TERRANCE OBENG
“I want to touch the sky!”
‘Rigor Mortis’ is a structurally experimental short story which attempts to explore the thoughts and feelings experienced before death. My three narrative perspectives are distinguished in terms of tone, tense and typography. I was influenced by Janet Frame’s short story, ‘Swans’, in terms of my focus; the inclusion of a child in my narrative allows me to explore the intensity of the maternal bond, and to show how an impending death forces those concerned to reflect upon what is most important. One of the techniques I use is defamilarisation through typography: the italicised writing serves as a way to take the reader outside current proceedings and into the conscious mind of Maya’s dying father.
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