PHD-Department of Literature

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Alternative potraits of power and empowerment in selected African female writers' works
(2011-11-17) Shigali, Hellen Roselyne
Western radical feminist critics (Frank 1978, Andrade 1990, Stration 1994) inappropriately applied their separatist strand of feminist ideology to African literature. Their interpretation alienates African female writers from their target audience, but most importantly it silences the unique contribution they make to contemporary global power and empowerment discourse. Both African female writers and critics have contested this interpretation (Emecheta 1986, Ngcobo 1986, Nwapa 1993, D'Almeida 1994, Nnaemeka 1995, Zongo 1996). However, the latter have not interrogated the concept of power and empowerment which underpins western feminism literary criticism. This qualitative library study attempts to fill this gap by interpreting selected African female writers' works using an alternative conceptual framework that defines power and empowerment from an African feminist perspective. The conceptual framework combined with literary stylistics is applied six novels by four African female writers. The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter One forms the introduction to the study. Its highlight is the identification and description of alternative framework for interpreting the portraits of power and empowerment in the selected texts. Chapter Two is an analysis of two of Buchi Emecheta's novels: The Slave Girl (1977), and Naira Power (1982). In these texts Emecheta vilifies dominance and elevates positive forms of power. In Chapter Three, we examine Mariama Ba's, So Long a Letter (1980) and Scarlet Song (posthumous 1981). In the two novels the writer interrogates the basic of male supremacy, especially the version espoused by negritude ideology. In Chapter Four we analyse Amma Darko's portrait of conventional indicators of power and empowerment in The Housemaid (1998). Contrary to popular belief, this writer shows that value-free education and property ownership does not necessarily empower women. In Chapter Five we focus on Ama Ata Aidoo's potrait of romantic love in Changes (1991). In this novel Aidoo situates romance in contemporary empowerment discourse. She shows that romance and marriages are not incompatible with empowerment of women. Chapter Six includes a summary of portraits of power and empowerment in the selected novels and recommendations.
Analysis of style and themes in J.M.coetzee novel: disgrace
(2011-12-07) Kamau, Joseph Wahome
The study evaluates the role of J.M. Coetzee plays in addressing the social political and economic concerns of his society. It also establishes Coetzee’s opinion as the social, political and economic drama of post apartheid South Africa unfolds. In order to analyse themes and features of styles in the selected text, we employ two theoretical frameworks, Foucault’s perception of power, authority, knowledge and truth within the wider postmodernism theory. In his analysis, Foucault demonstrate how power and authority is exercised in our societies, he also questions the concept of a singular objective truth that is transcendental instead he advocates for multiple and situated knowledge. The theory is appropriate in analyzing the experience of South Africa society which for a very long time has been experimenting disharmony that seem to emerge from the knowledge various individuals and communities hold over each other, as a result different attitudes about each other has emerged which in turns inform their social political and economic relationships. Stylistic theory is important for this study for it help us analyse the language of the text. As new knowledge emerges, language is no longer viewed as an instrument that is used to carry a text message but it is viewed as part of that message. Hence we have used this theory to explore how the selected text utilizes symbolism, allusion, irony and paradox to enhance communication about post apartheid South Africa social, political and economic realities. The study is divided into four main chapters; Chapter one forma the introduction, while chapter two evaluate thematic concerns, chapter three analyses features of style whereas chapter four concluded our study. This is a qualitative library research that involves textual and historical analyses. The study uses purposive sampling method. Data from both primary and secondary texts is analysed to provide historical and textual contexts in which to evaluate Coetzee’s concerns and opinions about post apartheid South Africa.
The child character in adult literature: a study of six selected Caribbean novels
(2012-01-05) Mugubi, John G. O.
This study examines the child character in post-emancipation and colonial West-Indian fiction in order to determine his position in that society and his role as a literary agent. Our samples in this endeavour are six Caribbean novels namely: Merle Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey, Michael Anthony's The Year In San Fernando, Jan Shinebourne's The Last English Plantation, Ian McDonald's The Humming Bird Tree, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Namba Roy's No Black Sparrows. The study adopts the sociological literary and psychological approaches as the theoretical framework. These approaches enabled us to understand the development of the child within the Caribbean social experiences. This study argues that the child characters in novels designed for adult readership are employed intentionally for concrete goals. Such children, particularly in West Indian novels, while essentially childlike, are not gullible and puerile. They are cogently perspicacious and active. Reasonable and cognizant of their surrounding, these children are invested with boundless potentials. Hence, although childhood is seen as a period when diverse influences impinge on the child, each child is endowed with the capacity to either withstand or succumb to negative influences. The genius of the child disregarding, owing to the psychic and physical stature of the child vis-á-vis that of their adult guardians, the position of the child is delineated as that of a gudgeon, a sacrifice to the adult world's benightedness, selfishness and savagery. The anatomic and intellectual vulnerability of children makes them easy prey to varied forms of victimization from adults. The child's plight in a racially stratified and class society is seen as ghastly. The child from the subjugated race and class suffers triply. He is debased as a member of a disfavoured race, execrated class and also as a child. The girl child suffers additionally because of her gender. The child from the advantageous group is also seen as a victim of the ravages of her people's jaundiced eye. Made to feel the ultimate in perfection, such a child is obtuse, psychologically and ethically stunted since he becomes blinded to his own limitations. Such a child is impaired and is therefore incapable of moral advancement. Subsequently, the child character emerges as a metaphor. It is therefore feasible to read the Caribbean childhood novels as allegories in which the child characters epitomize a breed of people at a particular moment in their history. The eminent non-white children embody the confidence and aspirations of their people. Together with the tolerant white children, such children seek to make sense out of the jumble of racism, colonialism, class and gender-oriented compartmentalization and thereby endeavour to construct structures of 'sanity' (and therefore 'stability') that tally with their ideals. As metaphors therefore, the child characters in Caribbean novels are employed to underscore an array of childhood idiosyncrasies that may restore the muddle of human relationships. The thesis concludes the argument by reiterating that the child is an effective tool for inquiring into not only the plight of the child but also the racial, class and gender disparities and struggles in the Caribbean during the enfranchisement (post-slavery) and colonial periods. Through prudent exploration of a child's psychological makeup, the authors delineate the child as a powerful agent through which other themes such as: poverty, police brutality, alienation, religion and politics are surveyed. Generally, we have established that the child has been employed by the West-Indian writers to express their humanism and consequently, the kind of society they espouse. The child has therefore been revealed as a beam of ethicalness through which the world can be humanized
The Child Character in Adult Literature: A Study of Six Selected Caribbean Novels
(Kenyatta University, 2003-08) Mugubi, John G.O.; Francis Imbuga; Nyambura Mpesha; Muigai Wa Gachanja
This study examines the child character in post- emancipation and colonial West-Indian fiction in order to determine his position in' that society and his role as a literary agent. Our samples in this endeavour are six Caribbean novels namely: Merle Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey, Michael Anthony's The Year In Sail Fernando, Jan Shinebourne's The Last English Plantation, Ian McDonald's The Humming Bird Tree, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Namba Roy's No Black Sparrows, The study adopts the sociological literary and psychological approaches as the theoretical framework, These approaches enabled us to understand the development of the child within the Caribbean social experiences. This Study argues that the child characters in novels designed for adult readership are employed intentionally for concrete goals. Such children, particularly in West Indian novels, while essentially childlike, are not gullible and puerile. They are cogently perspicacious and active. -Reasonable and cognizant of their surrounding, these children are invested with boundless potentials. Hence, although childhood is seen as a period when diverse influences impinge on the child, each child is endowed with the capacity to either withstand or succumb to negative influences, The genius of the child disregarding, owing to the psychic and physical stature of the child vis a vis that of their adult guardians, the position of the child is delineated as that of a gudgeon, a sacrifice to the adult world's benightedness, selfishness and savagery. The anatomic and intellectual vulnerability of children makes them easy prey to varied forms of victimization from adults. The child's plight in a racially stratified and class society is seen as ghastly. The child from the subjugated race and class suffers triply. He is debased as a member of a disfavoured race, execrated class and also as a child .. The girl child suffers additionally because of her gender. The child from the advantageous group is also seen as a victim of the ravages of her people's jaundiced eye. Made to feel the ultimate in perfection, such a child is obtuse, psychologically and ethically stunted since he becomes blinded to his own limitations. Such a child is impaired and is therefore incapable of moral advancement. Subsequently, the child character emerges as a metaphor. It is therefore feasible to read the Caribbean childhood novels as allegories in which the child characters epitomize a breed of people at a particular moment in their history. The eminent nonwhite children embody the confidence and aspirations of their people. Together with the tolerant white children, such children seek to make sense out of the jumble of racism, colonialism, class and gender-oriented compartmentalization and thereby endeavour to construct structures of 'sanity'(and therefore 'stability') that tally with their ideals. As metaphors therefore, the child characters in Caribbean novels are employed to underscore an array of childhood idiosyncrasies that may restore the muddle of human relationships. The thesis concludes the argument by reiterating that the child is an effective tool for inquiring into not only the plight of the child but also the racial, class and gender disparities and struggles in the Caribbean during the enfranchisement (post-slavery) and colonial periods. Through prudent exploration of a child's psychological makeup, the authors delineate the child as a powerful agent thr~ugh which other themes such as: poverty, police brutality, alienation, religion and politics are surveyed. Generally, we have established that the child has been employed by the West-Indian writers to express their humanism and consequently, the kind of society they espouse. The child has therefore been revealed as a beam of ethicalness through which the world can be humanized.
Children's literature in Tanzania: a literary appreciation of its growth and development
(2012-06-08) Nyambura, Grace Alice
This study is a critical appraisal of the growth and development of children’s literature in Tanzania. It arises from a recognition of the death of critical works on this literature and is based on the premise that children’s literature requires an evaluative framework for guiding the literary and creative needs of children in Tanzania. The thesis collates the various categories of this literature and establishes a framework for assessing their literary qualities, wholesomeness, suitability for and impact on the child reader. It traces the growth of this literature from its oral beginnings through the colonial written literature to the contemporary works written in English or Kiswahili. The first sections of the thesis present an analysis of the context, stylistic features and visual presentation of colonial, East African and Tanzanian literature available to the child in Tanzania. The study collaborates this discussion with further analysis and interpretation of children’s responses to the subject matter, moral, style and illustrations of the most widely read children’s books in Tanzania. From these analyses it isolates and evaluates both the existing literature and its emerging trends. It points out that the best literature for children is always skilfully and carefully written and communicates meaningfully to the child about childhood and experiences relevant to his/her world; that this literature is enjoyed by the child reader and has tremendous significance and influence on him or her. The study concludes that Tanzanian children’s literature has gradually emerged as a noticeable branch of literature in its own right, but that writers will in future need to be more conscious of children’s interests so that the growth in the future can point more towards a wholesome meaningful and diverse literature.
Children's literature in Tanzania: A literary appreciation of its growth and development
(Kenyatta University, 1995) Mpesha, Nyambura Grace Alice
This study is a critical appraisal of the growth and development of children's literature in Tanzania. It arises from a recognition of the dearth of critical works on this literature and is based on the premise that children's literature requires an evaluative framework for guiding the literary and creative needs of children in Tanzania. The thesis collates the various categories of this literature and establishes a framework for assessing their literary qualities, wholesomeness, suitability for and impact on the child reader. It traces the growth of this literature from its oral beginnings through the colonial written literature to the contemporary works written in English or Kiswahili. The first sections of the thesis present an analysis of the context, stylistic features and visual presentation of colonial, East African and Tanzanian literature available to the child in Tanzania. The study collaborates this discussion with further analysis and interpretation of children's responses to the subject matter, moral, style and illustrations of the most widely read children's books in Tanzania. From these analyses it isolates and evaluates both the existing literature and its emerging trends. It points out that the best literature for children is always skilfully and carefully written and communicates meaningfully to the child about childhood and experiences relevant to his/her world; that this literature is enjoyed by the child reader and has tremendous significance and influence on him or her. The study concludes that Tanzanian children's literature has gradually emerged as a noticeable branch of literature in its own right, but that writers will in future need to be more conscious of children's interests so that the growth in the future can point more towards a wholesome, meaningful and diverse literature.
A critical analysis of conformity and subvertion in Gikuyu children's oral poetry
(2011-12-02) Mbugua, W. K.; Muigai Wa Gachanja; Oluoch, O.
Children's oral poetry is an important genre in the way it uses verse to inculcate social values and conditions the child's mind to conform to social expectations. It is potent in lodging in the child's memory social lessons through stylistic presentation of social expectations. It is not only a pedagogical tool but also a commentary on the society from which it emerges. While one would expect the poetry to make the children conform to social norms designed by adults, the poems stage stylistic, thematic and performative moments of subversion against certain values embraced by the privileged especially adults. Children are not passive recipients of the message, but are active participants in the creation of an ideal society. Looking at themes, performance, stylistic devices and the social background against which the poetry is created, the thesis analyses the tension between conformity and subversion engendered in the children's oral poetry. The agency of children performers has not been systematically analysed. Most studies of children's literature seem to see children as passive objects that need to be moulded into whole subjects through literature. The study attempts to fill this gap in scholarship by investigating whether Gikuyu children's oral poetry exhibits patterns that express subversion and conformity at the same time. It also analyses how the conflicting issues of conformity and subversion are reconciled into an aesthetic and thematic unity. It examines whether the songs' themes, style, and the artists' performance provide reconciliation of the conflicting elements. The study uses library research, preliminary field survey, actual collection of data and finally processes and analysis. The study investigates whether children's oral poetry expresses the gender, philosophical and moral consciousness subject to their composition, performance and reception. The overriding question is whether stylistic devices employed in the composition and performance are appropriate for the content of the poetry. The study is anchored on ethnopoetics theory which is complemented by deconstruction, hermeneutics and psychoanalysis as theoretical tools to probe the dialectical relationship between conformity and subversion. The study critically investigates and analyses how the tension between conformity - and subversion in Gikuyu children's oral poetry impacts on composition, performance and reception of that poetry against a backdrop of adult values. We make the assumption that Gikuyu children's oral poetry uses thematic, stylistic and performative patterns that bring together subversion and conformity, and that the conflict between conformity and subversion is an expression of the social consciousness of the Gikuyu children. This study is justified by its pertinent concern for and contribution to the understanding of contemporary children's art. This study makes a contribution to an area that is gaining popularity not only in Kenya but other parts of the world. It stimulates further research into the area. By association, the study illuminates our lives as products of our childhood.
Dholuo Anaphors: An Interface Account
(Kenyatta University, 2022) Achieng’, Onyango Janet; Henry S. Nandelenga; Emily A. Ogutu
The purpose of this study was to investigate Dholuo anaphors at linguistic interface of syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Dholuo anaphors (reflexives and reciprocals) are represented with the same morpheme which poses a problem in interpretation. Generative grammar focuses on syntax and semantics in interpretation of anaphors. The study included pragmatics to enrich the interpretation of Dholuo anaphors. The study aimed at answering four main research questions: how are anaphors configured in Dholuo? What is the syntactic structure of Dholuo anaphors? How does semantics and pragmatics determine the interpretation of Dholuo anaphors? How does Relevance Theory and GB Theory account for the interface of Dholuo anaphors? The study scope covered structures and meaning of sentences limited to GB Principle A. Government and Binding Theory and Relevance Theory were used with the study adopting descriptive and qualitative research designs. Rambira village, Rarieda sub-county, Siaya county was the study site. Sample size consisted of eighty-seven structures with anaphors. Purposeful sampling technique was adopted in selecting six respondents. Corpus of primary data was collected through interview and by researcher‟s intuitive knowledge verified by the respondents. Secondary data was from works of scholars and Dholuo bible. Collected data was coded, and classified to ascertain their configuration. Analysis revealed that Dholuo has lexical and non-lexical anaphors occupying the object position. Dholuo anaphors were bound to the antecedent within the IP, assigned case and theta roles. Various contexts enhanced right interpretation and euphemistic usage of utterances. This is an interesting finding that can contribute to studies in African languages
Elements of Tragedy in Selected Novels of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
(Kenyatta University, 2016-09-13) Maina, Oscar Macharia
This study investigates Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s use of tragedy as a method of literary representation in his rendition of postcoloniality. The study focuses on five novels;The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, Matigari, Petals of Blood, and Devil on the Cross. As its objectives, the study investigates: the various elements of tragedy used in his selected novels; the use of tragedy in the emplotment and representation of thematic concerns in these novels; and the use of the tragic form as an expression of wa Thiong’o’s postcolonial vision in the selected novels. The study interrogates the presentation of characters, their narrative world, and the conflicts that these characters represent. The ideas that these characters espouse stir the conflicts that wa Thiong’o highlights through these novels and contribute to the literary signification of the postcolonial discourse. With close analysis of key novelistic features such as narrative plot and structure, representation, characterisation, motifs, and point of narration, the study interrogates how wa Thiong’o uses tragedy not only as a means of evaluating the different causes of tragic conflicts but also as a means of proposing avenues for entrenching both ideological and a literary discourse in response to these tragic conflicts. In its analysis of the selected texts, the study uses tenets of postcolonial criticism and tragic realism to facilitate its evaluation of not only the narrative structure but also the novels’ discourse. The study uses descriptive analysis of the selected novels to qualitatively interrogate them in line with the study’s objectives.
Emigration in Selected Transnational Fiction by African Women Writers: A Study of Female Characters of African Descent
(Kenyatta University, 2022) Makokha, Gloria Ajami; Mugo Muhia; Oluoch Obura
This study engaged with selected works of four West African women authors whose works centre on the idea of home as interrogated through the lenses of narratives of migration. These works, including Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon (1995), Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street (2009), Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah (2013), and Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers (2016) explore how the experience of migration is gendered as much as it is complicated by issues of class, race and citizenship. The task examined how the texts narrate the notion of home through the movement of characters across borders either by will or by force. Emigration, as one of the key cultural dynamics of the 21st Century, has been foregrounded to illustrate its disruptive potential in the lives of migrant women as well as that of those they closely relate with. While there are many other feminist analyses of works by earlier black female writers of the past century, this study extended the critical horizon of these narratives by proposing that transnational mobility of African female characters can be more productive if the distabilising experience of migration is read as embodied in the texts. This study illustrates subjectivity as problematised by the dynamics of home and diaspora, through the engagement with the protagonists in the chosen works by authors from the West African nations (Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon). This exercise fused together the Postcolonial theoretical standpoints as articulated by Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak, and Avtar Brah’s ideas of “home” and “diasporic inscriptions”. This study employed textual analysis as the methodology for collecting, organizing, interpreting and analysing data on the gendered nature of migration as presented in the four texts under study. While quite a number of studies have been carried out on each text, conferencing all of them under one methodological interrogation widened their semantic potential by drawing attention to a new “way of reading” and point to alternative critical possibilities of engaging migrant narratives. This study concluded that emigration is indeed a 21st Century phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Despite posing a challenge to African nations, emigration is a mode of exposure to Africans, a few of who return home to build their nations, while a good number stay on in the diaspora willingly or unwillingly, thus economically benefitting the diasporic states. This was attributed to ‘modes of self fashioning’ for colonial subjects like mimicry and self-hate. The protagonists in the selected texts, who were the main focus of this study, basically have a ‘love-hate’ relationship with the West. While they initially perceive the West as redemptive, their experiences in the West disillusion them, thus their dilemma of whether to return to Africa or stay on in the West. The study opens further critical analysis of novels addressing emigration from: Western Africa to Asian states; the East African and Southern African states to the West and from the West and East to Africa. It also extends further analysis on the disenfranchisement of male characters of African descent in the West as written by both female and male authors.
Gender analysis of literature set books: A study of selected Kenya certificate of secondary education(KCSE) literature texts
(2012-11-05) Gachari, Muthoni Regina
Set books are an important socializing tool and play a crucial role in determining students' worldview of gender relations in society. Gender responsiveness is one of the emerging issues that have attracted major debates in various forums including in the education system in general and choice of set books in particular. This study examined the gender responsiveness of selected KCSE literature set books, and students' and English teachers' responses to the gender issues in the set books. The study applied the ABC Gender Analysis Model and the Reader - Response theory. The ABC Gender Analysis Model measures gender responsiveness of set books and other curriculum materials while the Reader - Response theory emphasizes the reader's role in creating meaning of a text and experience of a literary work. The findings indicated that the KCSE set books all had elements of gender bias, stereotyping of character and role, unequal representation of male and female characters and use of gender insensitive language. However, the study also revealed that some writers had made attempts to make the literature set books gender responsive. In addition, students' responses revealed a great sense of gender awareness and sensitivity in regard to the gender issues raised in the set books. Finally, teachers' responses revealed that the teachers were keen and enthusiastic about gender issues in set books despite the fact that they had no formal training on how to implement the gender policy in education. The study recommends closer scrutiny of literature set books, in-house training of teachers on gender responsiveness, sensitizing students on gender responsive set books and providing checklists for identifying gender stereotypes and other relevant gender issues in set books. In addition, it also recommends the development of a more gender responsive curriculum in tandem with Kenya's developmental aspiration where men and women are viewed as partners in the development of all sectors of society.
Identities and spaces in selected writings of black, Indian and white east African writers, 1950s to 1980s.
(Kenyatta University, 2015) Mwairumba, Yuvenalis Mukoya
This study analyses identity and space in five works of East African Asian, black and white writers based on the reasoning that these are significant issues in East African literature that reflect the nature of contemporary social relations in the region. The study uses a post-structural and postcolonial conceptual framework. Using comparative textual analysis, the study examines Going Down River Road by Meja Mwangi Homing in by Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, The In-between World of Vikram Lall by M. G. Vassanji, In a Brown Mantle by Peter Nazareth, and Kosiya Kifefe by Arthur Gakwandi. The premise of the comparison is that the writers‘ different races have a bearing on their representation of Asian, black and white characters. Consequently, the basis of selecting these texts is threefold: the writer‘s race (and place of birth); the presence of Asian, black and white characters; and setting. The main objective is to show how characters from each of the three races perceive their own identity and that of characters from other races, and how the characters‘ location influences their sense of identity in relation to these places. The study further aims to show how the process of identity formation is represented. The study concludes that all the texts recognise that place and place meanings are significant in the formation of identity and that it is for this reason that groups seek to dominate place. It is the meanings attached to place, race and other categories that denote community that determine the type of spaces that the same produce. Prominent among these meanings is tradition which is important both as a space within which identities form and as the discourse with which communities define themselves.The study finds that a writer‘s race is a discursive position that infiltrates texts in subtle but significant ways, and that for the studied texts this does affect some of the writers‘ ability to deal with characters from other races. In relation to this, the study argues that those writers who write from marginal positions are more sensitive to cross-racial representation than those from dominant races. It is further argued that instabilities in the meanings of the lexical items that that characters rely on for self description and the description of others are responsible for the uncertainties in their identities.
Images of women in African oral literature: a case of Gikuyu and Swahili proverbs
(2012-04-10) Ndungo, C. M.
This study was to examine critically the portrayal of women in selected Gikuyu and Swahili Proverbs. The aim was to describe the images of women that emanate from the selected proverbs. The research concern arose out of the realization that gender relations and attitudes are important in understanding society. The findings of the study have shed light on the societal attitudes towards women. A content analysis of one hundred and fifty three Gikuyu proverbs and one hundred and twenty seven Swahili proverbs collected from published and oral sources in the Kenyan Coast and Central provinces reveal that women have diverse and ambivalent images. The images were derived from both literal and underlying levels of meaning of the proverbs. The study shows that women as mothers in both Gikuyu and Swahili societies are portrayed positively in their roles as readers, teachers and role models of their children. The image of a mother borders on idolization. However, women in general and wives in particular, are portrayed negatively in both Gikuyu and Swahili societies especially with regard to their personalities. Women are generally depicted as treacherous, unreliable, unintelligent, dependent and lacking in vision and wisdom. According to the feminist literary theory, which was used as a guide in the analysis of the data in this study, the images emanating from the proverbs are a reflection of the societal attitudes towards women in the two communities as literature is a vehicle of cultural philosophy. The study concludes that, for the two communities to portray women positively as mothers and generally negatively, there must be a good reason. It could be an indication that women as a category threaten the male domain. It needs to be established why women are perceived negatively and how the negative image translates in real life situations.
Intertextuality and Subversion in Selected Children’s Readers and their Corresponding Animated Film Adaptations
(Kenyatta University, 2022) Mwichuli, Maurice Simbili; Kisa Amateshe; Wasombo Were; John Mugubi
This research sought to undertake a comparative study of selected Children’s Readers and their corresponding animated film adaptations. Central to the study was how intertextuality and possible subversions in the films impact on the interpretation and literary elements of the source texts. The ultimate aim was to establish whether and how the adapted animated films either added to or reduced the literary value of the source texts. This study interrogated Robinson Crusoe for Boys and Girls and the corresponding animated film Robinson Crusoe/ The Wild Life; Rapunzel with its adapted animated film Tangled; Briar Rose adapted into The Seventh Dwarf and Munro Leaf’s The Story of Ferdinand which was adapted into the film Ferdinand. The literary texts and films were purposively selected for this dissertation. The texts were studied with an aim of establishing how they (literary and film texts) complement each other and the ultimate literary appeal. The research took a qualitative approach. The researcher read the antecedent texts and watched the subsequent adapted animations to collect the essential data. Other reference material, relevant to the study, was sourced from the library and online. The material was then analyzed in the light of the set objectives, guided by the tenets of Adaptation Theory as proposed by Andrew Dudley, Linda Hutcheon and Julie Sanders. The researcher argues that this study will hopefully be a worthy contribution to adaptation studies, especially where children’s readers and animated films are involved. In this era of digitization and use of different media, intertextuality and subversion are continually gaining importance in both literary and film studies as texts seek to address needs of a transforming audience and society hence the need for this research. The set objectives of the research were met. This study established that though literary elements were used in both literary and adapted animated texts, their application and achievements varied. The elements were used to tell the same story differently. They were applied differently as allowed by the creativity of the authors and directors and the flexibility of the media used. Even so, the adapted film texts were richer as they made use of intertextuality, hybridity and plurality to bridge the gap between different times, subjects and audiences.
Inventing Women: The Black Female Voice in the Post-Apartheid Writings of Farida Karodia
(2013-09-05) Lang’at, Judith C.
This study examines the voice of the South African woman writer, Farida Karodia, as she writes in the post apartheid era. Specifically, it analyzes the writer‟s language as it gives voice to the black woman‟s revelation of self as she transforms silence into visibility and action. To do this, this study uses Karodia‟s post apartheid novels and short stories to derive contextual evidence of historical silencing and identify the distinctive language employed to voice the unique oppressions of race, class and gender endured by the black woman. Our theoretical framework combines the strategies of a Womanist perspective and Interactionism. Womanist theory allows us to interrogate the writers‟ premises and assumptions of the black woman on self and community while interaction theory gives us a chance to link women‟s interactions with the process of meaning construction and invention. Karodia not only attempts to define the nature of the contemporary black female voice but also invents a black woman through her distinctive choices of characters, worldview, use of conflict and union. She also uses language as inventive in its depiction of women‟s existence and shows their circumstances as evolving in nature with their ability to transform realities. The transformation for women occurs, we revealed,when women gives expression to conversial ideas, accept and learn to live with paradoxes, claim the situation,hence getting liberated by new perspectives and they are open to new understandings of their experiences. Also, the acknowledgement of their personal strengths and weaknesses allows for insight that leads to new awareness for women‟s progress.
The invention and (re) configuration of space in selected Kenyan television dramas
(Kenyatta University, 2016-07) Akuma, Kebaya Charles
The study interrogates the invention and (re)configuration of space as a social construct in Kenyan television drama. While focusing on selected local television dramas; Mheshimiwa, Mother-in-law and Tabasamu, the study examines manifestations of space, and how characters contest, and (re)configure emergent spaces in the contemporary society. The first television drama aired on Kenya Television Network (KTN) whereas the second and third air on Citizen Television. The study investigates space in the selected television dramas as an intersection and a conversation with various formations, past and present, in a bid to understand socio-cultural, economic and political realities in Kenya. The study employs the theorization of space to explore the framing and dramatization of space in local television drama. Hinged on an iterative research design, primary data was obtained from a close examination of three purposively sampled local television dramas. Purposively selected episodes of the three dramas were studied and information obtained regarding space was recorded and considered data for analysis and interpretation. Secondary sources that comprised texts, dissertations, scholarly publications and articles related to the area of study were consulted. Guided by the research objectives, primary and secondary data obtained were analysed, interpreted and collated using thematic content analysis. Limited access to the television dramas due to suspicion of being a pirate masquerading as an academic and copyright issues were key challenges that this study faced. From the analyses, it emerged that local television drama exploits spaces such as the family, court, political and the everyday space to make sense of various issues affecting society. Issues such as political leadership, material affluence, youth identity formations, social referents and sex(uality) discourses are not only figured but also contested, invented and reconfigured in society as portrayed in local television drama. It also emerged that young female professionals were depicted as challenging patriarchal practices and that to them, sexual pleasure is viewed as a desire that is related to their status as career women, but above all to possibilities generated by being relatively independent from social control. Strengthened by their financial independence, this category of women is at the vanguard in reconfiguring subjectivities and social complexities of sexuality in the contemporary Kenyan society. In this way, local television drama functions as a popular site for exploring and understanding emerging moral issues that characterize young women’s sexualities in Kenya. Consequently, the study concludes that artistic sensibilities in local television drama crystallize in the characterization of women as being in the forefront in challenging masculinity and reconfiguration of emergent practices of feminine power and agency in society.
Literary Ecology in the Nigerian Space: An Ecocritical Reading f Selected Poetry
(Kenyatta University, 2022) Oguntuase, Adebayo Adefemi; Oluoch Obura; Kisa Amateshe
Our fragile ecosystem may become more severely damaged than it is now if all hands are not on deck to retrieve the environment from total collapse. Various human efforts have been geared toward a deserving reclamation of the environment from ruins. These efforts include conferences on climate change, afforestation and reduction in air pollution. Literature is not left behind in the efforts to clean up the environment. It is in this connection that Ecocriticism, the practice of assessing the impact of literary works on the environment has been deployed in this study. More than this, the Reader Response Theory is used as its supporting theory. Selected poems of three poets from Nigeria constitute the primary texts for the Study. The poets are Tanure Ojaide, Niyi Osundare and Ebi Yeibo. The study looks at the settings in which discussions about the environment take place, the impact of ecological problems on agrarian life and the possible effects of protest and resistance by the direct sufferers of the consequences of degradation on the environment in general. The study finds that environmental issues are widespread and not limited to specific places as constant references to the Niger Delta Area of Nigeria compel us to believe. It has also found that areas outside the Niger Delta can benefit from an improved environment through a policy of afforestation by both government and the governed. It is equally found that literature, using the optic of poetry can raise awareness about the duties of denizens to their environment.
Literary study of invectives in selected works of H. K. Bidi Setsoafia
(Kenyatta university, 2023) Dogbey, Emmanuel
This research studies how Setsoafia creatively uses invectives to address critical social issues like corruption, greed, poor governance, educational illiteracy, drunkenness, and prostitution as a method of literary representation in his rendition of life among the Ewe people. Despite using invectives to fictionalise behaviour and social consciousness and even though invectives usage is heavily frowned upon, invective competence is critical in language and culture and is traditionally enshrined for moral education and entertainment amongst the Ewes. Every native speaker of Ewe seems to be groomed right from childhood to be conscious of invectives and to appropriately engage in performances involving them. This concept is figured in Setsoafia‘s writings; projecting Ewe‘s philosophy, culture, cosmology, and life in general. Considering a word, action, or expression as an invective is context dependent. This study focuses on three literary works of Setsoafia: ‗Fia Tsatsala‘ (The wandering King), ‗Togbui Kpeglo II‘ (King Kpeglo II), and ‗Mede Ablotsidela‘ (I am married to one who had been abroad). The research objectives explore elements of invective expressions, their cause-effects and gradations in constructing literaty characters, figures of speech and themes. This probes the novelistic use of invectives in influencing characterisation, figurative expressions and themes. The study adopts Avorgbedor‘s optimal performance model of Don Elger‘s performance theory. The model explains that language forms (invectives) and their usage depend on and defines the performer‘s (character) mindset, the communicative setting and the reflections that unearth meanings to oneself and others. It argues that every action is a performance, and in this study, every invective usage is a performance engineered by a purposed mindset and experience. The model is engaged to present and respond to invective usage and its dynamisms, interrogating their cause, effects, and themes through the lens of the actions of the characters. Since textual efficacy rather than material quantification is the phenomenon under investigation, this study offers a critical and pristine understanding of characters‘ competence in invective usage in the selected works. The findings reveal invectives as unavoidable language forms that control meaning and life and occur in everyday activities. Also, literary elements seem to be founded and controlled by invective mindsets and every form of advice, praise, edification, and entertainment bear some invective concepts and persuades one to be responsible. The study identifies invective usages to be covering ethnophaulism, dehumanisation, sex, stereotype, body parts, and humour. These areas mark the categorisation and gradations of invectives for specific roles, effects, and interpretations. It concludes that naturally, humans are untruful and when expressions expose their weaknesses or threaten their status and emotions, they regard them as invectives. The study suggests that invectives should not be treated only as forms that violate one‘s rights but also as useful tools for correcting, reprimanding, teaching, commending, and making fun of people and situations
Representations of Chronotopic Cycles and Consciousness in Selected Novels of Amos Tutuola, Ben Okri, Alain Mabanckou and Mia Couto
(Kenyatta University, 2021) Wachira, Ibrahim Gichingiri; Mugo Muhia; Kimani Kaigai
The study investigates how the artistic relationships of time and space in the selected African novels are used to create the awareness of an African chronotope. The scope of the study is an examination on the selected novels of Ben Okri, Alain Mabanckou, Amos Tutuola and Mia Couto. The findings of the study reveal that the resemblance in the selected African novels is their dialogic problem-solution and question-answer structure. The authors innovatively use the riddle-narrative to address themselves to the representations of time and space in the African chronotope. In Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard, the eponymous narrator poses the dialogic problem as an alcoholic foible which propels him to make an almost-impossible journey to the Deads’ Town where his dead palm-wine tapster now resides. The dead tapster offers him a magic egg as the resolution to the problem but soon the egg breaks creating a cyclic journey as the narrator often returns to the Deads’ Town for another magic egg. In Okri’s The Famished Road, Azaro, an abiku, who is a spirit-child, poses the dialogic problem as a cycle journey of birth and death that revolves around an imagined postcolonial African world and a mysterious world of pure dreams. In Mabanckou’s Broken Glass and Memoirs of a Porcupine, the narrator(s) poses the dialogic problem as a commissioned manuscript(s) in which an African narrator is appointed to act as a double in the imagined African world. Finally, in Okri’s The Age of Magic and Couto’s The Last Flight of the Flamingo, the narrator(s) poses the dialogic problem as a journey to the idea of home. Due to their riddle-like structures, the novels have been easily fitted out into the imagined riddling session(s) through which the study analyzes the representations of chronotopic cycles and consciousness. The study employs a conceptual framework built on Akíntúndé Akínyẹmí’s idea of the dialogic problem-solution or question-answer that characterizes the riddle-narrative in the Yorùbá oral tradition and Kimani Njogu’s idea of dialogic problem-solution in the Gicaandi, an African poetic riddle-like dialogue. The study engages qualitative research methodology since the phenomenon being investigated is textual efficacy rather than quantifying of materiality. The study proposes the riddle’s dialogic problem-solution model as an efficacious protocol for reading the representations of time and space in the selected novels of Okri, Mabanckou, Tutuola and Couto, in particular, and the African literary imagination, in general.
Rereading selected black African autobiographies: a deconstructionist approach
(2011-12-07) Kamau, Benson Kairu
This study examines the nature of writing and reading of Black African autobiography. Specifically, it analyzes the transformation of persons into narratives, the concept of self and non-self in shaping the story and the diversity of meaning in selected autobiographies. To do this the study uses purposive sampling of three autobiographies; Camara Laye's The African Child, Mugo Gatheru's Child of Two Worlds and Ezekiel Mphahlele's Down Second Avenue. These three texts form the core of this study although other autobiographies are used for comparison at various stages. Our theoretical framework combines the strategies of deconstruction and sociology of literature. Deconstruction allows us to interrogate the premises and assumptions that are taken as given by readers of autobiography, while the sociology of literature gives us the chance to link the process of creating the self with the underlying social context. The present study argues that while life may sometimes render itself to linear development in the same way a work of art proceeds, there are unique circumstances that compel the literature African to write his life. There exists a favourable narrative tradition especially the oral autobiographical discourses among non-literate African communities that the educated African utilize to tell their stories. In addition colonialism, which took different systems in different African regions, is such a disruptive force that it compels the authors to record its consequences. However the study also reveals that there are internal influences as well. Reflective environments coupled with the human urge to immortalize oneself are important motivations to the three authors to tell their lives. Another finding of this study is that while the African Autobiography is modeled on its Western counterpart, it differs from it in some key respects. The African autobiographer, for instance incorporates the individual and the communal within the largely African philosophical worldview of "I am because were are" rather than the Descartian "I think therefore I am". Again the binary differentiation of either/or is deconstructed into an inclusive concept of both/and in African autobiography. This same worldview inevitably shapes the treatment of such themes as gender and time in these autobiographies. The study also reveals that self-recreation in the selected autobiographies depends on memory, incorporation of ritual and the degree to which an individual author manages the resources of fiction such as character, plot and scene. Finally the study finds that there exists an unwritten contract between the autobiographer and the reader. While it is not written, both parties seem to proceed -to write or to read-with the awareness of the other's expectation. And that the urge to read other people's stories is inherent in all of us as a way of sharing where the author gives himself on the page and the reader gives back through reading

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