BC-Department of Literature
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Item The image of women in African oral literature: a case study of Gikuyu oral literature.(2006) Ndungo, Catherine M.Item Book Review: Sitwala Imenda "Unmarried Wife" East African Educational Publishers Ltd., 1996. pp.141(Kenyatta University Faculty of Arts, 1999) Kabaji, E.It is common to hear people talk ill of polygamy. Feminists talk of it as a demonstration of male greed and irresponsibility. Some perceive it as an outdated c-ustom that has no place in modem society. Inspiration writers look at it as a pre-occupation of those courting marital chaos. Either way, it has to be acknowledged that the destruction of African traditional structures has affected this aspect of the African family life. Our society is at crossroads. There seems to exist a desire in most African societies to adopt the christian philosophy of marriage but a close look at the actions of men reveal otherwise. It is, in a more immediate sense, a question of culture clash. The book under review attempts to explore the physiological, psychological and sociological factors that lead to infidelity or second marriages. This novel is set in South Africajust at the dawn of a new era as the country is shedding off apartheid policies and a wave of democratic changes set in.Item The Worlds of Gĩkũyũ Mythology A Mytho-Structural Analysis of a Culture's Modes of Thought and Practice(VDM Verlag Müller, 2009-05-01) Wainaina, MichaelItem Female Imagination: Biographical Survey of East African Women Artists(LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010-08-11) Mwai, W.; Oluoch, O.Item New Trends in Ushairi: A Socio - Historical Study of Ushairi;(LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010-08-08) Mwai, W.Item Songs for the Bride: A Literary Analysis of Unyago Nuptial Oral Poetry(LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010-06-03) Mwai, W.Item Style in African Literature: Essays on Literary Stylistics and Narrative Styles(Rodopi, 2012) Makokha, J. K. S.; Obiero, O.J.; West-Pavlov, R.Item Style in African Literature: Essays on Literary Stylistics and Narrative Styles(Rodopi, 2012) Makokha, J. K. S.; Ogone, J. O.; Russell, W.Postcolonial and contemporary African literatures have always been marked by an acute sensitivity to the politics of language, an attentiveness inscribed in the linguistic fabric of their own modes of expression. It is curious however, that despite the prevalence of a much-touted 'linguistic turn' in twentieth century theory and cultural production, language has frequently been neglected by literary studies in general. Even more curiously, postcolonial literary studies, an erstwhile emergent and now established discipline which has from the outset contained important elements of linguistic critique, has eschewed any sustained engagement with this topic. This absence is salient in the study of African literatures, despite, for instance, the prominence of orature in the African literary tradition right up to the present day, and sporadic meditations on the part of such luminaries as Achebe and Ngũgĩ. Beyond this, however, there has been little scholarly work attuned to the multifarious aspects of language and linguistic politics in the study of African literature. The present volume aims to rectify such lacunae by making a substantial interdisciplinary and transcultural contribution to the gradual reinstatement of the 'linguistic turn' in African literary studies. The volume focuses variously on postcolonial and transcultural African literatures, areas of literary production where the confluence of several languages, whether indigenous and (post)colonial in the first case, and local and global in the second case, appears to be a central and decisive factor in the formation and transformation of the continent and its peoples' cultural identities.Item Reading Contemporary African Literature: Critical Perspectives(Editions Rodopi B.V., 2013-06-01) Makokha, J. K. S.; Chirambo, R.B.Reading Contemporary African Literature brings together scholarship on, critical debates about, and examples of reading African literature in all genres - poetry, fiction, and drama including popular culture. The anthology offers studies of African literature from interdisciplinary perspectives that employ sociological, historical, and ethnographic besides literary analysis of the literatures. It has assembled critical and researched essays on a range of topics, theoretical and empirical, by renowned critics and theorists of African literature that evaluate and provide examples of reading African literature that should be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of African literature, culture, and history amongst other subjects. Some of the essays examine authors that have received little or no attention to date in books on recent African literature. These essays provide new insights and scholarship that should broaden and deepen our understanding and appreciation of African literature.Item The Eleventh Commandment: Existentialist Trends in the Fiction of Taban Lo Liyong(LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2012-05-16) Odhoji, B. M.Taban lo Liyong is best known in Africa both as a prolific literary artist and an iconoclast with boundless independence of thought. In spite of his prolific ness there has been a noticeable critical neglect of him. He is arguably, the most controversial and the most misunderstood among the founding practitioners of East Africa's literary practice. His works have baffled many critics mainly because of his eccentric ideas as well as his iconoclastic and subversive modes of expression. Odhoji identifies existentialism as the principal philosophical theory which influenced and shaped his subject matter and creative style. The purpose of this modest book is twofold. First, to apply existentialist philosophical theory to Taban's work in such a way as to glean the "eccentric" facets of his fiction which are relevant to today's critical thinking. Secondly, to demonstrate and justify that only existentialism can best expose and explain the "eccentric" facets of his works. The existentialist approach reflects Taban's prophetic relevance and calls for a re-evaluation of his status as one visionary writer who emerged onto the East African literary scene much earlier before his time