ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is the dehumanising and mechanising effect of modernism on humanity through binaries and bureaucracies that are laid down by rational principles poised to ‘civilise’ traditional societies. The end product is the invention of poor/rich, leader/subject, teacher/student, civilised/uncivilised, public/private and man/woman dichotomies that establish oppressive regulations to define relationships. From schools and commercial administrations to political entities, the modernist thought polarises humanity by creation of hierarchies that are enforced to impose leaders on others and encourage subservience to the powers that be. In this chapter, I adopt Martin Heidegger’s views on the dehumanising aspects of modernism with reference to East African prose fiction. Heidegger expounds on how modernism and its technological advancements have mechanised humanity and reduced it into mere resources through rigid bureaucratic principles. In this chapter, I use Heidegger’s postulation to show how modernism causes high-handed governance, overbearing commercial or business employers or landlords, autocratic education administrations and militarisation, and authoritarian parenting in selected works of East African fiction. This analytical study is a close textual reading of the primary and secondary texts while Heidegger (1954) serves as a theoretical framework for the interpretation.
