Threats to Masculinities and their Implications on Characters in Meja Mwangi’s Selected Urban Fiction

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Date
2023-12
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
The study has investigated threats to masculinities and has examined the impact of declining masculinities on characters in Meja Mwangi’s selected urban fiction, with specific reference to The Cockroach Dance (1979) and Rafiki Man Guitar (2013). These texts are set in postcolonial Kenyan cities and largely deal with the challenges that came with modernization. The study focuses on how these challenges affect characters in the selected texts and how they respond to them. The study further examines the setting of the two texts in order to understand the impact it has on characters and how it has contributed to the declining masculinities in the modern, Kenyan man. It has employed the theories of masculinity and postcolonial hybridity. The two theories have been used in the examination of the impact of city’s slum setting on characters in the text under study. The research is qualitative and has used textual analysis as its methodology in collecting and interpreting data on characters from the selected texts. Primary data was analysed and interpreted in line with the study’s objectives, taking into consideration the insightful information obtained from secondary data. The study concludes that, the postcolonial urban setting in Mwangi’s selected texts has compromised masculinity by creating weak men who cannot perform their roles efficiently and gives recommendations for further studies related to Mwangi’s fiction especially on the identity of urban children and postcolonial urban decadence
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A Thesis Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts (Literature) of Kenyatta University December 2023 Supervisors: 1. Mark M. Chetambe 2. Macharia Mwangi
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