escape. The only way out is by a “psychical’ (mental) withdrawal into one’s self and out of the body. Consequently, the patient or character is usually imbued with feelings of estrangement, derealisation, and lives in a dreamlike world. Occasionally, the paranoid has specific persecutors, develops a defensive system around him and even develops sado-masochistic tendencies since love with another individual under such circumstances is totally absent. Consequently, the character or patient possesses two personalities, namely the Imaginary Self and the Real Self. Some psychoanalysts and scholars believe that schizophrenia, the illness afflicting Dennis Nunquam in No Way to Die, is as a result of breakdown in the family. However, others such as Deleuze and Guattari in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, believe that schizophrenia is partially caused by a process that undoes the family and engages the individual in a struggle with all the social forces that shape his environment. Both views are applicable to Dennis Nunquam in No Way to Die. From the beginning of the novel, Dennis Nunquam exhibits all the qualities of a schizophrenic. In his schizoid condition, caused as a result of acute poverty, the disintegration of his family and his failure to study art abroad, the protagonist withdraws from society mentally. This psychotic state is aggravated by the fact that his childhood friend and school mate, Dr. Maximilian Essemo who has been more successful in life intends to transform him in existential terms from Nothing into Something. Even though Dennis Nunquam reluctantly accepts to be transformed towards the end of the novel, it is evident that this does not reconcile his Imaginary Self and the Real Self. In fact the transformation process which Dr. Essemo, his wife Manda and his ruthless uncle Pa Andre so desperately require for him aggravates his schizoid condition, ends in abysmal failure and leads him unfortunately to attempt suicide. He develops a defensive mechanism around him and also manifests sadomasochistic tendencies. Manda’s narrative 267 voice underscores this condition of alienation and mental torture when she notes: whether he was even hearing, I don’t know. but what he did after that frightened me a lot. He just left the children behind the house and returning to the veranda ran a knife through...