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Ngugi's Novels and African History : Narrating the Nation.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London : Pluto Press, 1999Copyright date: ©1999Edition: 1st edDescription: 1 online resource (190 pages)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9781849645355
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Ngugi's Novels and African HistoryDDC classification:
  • 823
LOC classification:
  • PR9381.9.N45 -- Z82 1999eb
Online resources:
Contents:
Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction Writing Back and the Restoration of a Community/ Nation -- Nationalism, Ethnicity and Individualism -- Manufacturing Nationalism and the East African Experience -- The Postcolonial Phase -- Tracing Ngugi s Ideological Shift and Politics of Interpretation -- 1 Ngugi's Concept of History -- The Contradictions of Imagining the Nation in Earlier Works -- Deviation from the Standard Nationalist Portrayal of Guerrilla War -- The Later Novels -- Suppression and Silences -- Dependency Theory and Class Dynamics -- 2 The Changing Nature of Allegory in Ngugi s Novels -- Allegory in Ngugi's Earlier Texts -- Allegory and Postcolonial Power Relations -- Allegorical Satire and the Grotesque Image of the Body -- Ngugi's Textual Counter-discourse -- 3 Character Portrayal in Ngugi's Novels -- The Overdetermined Narrative Structure and the Victim Type in the Later Novels -- The Individualised Character: The Intellectual/ Artist Type -- 4 The Use of Popular Forms and the Search for Relevance -- The Use of Oral Tradition in Ngugi's Earlier Novels -- Redefining Oral Tradition in the Agikuyu Novel -- The Interface Between Orality and the Written -- The Fantastic, Rumour and Biblical Allusions -- Ngugi's Achievement -- 5 Allegory, Romance and the Nation: Women as Allegorical Figures in Ngugi s Novels -- Romantic Relationships as Allegorical Tropes -- The Portrayal of Women in the Earlier Novels -- Romance and the Portrayal of Women in the Later Novels -- The Problem of Women as Victims: Wanja in Petals of Blood -- Conclusion -- 6 Ngugi's Portrayal of the Community, Heroes and the Oppressed -- Narrating the Community and the Elite in Ngugi s Earlier Novels -- The Return of Heroism and the Crisis of the African Revolution -- Ngugi's Heroes: The Example of Karega in Petals of Blood.
Imagining the Subaltern Under Conditions of Marginality and Displacement -- Conclusion -- Conclusion -- History is Subversive -- Notes -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Bibliography -- Works by Ngugi -- Articles and Books -- Newspapers and Magazines -- Index -- Abdulla [Petals of Blood] -- 29 -- 30 -- 31 -- 53-4 -- Achebe, Chinua -- 1 -- 83 -- Agikuyu community -- 16 -- 135 -- identity 41 -- isolation 20 -- land ownership 19-20 -- land ownership 21 -- meaning of names 59 -- myth of origin 7 -- myth of origin 17 -- myth of origin 18 -- myth of origin 21 -- myth of origin 47 -- myth of origin 88-90 -- myth of origin 110 -- mythology 14 -- mythology 23 -- mythology 46 -- mythology 51 -- mythology 88-91 -- mythology 154 -- oathing 41 -- allegory -- 44-67 -- 76 -- 77 -- 109-25 -- 157 -- 159-60 -- as textual counter-discourse 67 -- definition of 45 -- of race 50 -- of race 51 -- romantic relationships 109 -- romantic relationships 110-15 -- women as victims 113 -- women as victims 115-24 -- Amuka, Peter 105 -- Anderson, Benedict 5-6 -- Armah, A.K. 102-3 -- artist type -- 76 -- 81-6 -- audience -- 87 -- 88 -- 97 -- 108 -- Bakhtin, Mikhail -- 55 -- 58 -- 65 -- 97 -- Barthes, Roland 108 -- Bayart, J-F. -- Bayart, J-F 61 -- Bayart, J-F 65 -- belly, politics of -- 49 -- 58-9 -- 60 -- 61-2 -- Benjamin, Walter -- 45 -- 151 -- Bennet, Tony -- 3-4 -- 93 -- Berman, B.J. -- 36 -- 38 -- 40 -- biblical allusions 90-1 -- binarism -- 65-6 -- 67 -- 157 -- 158-9 -- Boro [Weep Not, Child] -- 24-5 -- 48 -- 49 -- 130 -- 131 -- Brett, E.A. -- Brett, E.A 11-12 -- Brett, E.A 27 -- Breweries Workers' Union 142 -- Brother Ezekiel [Petals of Blood] 29 -- Buijtenhuijs, R. 129 -- Cabral, A. 156 -- Caminero-Santangelo, B. -- Caminero-Santangelo, B 22 -- Caminero-Santangelo, B 92.
Caminero-Santangelo, B 132 -- capitalism -- and Devil 's feast 57 -- and Kenya 12 -- and Kenya 27 -- and self-interest 51 -- and women 120 -- and women 121 -- and women 123-4 -- Chaka 156 -- Chakava, Henry 108 -- characters -- 68-86 -- allegorical symbols 99 -- allegorical symbols 108 -- allegorical symbols 159 -- and narrative 68 -- and narrative 100 -- and narrative 108 -- as symbols of social classes 7 -- as symbols of social classes 86 -- as symbols of social classes 113-14 -- motivation and free will 68-9 -- motivation and free will 71-2 -- motivation and free will 75 -- motivation and free will 80 -- motivation and free will 108 -- Chatterjee, Partha 7-8 -- Chege [The River Between] -- 18 -- 68 -- choices -- 82 -- 84-6 -- Christian Siriana missionary centre 90 -- Christianity -- 6 -- 110 -- and loyalists 37 -- and oppression 29 -- and oppression 41 -- and politics 41-2 -- morality 102 -- morality 123 -- mythology 91 -- reinterpreted 91-2 -- Chui, Mr [Petals of Blood] -- 54 -- 139 -- circumcision, female -- 16 -- 70 -- city, and degradation 48 -- class dynamics 38-43 -- Clifford, Gay 99-100 -- Clough, Marshall 36 -- Cloward, Richard A. 148 -- collaboration -- 64-5 -- 81 -- and resistance 35-6 -- and resistance 157 -- collective identity 90 -- colonialism -- and comprador class 57 -- and comprador class 62-3 -- and conflict 27-8 -- and self-interest 51 -- and women's liberation 120 -- continuing 28 -- continuing 35-6 -- continuing 53 -- continuing 132-3 -- corrosive effects of 18 -- dependency 64 -- history distorted by 1 -- history distorted by 2 -- history distorted by 8 -- history distorted by 154 -- legacy of 150 -- portrayed as Devil 57 -- portrayed as Devil 62 -- response to 157 -- coloniser/colonised, portrayal of 48-9 -- community -- restoration of 70 -- restoration of 130.
restoration of 134-5 -- and socialism 15-16 -- comprador bourgeoisie -- 52 -- 57 -- 58 -- 62-3 -- and borrowed power 65 -- betrayal 64 -- exploiter type 76 -- exploiter type 81 -- Cooper, Brenda -- 93 -- 101 -- Cooper, Frederick -- 5 -- 8 -- 9 -- 11 -- 156 -- cultural imperialism 27 -- culture, fusion of Western and African -- 91-2 -- 102 -- 110 -- Davidson, Basil 1 -- de Man, Paul 50 -- decolonisation 26-7 -- Decolonising the Mind 88 -- democracy -- 27 -- 32 -- 34 -- 43 -- dependency theory -- 26 -- 27 -- 32-3 -- 34 -- 38-43 -- 157 -- Desai, G. 93 -- Detained -- 56 -- 62 -- Devil 's feast -- 57-8 -- 64 -- and gender discrimination 116 -- and the fantastic 30 -- and the fantastic 101-5 -- journey motif 98-9 -- narrator 95 -- narrator 96 -- narrator 97-8 -- oral language 94 -- overdetermined narrative structure 68 -- overdetermined narrative structure 77-80 -- past and present 54 -- plot 56 -- subnarratives 62-4 -- workers 31-2 -- workers 137 -- workers 146 -- Devil on the Cross -- 28 -- 30 -- allegory 46 -- allegory 48 -- allegory 56-8 -- allegory 83 -- artist type 82-6 -- didactic writing -- 101 -- 159 -- displacement, social -- 30 -- 151-2 -- dispossession -- 17 -- 28-30 -- 37 -- 45 -- education -- and black history 139-40 -- and loyalists 37 -- and salvation 69 -- for unity 21-2 -- for unity 72 -- for unity 111 -- for unity 127 -- for unity 128 -- for unity 130 -- elders, respect for 37 -- elite -- betrayal 135 -- and struggles of people 130 -- and struggles of people 131 -- and Western capitalism 27 -- and Western capitalism 29 -- ill-prepared 151 -- in nationalist narratives 25 -- Kenyan 128-9 -- nation building 129 -- role of 126 -- role of 129 -- role of 130 -- role of 136 -- Empire, allegorised 49 -- ethnicity -- backward-looking 16 -- backward-looking 17 -- backward-looking 110.
and nationalism 5 -- and nationalism 7 -- and nationalism 15 -- and nationalism 20 -- and nationalism 110 -- and nationalism 129 -- construction of 39-40 -- instrument of power game 40-1 -- invention of colonialism 39 -- mechanism of control 39-40 -- need for roots 70 -- exploitation -- 53-4 -- 121 -- exploiter type -- 76 -- 80 -- Fanon, F -- African revolution 27 -- African revolution 28 -- African revolution 42 -- African revolution 137 -- fragmentation in Africa 151 -- national bourgeoisie 30 -- workers 31 -- . 10 -- . 12 -- . 158 -- fantastic, and character development 101-5 -- Faust theme 88 -- fiction, and history 4 -- fire, and purification 122-3 -- Foucault, Michel 56 -- fragmentation, social -- 151-2 -- 157 -- Fraudsham, Mr [Petals of Blood] 139 -- Furedi, F. 12 -- Gallagher 17 -- Gatuiria [Devil on the Cross] -- 56 -- artist type 82-6 -- lack of commitment 84-5 -- music and patriotism 83-5 -- relationship with Wariinga 78 -- relationship with Wariinga 79-80 -- relationship with Wariinga 113 -- stories 63-4 -- gender relations 115-16 -- Gicaandi player -- 91 -- 95 -- 96 -- Gikandi, S. -- Gikandi, S 1 -- Gikandi, S 46-7 -- Gikandi, S 81-2 -- Gikandi, S 140 -- Gikandi, S 142 -- Gikandi, S 144 -- Gikonyo [A Grain of Wheat] -- betrayal 74 -- and independence 48 -- and independence 52 -- and independence 132 -- capitalist accumulation 133-4 -- founder of Agikuyu community 135 -- reconciliation 111-12 -- Gikuyu -- 18 -- 21 -- 70 -- 89 -- Gitahi [Devil on the Cross] -- 32 -- 80-1 -- 113 -- Gitutu [Devil on the Cross] -- 29 -- 58-9 -- 64 -- 81 -- Glenn, Ian -- 4 -- 86 -- 128 -- 130 -- good and evil -- 102-5 -- 147 -- 158-9 -- Grain of Wheat, A -- allegory 48-9 -- allegory 51 -- allegory 111 -- and educated elite 126 -- and independence 11 -- and independence 132 -- betrayal 74-5 -- betrayal 133.
character portrayal 68.
Summary: 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.
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Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction Writing Back and the Restoration of a Community/ Nation -- Nationalism, Ethnicity and Individualism -- Manufacturing Nationalism and the East African Experience -- The Postcolonial Phase -- Tracing Ngugi s Ideological Shift and Politics of Interpretation -- 1 Ngugi's Concept of History -- The Contradictions of Imagining the Nation in Earlier Works -- Deviation from the Standard Nationalist Portrayal of Guerrilla War -- The Later Novels -- Suppression and Silences -- Dependency Theory and Class Dynamics -- 2 The Changing Nature of Allegory in Ngugi s Novels -- Allegory in Ngugi's Earlier Texts -- Allegory and Postcolonial Power Relations -- Allegorical Satire and the Grotesque Image of the Body -- Ngugi's Textual Counter-discourse -- 3 Character Portrayal in Ngugi's Novels -- The Overdetermined Narrative Structure and the Victim Type in the Later Novels -- The Individualised Character: The Intellectual/ Artist Type -- 4 The Use of Popular Forms and the Search for Relevance -- The Use of Oral Tradition in Ngugi's Earlier Novels -- Redefining Oral Tradition in the Agikuyu Novel -- The Interface Between Orality and the Written -- The Fantastic, Rumour and Biblical Allusions -- Ngugi's Achievement -- 5 Allegory, Romance and the Nation: Women as Allegorical Figures in Ngugi s Novels -- Romantic Relationships as Allegorical Tropes -- The Portrayal of Women in the Earlier Novels -- Romance and the Portrayal of Women in the Later Novels -- The Problem of Women as Victims: Wanja in Petals of Blood -- Conclusion -- 6 Ngugi's Portrayal of the Community, Heroes and the Oppressed -- Narrating the Community and the Elite in Ngugi s Earlier Novels -- The Return of Heroism and the Crisis of the African Revolution -- Ngugi's Heroes: The Example of Karega in Petals of Blood.

Imagining the Subaltern Under Conditions of Marginality and Displacement -- Conclusion -- Conclusion -- History is Subversive -- Notes -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Bibliography -- Works by Ngugi -- Articles and Books -- Newspapers and Magazines -- Index -- Abdulla [Petals of Blood] -- 29 -- 30 -- 31 -- 53-4 -- Achebe, Chinua -- 1 -- 83 -- Agikuyu community -- 16 -- 135 -- identity 41 -- isolation 20 -- land ownership 19-20 -- land ownership 21 -- meaning of names 59 -- myth of origin 7 -- myth of origin 17 -- myth of origin 18 -- myth of origin 21 -- myth of origin 47 -- myth of origin 88-90 -- myth of origin 110 -- mythology 14 -- mythology 23 -- mythology 46 -- mythology 51 -- mythology 88-91 -- mythology 154 -- oathing 41 -- allegory -- 44-67 -- 76 -- 77 -- 109-25 -- 157 -- 159-60 -- as textual counter-discourse 67 -- definition of 45 -- of race 50 -- of race 51 -- romantic relationships 109 -- romantic relationships 110-15 -- women as victims 113 -- women as victims 115-24 -- Amuka, Peter 105 -- Anderson, Benedict 5-6 -- Armah, A.K. 102-3 -- artist type -- 76 -- 81-6 -- audience -- 87 -- 88 -- 97 -- 108 -- Bakhtin, Mikhail -- 55 -- 58 -- 65 -- 97 -- Barthes, Roland 108 -- Bayart, J-F. -- Bayart, J-F 61 -- Bayart, J-F 65 -- belly, politics of -- 49 -- 58-9 -- 60 -- 61-2 -- Benjamin, Walter -- 45 -- 151 -- Bennet, Tony -- 3-4 -- 93 -- Berman, B.J. -- 36 -- 38 -- 40 -- biblical allusions 90-1 -- binarism -- 65-6 -- 67 -- 157 -- 158-9 -- Boro [Weep Not, Child] -- 24-5 -- 48 -- 49 -- 130 -- 131 -- Brett, E.A. -- Brett, E.A 11-12 -- Brett, E.A 27 -- Breweries Workers' Union 142 -- Brother Ezekiel [Petals of Blood] 29 -- Buijtenhuijs, R. 129 -- Cabral, A. 156 -- Caminero-Santangelo, B. -- Caminero-Santangelo, B 22 -- Caminero-Santangelo, B 92.

Caminero-Santangelo, B 132 -- capitalism -- and Devil 's feast 57 -- and Kenya 12 -- and Kenya 27 -- and self-interest 51 -- and women 120 -- and women 121 -- and women 123-4 -- Chaka 156 -- Chakava, Henry 108 -- characters -- 68-86 -- allegorical symbols 99 -- allegorical symbols 108 -- allegorical symbols 159 -- and narrative 68 -- and narrative 100 -- and narrative 108 -- as symbols of social classes 7 -- as symbols of social classes 86 -- as symbols of social classes 113-14 -- motivation and free will 68-9 -- motivation and free will 71-2 -- motivation and free will 75 -- motivation and free will 80 -- motivation and free will 108 -- Chatterjee, Partha 7-8 -- Chege [The River Between] -- 18 -- 68 -- choices -- 82 -- 84-6 -- Christian Siriana missionary centre 90 -- Christianity -- 6 -- 110 -- and loyalists 37 -- and oppression 29 -- and oppression 41 -- and politics 41-2 -- morality 102 -- morality 123 -- mythology 91 -- reinterpreted 91-2 -- Chui, Mr [Petals of Blood] -- 54 -- 139 -- circumcision, female -- 16 -- 70 -- city, and degradation 48 -- class dynamics 38-43 -- Clifford, Gay 99-100 -- Clough, Marshall 36 -- Cloward, Richard A. 148 -- collaboration -- 64-5 -- 81 -- and resistance 35-6 -- and resistance 157 -- collective identity 90 -- colonialism -- and comprador class 57 -- and comprador class 62-3 -- and conflict 27-8 -- and self-interest 51 -- and women's liberation 120 -- continuing 28 -- continuing 35-6 -- continuing 53 -- continuing 132-3 -- corrosive effects of 18 -- dependency 64 -- history distorted by 1 -- history distorted by 2 -- history distorted by 8 -- history distorted by 154 -- legacy of 150 -- portrayed as Devil 57 -- portrayed as Devil 62 -- response to 157 -- coloniser/colonised, portrayal of 48-9 -- community -- restoration of 70 -- restoration of 130.

restoration of 134-5 -- and socialism 15-16 -- comprador bourgeoisie -- 52 -- 57 -- 58 -- 62-3 -- and borrowed power 65 -- betrayal 64 -- exploiter type 76 -- exploiter type 81 -- Cooper, Brenda -- 93 -- 101 -- Cooper, Frederick -- 5 -- 8 -- 9 -- 11 -- 156 -- cultural imperialism 27 -- culture, fusion of Western and African -- 91-2 -- 102 -- 110 -- Davidson, Basil 1 -- de Man, Paul 50 -- decolonisation 26-7 -- Decolonising the Mind 88 -- democracy -- 27 -- 32 -- 34 -- 43 -- dependency theory -- 26 -- 27 -- 32-3 -- 34 -- 38-43 -- 157 -- Desai, G. 93 -- Detained -- 56 -- 62 -- Devil 's feast -- 57-8 -- 64 -- and gender discrimination 116 -- and the fantastic 30 -- and the fantastic 101-5 -- journey motif 98-9 -- narrator 95 -- narrator 96 -- narrator 97-8 -- oral language 94 -- overdetermined narrative structure 68 -- overdetermined narrative structure 77-80 -- past and present 54 -- plot 56 -- subnarratives 62-4 -- workers 31-2 -- workers 137 -- workers 146 -- Devil on the Cross -- 28 -- 30 -- allegory 46 -- allegory 48 -- allegory 56-8 -- allegory 83 -- artist type 82-6 -- didactic writing -- 101 -- 159 -- displacement, social -- 30 -- 151-2 -- dispossession -- 17 -- 28-30 -- 37 -- 45 -- education -- and black history 139-40 -- and loyalists 37 -- and salvation 69 -- for unity 21-2 -- for unity 72 -- for unity 111 -- for unity 127 -- for unity 128 -- for unity 130 -- elders, respect for 37 -- elite -- betrayal 135 -- and struggles of people 130 -- and struggles of people 131 -- and Western capitalism 27 -- and Western capitalism 29 -- ill-prepared 151 -- in nationalist narratives 25 -- Kenyan 128-9 -- nation building 129 -- role of 126 -- role of 129 -- role of 130 -- role of 136 -- Empire, allegorised 49 -- ethnicity -- backward-looking 16 -- backward-looking 17 -- backward-looking 110.

and nationalism 5 -- and nationalism 7 -- and nationalism 15 -- and nationalism 20 -- and nationalism 110 -- and nationalism 129 -- construction of 39-40 -- instrument of power game 40-1 -- invention of colonialism 39 -- mechanism of control 39-40 -- need for roots 70 -- exploitation -- 53-4 -- 121 -- exploiter type -- 76 -- 80 -- Fanon, F -- African revolution 27 -- African revolution 28 -- African revolution 42 -- African revolution 137 -- fragmentation in Africa 151 -- national bourgeoisie 30 -- workers 31 -- . 10 -- . 12 -- . 158 -- fantastic, and character development 101-5 -- Faust theme 88 -- fiction, and history 4 -- fire, and purification 122-3 -- Foucault, Michel 56 -- fragmentation, social -- 151-2 -- 157 -- Fraudsham, Mr [Petals of Blood] 139 -- Furedi, F. 12 -- Gallagher 17 -- Gatuiria [Devil on the Cross] -- 56 -- artist type 82-6 -- lack of commitment 84-5 -- music and patriotism 83-5 -- relationship with Wariinga 78 -- relationship with Wariinga 79-80 -- relationship with Wariinga 113 -- stories 63-4 -- gender relations 115-16 -- Gicaandi player -- 91 -- 95 -- 96 -- Gikandi, S. -- Gikandi, S 1 -- Gikandi, S 46-7 -- Gikandi, S 81-2 -- Gikandi, S 140 -- Gikandi, S 142 -- Gikandi, S 144 -- Gikonyo [A Grain of Wheat] -- betrayal 74 -- and independence 48 -- and independence 52 -- and independence 132 -- capitalist accumulation 133-4 -- founder of Agikuyu community 135 -- reconciliation 111-12 -- Gikuyu -- 18 -- 21 -- 70 -- 89 -- Gitahi [Devil on the Cross] -- 32 -- 80-1 -- 113 -- Gitutu [Devil on the Cross] -- 29 -- 58-9 -- 64 -- 81 -- Glenn, Ian -- 4 -- 86 -- 128 -- 130 -- good and evil -- 102-5 -- 147 -- 158-9 -- Grain of Wheat, A -- allegory 48-9 -- allegory 51 -- allegory 111 -- and educated elite 126 -- and independence 11 -- and independence 132 -- betrayal 74-5 -- betrayal 133.

character portrayal 68.

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.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

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