Art, Freedom and the Precariousness of Postmodernity: A Reading of Ben Okri’s "A Way of Being Free" (1997) and "The Freedom Artist" (2019)

Drawing upon Ben Okri’s theorization on the function of art, this article offers a comparative analysis of his collection of essays "A Way of Being Free" (1997) and his recent novel "The Freedom Artist" (2019). Written in different moments of Okri’s career, these two works show the centrality of meta-artistic discourses in his fictional and non-fictional production, which invites artists to rethink their role in the precarious times of postmodernity. Closely connected with these meta-artistic discourses is a reflection on the idea of freedom and the various meanings it acquires in today’s world. As "The Freedom Artist" suggests, in a world like ours, dominated by an all-pervasive capitalistic system and marked by an anomic proliferation of forms, people are growingly deprived of their liberties and art itself is at risk of losing its regenerative power.