Horror and Postcolonial Guilt in Abo Rasul’s Unfun

Horror og postkolonial skyld i Abo Rasuls Unfun

Artikkelen analyserer Abo Rasuls Unfun (2008) som et eksempel på rase-horror. Romanen leses langs to spor: 1) et mediespor der Unfun betraktes som en skrekkfilmpastisj i dialog med Carol Clover’s Men, Women, and Chain Saws, og 2) et litterært spor der Unfun vurderes som en postkolonial roman i dialog med Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness (1899/1902). De to sammenhengende sporene tolkes deretter i lys av begrepene kollektiv skyld og postkolonial melankoli slik Paul Gilroy definerer dem i After Empire (2004). Artikkelens mål er å vise hvordan Rasul inkluderer sin skandinaviske leser i vår tids rasisme, imperialisme og globalisering.

Nøkkelord: Matias Faldbakken, rase, skrekkfilm, horror, postkolonialisme, skyld, melankoli

Horror and Postcolonial Guilt in Abo Rasul’s Unfun

In this article, Abo Rasul’s Unfun (2008) is analysed as an example of race horror. The novel is read along two axes: 1) a medial trajectory along which Unfun is understood as a contemporary horror film pastiche in dialogue with Carol Clover’s Men, Women, and Chain Saws, and 2) a literary trajectory along which Unfun is understood as a postcolonial novel in dialogue with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899/1902). I examine these two intersecting trajectories in light of collective guilt and postcolonial melancholia – terms used by Paul Gilroy in After Empire (2004). What this reading reveals is how Rasul ultimately implicates his Scandinavian reader in post-1989 racism, imperialism and globalization.