Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction

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dc.contributor.advisorFincham, Gailen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorNicholls, Brendon Lindleyen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-04-07T14:35:39Z
dc.date.available2016-04-07T14:35:39Z
dc.date.issued1997en_ZA
dc.description.abstractUsing a nexus of discourse theory, the French Feminism of Helene Cixous and the deconstructive Marxist Feminism of Gayatri Spivak, this work examines the production of the sign 'woman' in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction. I locate Ngugi's semiotics of the feminine in the conflicting discursive formations of two historical junctures of Kenyan resistance to colonial rule (the female circumcision debate and the Mau Mau insurgency) , in which 'woman' is mobilized as a metaphor for the Kenyan social matrix by Gikuyu nationalist/traditionalist discourses. Following Spivak, I find in female circumcision a metonym of the silencing of the subaltern woman as an agency in insurgency. Ngugi's silencing of the historical struggles of Kenyan women obtains in his association of the female characters (or 'mothers') with the land throughout his fiction. The women in Ngugi's narratives are thus located outside of an historical present, inasmuch as they represent either an idyllic past (prior to the colonial incursion) or an harmonious future utopia. Further, Ngugi' s gender representations enable the political vision of his novels and contradict the socio-political convictions which he has elaborated outside of his fiction. By refusing to engage the vestiges of the Gikuyu patriarchy, Ngugi consolidates his privileged position within the Kenyan elite and proclaims to represent worker/peasant constituency transparently. Reading 'against the grain' of the later novels, I iocate in the prostitute or 'fallen woman' a figure which unsettles the economy of gender difference constituted by Ngugi's patriarchal master-narrative, and which therefore disrupts Ngugi' s androcentric historiography. Bibliography: pages 208-213.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationNicholls, B. L. (1997). <i>Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18706en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationNicholls, Brendon Lindley. <i>"Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18706en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNicholls, B. 1997. Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Nicholls, Brendon Lindley AB - Using a nexus of discourse theory, the French Feminism of Helene Cixous and the deconstructive Marxist Feminism of Gayatri Spivak, this work examines the production of the sign 'woman' in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction. I locate Ngugi's semiotics of the feminine in the conflicting discursive formations of two historical junctures of Kenyan resistance to colonial rule (the female circumcision debate and the Mau Mau insurgency) , in which 'woman' is mobilized as a metaphor for the Kenyan social matrix by Gikuyu nationalist/traditionalist discourses. Following Spivak, I find in female circumcision a metonym of the silencing of the subaltern woman as an agency in insurgency. Ngugi's silencing of the historical struggles of Kenyan women obtains in his association of the female characters (or 'mothers') with the land throughout his fiction. The women in Ngugi's narratives are thus located outside of an historical present, inasmuch as they represent either an idyllic past (prior to the colonial incursion) or an harmonious future utopia. Further, Ngugi' s gender representations enable the political vision of his novels and contradict the socio-political convictions which he has elaborated outside of his fiction. By refusing to engage the vestiges of the Gikuyu patriarchy, Ngugi consolidates his privileged position within the Kenyan elite and proclaims to represent worker/peasant constituency transparently. Reading 'against the grain' of the later novels, I iocate in the prostitute or 'fallen woman' a figure which unsettles the economy of gender difference constituted by Ngugi's patriarchal master-narrative, and which therefore disrupts Ngugi' s androcentric historiography. Bibliography: pages 208-213. DA - 1997 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1997 T1 - Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction TI - Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18706 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/18706
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationNicholls BL. Problems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1997 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18706en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnglish Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.titleProblems of representation and representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fictionen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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