Crossing the Borders of Genders and Genres: Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater as a World-Making Narrative of Identity Reaffirmation

Within the realm of contemporary postcolonial literature, representations of border-crossing often extend the notion of crossing from boundaries of spatial, political, and identitarian nature to those of genres. A significant instance of such crossings can be found in Freshwater (2018), the debut novel of Akwaeke Emezi, a writer of Nigerian-Tamil origins. Focusing on the ways in which the narrative represents a continuous crossing of borders of genders and genres, this chapter analyses Freshwater through the lens of the so-called normative theory of literature developed by Pheng Cheah in What is a world? (2016). Rooted in Igbo cosmology, the novel can be considered an instance of literature’s poietic capacity. The representation of the physical and spiritual border-crossing experienced by the protagonist becomes a medium through which the narrative challenges the social construct of gendered identities, opening up alternative spaces for the reconfiguration of a borderless, fluid entity. Moreover, the crossing of gendered borders within the novel is extended to a crossing of genres, such as the Bildungsroman, the psychological novel, and autobiography, further contributing to the blurring of literary borders. Ultimately, the chapter demonstrates the relevance of Freshwater as a world-making narrative of identity reaffirmation that goes beyond the borders of Eurocentric cultural frameworks that still embody colonial ideology.