Nuruddin Farah, Sardines

F. Fiona Moolla (University of the Western Cape)

Ed. by Helen Rachel Cousins, Birmingham Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester), Alex Nelungo Wanjala (University of Nairobi)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1981

Places

Somalia (Country of Origin)
United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Nuruddin Farah’s

Sardines

is the second novel of the Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship Trilogy, begun with

Sweet and Sour Milk

(1979), and concluded with

Close Sesame

(1983). It is also the novel that establishes the pattern in the two subsequent trilogies (Blood in the Sun and Past Imperfect) of a central foregrounding of female consciousness, flanked by novels focused on male subjectivities. In addition, it establishes the pattern in each of Farah’s three completed trilogies of an extended exploration of a predominant theme, with recurring characters and networks of ideas extending across the entire trilogy.

Summary

Summary

Sardines is largely focalised through its heroine, Medina, a brilliant, beautiful, cosmopolitan intellectual who is a writer, translator, and

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1344 words

Citation: Moolla, F. Fiona. "Sardines". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=30486, accessed 23 November 2024.]