This thesis examines Ngugi wa Thiong'o's later writings in order to establish the nature of his quest for a people's literature. It illustrates how the author attempts to break the barriers between traditional oral forms and the relatively new written forms in addressing a basically "illiterate" audience. The research begins with an exploration of Gikuyu oral literature as an essential background to Ngugi's later dramatic and fictional writings as distinct from his earlier literary works in which he initiates the dominant quest for a more just society. Ngugi's return to these roots constitutes the central "homecoming" that characterizes his search for new forms. The analysis is conducted through three significant chronological stages representing Ngugi's writings over a period of about a decade from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Each stage starts with a play and performance followed by a parallel novel, the first pair written in English and the subsequent ones in Gikuyu. The three stages - designated Transition, Homecoming and Realization - mark Ngugi's involvement in the promotion of Gikuyu culture and orature, both as a source of inspiration and as a cause to which he fully dedicates himself. The transitional stage depicts the convergence between conventional and traditional oral literary forms with which Ngugi begins to experiment. The second stage introduces significant departures as Ngugi begins to use the Gikuyu language as his primary medium of creative expression. The final stage demonstrates his ultimate assertion of the primacy of orality over the written word as a dynamic agent of transmission. The thesis concludes that Ngugi wa Thiong'o in these later works - while leaving the possibilities of his vision of a "New Earth" unfulfilled pioneers the African writers' climb down from an "ivory tower" to deal with the realities of the experience of the predominantly non-reading African masses, acknowledged as both recipients of and active participants in the relatively new written literature which purports to speak for their experiences and their times.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In this study I focus on how Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s fiction portrays his socio-political vision through the prevalence of the intimate relationships it displays. The study critically analyses the significant role romantic love and friendship play in the novels The River Between (1965), Weep Not, Child (1964), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1982), Matigari (1987) and Wizard of the Crow (2006) against the backdrop of Ngũgĩ’s other fiction, plays and non-fiction. Ngũgĩ identifies himself as a Marxist, anti-colonialist/imperialist, and anti-capitalist writer, for whom there is no contradiction between aesthetic and political missions. The aesthetic and political projects take form through the representation, very importantly, of romantic love in his fiction. The significance of eros, which is clear in the fiction, is not, however, present in Ngũgĩ’s theoretical reflections on his writing as formulated in his essays. In Ngũgĩ’s early novels, we see love attempting to break the boundaries of religion and class in the creation of a modern nation-state. But there are obstacles to these attempts at national unity through love, the only relationship apart from friendship that is self-made, and not determined by kinship relations. In the fiction from the middle of Ngũgĩ’s career, we see romantic love consummated in marriage. The achievement of unity is, however, undercut by betrayal, which is a repeated theme in all the novels. The “betrayal” of the ideal of romantic love by materialism is the most significant threat to love. Friendship emerges in one of the later novels as a kind of “excursus” to romantic love that foregrounds, by default, the ways in which Ngũgĩ’s political vision seeks be consolidated through the personal relationship of romantic love. In Ngũgĩ’s final novel, we see his personal and political visions coming together in a utopian erotic union for first time. Because of the nature of the exploration, which aims at opening up the wider significance of eros, the study is not framed by a dominant theory, most of which would lead to understanding eros through gender and power relations. Instead, the study has been framed through concepts and debates on romantic love that emerge in sociology, anthropology, philosophy and literary history.

This dissertation examines Breyten Breytenbach‟s memoir Dog Heart, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong‟o‟s novel Matigari, with particular attention to the use of a mother tongue or another language in the texts, and whether these reflect or impact on the writers‟ sense of personal, cultural and political identity. It compares and contrasts the authors‟ views on, and experiences of, culture, language, translation and exile, and whether these aspects appear in the two primary works. Dilemmas associated with the authors‟ choice of language in their creative works, preferred audiences, and affiliations to their mother tongue speech communities are also explored. By drawing on Breytenbach‟s and Ngũgĩ‟s diverse stances on these issues, and following their respective publishing decisions, it is hoped an interesting conversation is created between these significant political activists and their writing. / English Studies / M.A. (English literature)

This dissertation examines Breyten Breytenbach‟s memoir Dog Heart, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong‟o‟s novel Matigari, with particular attention to the use of a mother tongue or another language in the texts, and whether these reflect or impact on the writers‟ sense of personal, cultural and political identity. It compares and contrasts the authors‟ views on, and experiences of, culture, language, translation and exile, and whether these aspects appear in the two primary works. Dilemmas associated with the authors‟ choice of language in their creative works, preferred audiences, and affiliations to their mother tongue speech communities are also explored. By drawing on Breytenbach‟s and Ngũgĩ‟s diverse stances on these issues, and following their respective publishing decisions, it is hoped an interesting conversation is created between these significant political activists and their writing. / English Studies / M.A. (English literature)

In this study I identify and argue for hybridity as a common feature in four postcolonial texts, namely Femi Abodunrin’s It Would Take Time, Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s Masks, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Mvona’s An Arrow from Maraka. The study advances that when two or more cultures encounter one another hybridity affects the new emergent culture socially, linguistically, historically and politically. Employing Homi Bhabha’s interrelated terms, notably ambivalence, mimicry, liminality, the third space, in-between space and interstitial space —all of which gesture towards the concept of hybridity, the study explains the emergence of corresponding and equally complex identities in the postcolonial world. With a specific reference to Africa, the study establishes that postcolonial discourse is not as transparent because hybridity does not necessarily mean coming up with completely new aspects of Africa but it implies coming up with mixed cultures since different histories and cultures affect each other in order to come up with a new brand. As such the study concludes that hybridity is opposed to cultural purity and the assumed status quo. In this dissertation I therefore argue for hybridity as a solution to identity crisis because the new personality displays different traces which, in the words of Homi Bhabha, are called “transcultural identities” and such a plurality of identities leads to the production of hybrid personalities and cultures. Such transcultural forms within the contact zone, which Bhabha calls the “in-between space,” carry the burden and meaning of the new cultures that emerge in the postcolonial condition. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This dissertation contends that The Tempest by William Shakespeare plays a seminal role in the development of postcolonial literature and criticism because it was created in a moment when the colonial system that was now falling apart was just beginning to come into being. Creative writers and critics from the Third World, particularly Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, and the First found that the moment reflected in The Tempest had something very specific to say to a generation coming of age in the postcolonial world of the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. I establish that a significant discourse that begins in the Nineteenth Century and intensifies in the Twentieth depends on The Tempest to explore the nature of colonialism and to develop an understanding of the postcolonial world. I then examine the role theories of adaptation play in understanding why The Tempest assumes such a crucial role and determine that the most useful model of adaptation resembles the method developed by biblical typologists which “sets two successive historical events [or periods] into a reciprocal relation of anticipation and fulfillment” (Brumm 27). I ague that postcolonial writers and critics found in The Tempest evidence of a history of colonial oppression and resistance often obscured by established historical narratives and a venue to explore their relationship to their past, present, and future. Because my argument rests on the contention that The Tempest was created in a world where colonialism was coming into being, I explore the historical context surrounding the moment of the play’s creation and determine, in spite of the contention of many historians and some literary critics to the contrary, the forces bringing colonialism into being were already at play and were having a profound effect. After briefly illustrating the historical roots of several popular themes in The Tempest that postcolonial writers have embraced, I turn to the work of writers and critics from the Third World and the First to show how The Tempest plays a significant role in postcolonial studies.

This dissertation contends that The Tempest by William Shakespeare plays a seminal role in the development of postcolonial literature and criticism because it was created in a moment when the colonial system that was now falling apart was just beginning to come into being. Creative writers and critics from the Third World, particularly Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, and the First found that the moment reflected in The Tempest had something very specific to say to a generation coming of age in the postcolonial world of the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. I establish that a significant discourse that begins in the Nineteenth Century and intensifies in the Twentieth depends on The Tempest to explore the nature of colonialism and to develop an understanding of the postcolonial world. I then examine the role theories of adaptation play in understanding why The Tempest assumes such a crucial role and determine that the most useful model of adaptation resembles the method developed by biblical typologists which “sets two successive historical events [or periods] into a reciprocal relation of anticipation and fulfillment” (Brumm 27). I ague that postcolonial writers and critics found in The Tempest evidence of a history of colonial oppression and resistance often obscured by established historical narratives and a venue to explore their relationship to their past, present, and future. Because my argument rests on the contention that The Tempest was created in a world where colonialism was coming into being, I explore the historical context surrounding the moment of the play’s creation and determine, in spite of the contention of many historians and some literary critics to the contrary, the forces bringing colonialism into being were already at play and were having a profound effect. After briefly illustrating the historical roots of several popular themes in The Tempest that postcolonial writers have embraced, I turn to the work of writers and critics from the Third World and the First to show how The Tempest plays a significant role in postcolonial studies.

In this study I identify and argue for hybridity as a common feature in four postcolonial texts, namely Femi Abodunrin’s It Would Take Time, Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s Masks, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari and Mvona’s An Arrow from Maraka. The study advances that when two or more cultures encounter one another hybridity affects the new emergent culture socially, linguistically, historically and politically. Employing Homi Bhabha’s interrelated terms, notably ambivalence, mimicry, liminality, the third space, in-between space and interstitial space —all of which gesture towards the concept of hybridity, the study explains the emergence of corresponding and equally complex identities in the postcolonial world. With a specific reference to Africa, the study establishes that postcolonial discourse is not as transparent because hybridity does not necessarily mean coming up with completely new aspects of Africa but it implies coming up with mixed cultures since different histories and cultures affect each other in order to come up with a new brand. As such the study concludes that hybridity is opposed to cultural purity and the assumed status quo. In this dissertation I therefore argue for hybridity as a solution to identity crisis because the new personality displays different traces which, in the words of Homi Bhabha, are called “transcultural identities” and such a plurality of identities leads to the production of hybrid personalities and cultures. Such transcultural forms within the contact zone, which Bhabha calls the “in-between space,” carry the burden and meaning of the new cultures that emerge in the postcolonial condition. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This dissertation, “Fictions of Development: Decolonization, Development Economics, and the African Novel,” maps the tensions as well as the surprising resonances and interdependencies between development institutions and African literary production. The arc of the dissertation begins in the early 1960s, as many postcolonial countries marked their independence by embarking on ambitious national development programs. It extends through the turbulent 1970s, during which the Global South agitated for a New International Economic Order that would deliver “trade, not aid,” and the reactionary 1980s, in which the World Bank and the IMF pressured governments across the Global South into adopting a series of macroeconomic reforms known as structural adjustment. The dissertation ends in the present moment, as pressing social and environmental concerns have given rise to a (supposedly) new era of “sustainable” development. Taken as a whole, “Fictions of Development” unsettles received notions about both development and African literature. Scholars working in and around postcolonial studies have long understood development as the contemporary counterpart to, and outgrowth of, the “civilizing mission” that once underwrote centuries of European conquest and colonization. Such close ties between colonialism and development have given rise to the widespread assumption that postcolonial writers, in rejecting colonialism, also rejected development. However, by turning to the historical interactions between writers from “developing” countries and the organizations charged with the task of “developing” those countries, this dissertation tells a more complex story. Applying the tools and methods of literary criticism to a wide range of materials—from novels, plays, and memoirs to national economic planning documents, World Bank mission reports, and tourist brochures—this dissertation traces some of the ways that western development institutions use narrative form to stake their claims to knowledge of (and therefore power over) the so-called “developing” world. It also shows how four African writers—Botswana’s Bessie Head, Ghana’s Ama Ata Aidoo, Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Zimbabwe’s Tsitsi Dangarembga—use the narrative form of the novel to propose alternative visions of development grounded in the principles of social and economic wellbeing.