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"Two small boys stand on a rubbish heap and look into the future. One boy is excited, he is beginning school; the other, his brother, is an apprentice carpetner. Together, they will serve their country--the teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya and times are against them. In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, and the rest of their family, need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical man, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge, the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up"--P. [4] of cover.
This is the first comprehensive book-length study of gender politics in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction. Brendon Nicholls argues that mechanisms of gender subordination are strategically crucial to Ngugi's ideological project from his first novel to his most recent one. Nicholls describes the historical pressures that lead Ngugi to represent women as he does, and shows that the novels themselves are symptomatic of the cultural conditions that they address. Reading Ngugi's fiction in terms of its Gikuyu allusions and references, a gendered narrative of history emerges that creates transgressive spaces for women. Nicholls bases his discussion on moments during the Mau Mau rebellion when women's co...
Inspired by the work of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this collection of twelve essays and two interviews surveys the wide variety of Ngugi's work from his earliest writings to his most recent - including essays, all his novels, and his writings for children. Also included are extensive discussions of Ngugi's writings in English and Gikuyu, his use of oral literary techniques, his tragic exile, and his revolutionary politics.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of Africa’s most controversial and renowned literary figures. This comprehensive study explores the relationship between history and narrative in his novels.
In this collection of scholarly essays on the works of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, one of the most important postcolonial writers alive, the contributors adopt a range of reading approaches and analytical models like feminism, postcolonialism, historicism, formalism, and psychoanalysis, to excavate new meanings and provide fresh insights into Ngugi’s artistic oeuvre. Through some robust and engaging scholarly discourses, the volume animates the politics, poetics, and artistic vision of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, as well as his commitment to the enterprise of decolonisation. The comprehensiveness of this collection is partly illustrated by the fact that it addresses a range of diverse issues in all of Ngugi’s novels, most of his plays, and some of his scholarly works. To this end, the volume is a valuable addition to the body of literature on Ngugi’s works and an important resource material to students, teachers, and researchers of African literature.
Ngugi wrote his first novels and plays in English but was determined, even before his detention without trial in 1978, to move to writing in Gikuyu.
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o is one of the most important contemporary world writers--his name has for many become synonymous with cultural controversy and political struggle. Patrick William's lucid analysis offers the most up-to-date study of Ngugi's writing, including his most recent collections of essays. Focusing on important aspects of Ngugi's more obscure works, and drawing on a wide range of relevant theoretical perspectives, this study examines the growing complexity of Ngugi's accounts of the history of colonized and postcolonial Kenya.
Alongside the impact of his early novels and plays, and his more recent memoirs, these essays give new insights into Ngugi's and other writers' responses to colonialism - there is new material here for students of literature, politics and culture. Renowned worldwide, as novelist and dramatist, Ngugi wa Thiongo's contributions to the body of critical writing on African literature, politics and society have been highly significant. His best known critical work is Decolonising the Mind, which since publication in 1986 has profoundly influenced other writers, critics, scholars and students. These latest essays reflect Ngugi's continuing interests and enthusiasms. His choice of writers is origina...
This volume presents new research and critical debates in African book history, and brings together a range of disciplinary perspectives by leading scholars in the subject. It includes case studies from across Africa, ranging from third-century manuscript traditions to twenty-first century internet communications.
This work examines both the emergence of African literature and its institutionalization within nationalist African academies. Amoko analyzes the relationship between such institutions of literature and the processes of nationalist legitimization and between colonial and postcolonial school cultures and national cultures.