This book explores the significance of corporeality in literature through a "South-South" comparison of the works of Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez and Congolese author Sony Labou Tansi. It argues that the body constitutes a basic trope not only in imagining postcolonial power relations but also our (non) being-in-the-world. Organized thematically, the chapters compare these authors' novels in relation to the dehumanised body, bodies of war, the dead body, the body in relation to bureaucracy, and the dictator's body. It taps into the growing critical interest in bringing Latin American and African literatures into conversation.

Gilbert Shang Ndi is Heisenberg Professor of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany.