In the novel, poetry becomes a medium for countering the silencing of the disabled body, challenging hegemonic masculinities, as well as a way of articulating nationalist sentiment.

Through such an approach, it becomes evident that the portrayal of disability in the novel is a statement against what Tobin Siebers calls the ideology of ability. The approach of the paper is to examine how Aboulela problematizes the conception of disability as a marginal space, through highlighting how this space potentially becomes one that allows for fresh ways of reading masculinity, nationalism and poetic creativity. Loosely based on a true story, the novel traces the life-changing experiences of a young man rendered quadriplegic through a diving accident. Aboulela's Lyrics Alley offers an opportunity not only for testing the some of the key notions in the discipline, but also for exploring how the literary mode can be presented as an enabling tool for countering marginalization. With Mahmoud Bey at its helm, they can do no wrong. Their fortune threatened by shifting powers in Sudan and their heir’s debilitating accident, a powerful family under the leadership of Mahmoud Bey is torn between the traditional and modern values of Mahmoud’s two wives and his son’s efforts to break with cultural limits. In 1950s Sudan, the powerful Abuzeid dynasty has amassed a fortune through their trading firm.

The field of Disability Studies, through globally recognized, rarely takes African fiction as material for analysis. Lyrics Alley is the evocative story of an affluent Sudanese family shaken by the shifting powers in their country and the near-tragedy that threatens the legacy theyve built for decades.

Lyrics alley