Ngugi Wa Thiong'O

by Simon Gikandi

• ISBN13: 9780521480062
• ISBN10: 052148006X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Kenyan dramatist and novelist, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, is regarded as one of the most influential African writers today, not only for his creative work but also for his criticism of wider cultural issues - issues such as nation and narration, power and performance, language and identity, empire and postcoloniality. Simon Gikandi’s study offers a comprehensive analysis of all Ngugi’s published work and explores the development of the major novels and plays against a background of colonialism and decolonisation in Kenya. Gikandi places the works in a context that examines the way they engage with the changing history of Africa. Tracing Ngugi’s career from the 1960s through to his role in shaping a radical culture in East Africa in the 1970s and his imprisonment and exile in the 1980s, this book provides fresh insight into the author’s life and the historic events that produced his work.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Chronology	xi
Introduction: reading texts and contexts	1	(38)
Narrative and nationalist desire: early short stories and The River Between	39	(32)
Educating colonial subjects: the ``emergency stories'' and Weep Not, Child	71	(27)
Representing decolonization: A Grain of Wheat	98	(30)
The poetics of cultural production: the later short stories and Petals of Blood	128	(32)
Performance and power: the plays	160	(35)
The prisonhouse of culture: Detained and Devil on the Cross	195	(28)
The work of art in exile: Matigari	223	(24)
Writing freedom: essays and criticism	247	(39)
Conclusion	286	(7)
Notes	293	(24)
Bibliography	317	(8)
Index	325