Defamiliarization in the novels of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Said Ahmed Mohamed

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of defamiliarization techniques in selected novels of Euphrase Kezilahabi and Said Ahmed Mohamed. The novels analysed were purposefully sampled. Kezilahabi's Rosa Mistika (1971), Kichwamaji (1974), Gamba la Nyoka (1978), and Mohamed's Utengano (1980), Dunia Mti Mkavu (1980), Asali Chungu (1978), Kiza katika Nuru (1988) and Babu Alipofufuka (2001) were analysed. The study examined the following defamiliarization techniques: metaphor, irony, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, analogy, symbolism, juxtaposition, allusion, dream and magical transformations. The study adopted Critical Discourse Analysis Theory (CDA). This post-modernist conceptual framework is an interdisciplinary approach in the study of discourse, which views any use of language as a form of social practice. It postulates that discourses are shaped and constrained by social structures and culture. This study therefore, contextualized the texts as discourses and interrogated them to reveal social problems that are mediated by mainstream ideology and power relations. These techniques were analyzed within (CDA) variables such as the notions of ideology, religion, gender, power and culture. The results were presented in form of an informed discourse.The study found out that both Euphrase Kezilahabi and Said Ahmed Mohamed make deliberate and strategic use of defamiliarization techniques for foreground meaning. The authors utilize the techniques either to depict the reality of African life or to contest and protest against the dominant ideologies. The study found out that defamiliarization techniques utilized are ideologically motivated and reveal social, cultural, political, religious and historical constructs of the African society. The study concludes that CDA can be utilized effectively to analyse texts as a way of reading society. The study calls for further research in which CDA could be used to analyse other genres of literature as well as other Kiswahili fiction writers. Other defamiliarization .techniques such as neologism, oxymoron, parody, parallelism and antithesis could also be analysed