Beyond Nativism: An Interview with Ngugi wa Thiong'o

2004 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Lamas Rodrigues ◽  
Ngugi wa Thiongo
Keyword(s):  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

Reading Old Books

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mack
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Elizabeth Gaskell ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
First Century ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
Urban Deprivation ◽  
A Minor ◽  
International Character

In literary and cultural studies, “tradition” is a word everyone uses but few address critically. In this book, the author offers a wide-ranging exploration of the creative power of literary tradition, from the middle ages to the twenty-first century, revealing in new ways how it helps writers and readers make new works and meanings. The book argues that the best way to understand tradition is by examining the moments when a writer takes up an old text and writes something new out of a dialogue with that text and the promptings of the present situation. The book examines Petrarch as a user, instigator, and victim of tradition. It shows how Chaucer became the first great English writer by translating and adapting a minor poem by Boccaccio. It investigates how Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser made new epic meanings by playing with assumptions, episodes, and phrases translated from their predecessors. It then analyzes how the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell drew on tradition to address the new problem of urban deprivation in Mary Barton. And, finally, it looks at how the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, in his 2004 novel Wizard of the Crow, reflects on biblical, English literary, and African traditions. Drawing on key theorists, critics, historians, and sociologists, and stressing the international character of literary tradition, the book illuminates the not entirely free choices readers and writers make to create meaning in collaboration and competition with their models.

Liberate our Library: doing decolonisation work at Goldsmiths Library

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 148-154
Author(s):  
Marilyn Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
The Self ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
The Mind

Library work now has a role to play when it comes to decolonisation. This article outlines what Goldsmiths Library, University of London is doing, through the Liberate our Library initiative, to diversify and decolonise its collections and practices against the backdrop of worldwide movements for education and social justice led by both students and academics to challenge the dominance of the ‘Westernised university’.2Examples of how we are doing this work are explained using critical librarianship as our guide, whilst recognising that we are still developing expertise in this evolving field of practice. This decolonisation work also uses critical race theory (CRT) as a means to dismantle racial inequality and its impact on higher education.Here, I would like to acknowledge the excellent and inspirational content of ALJ, Critical Librarianship: Special Issue (v.44, no.2) and I see this article as an ongoing companion piece.Goldsmiths Library's liberation work endeavours to empower its users with critical thinking and study skills whilst conducting their research using hierarchical systems and resources which in themselves are in the process of being decolonised.Decolonising a library collection and a profession must of course always begin or at least happen in tandem with the self, through a process that Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o describes as ‘decolonising the mind.’3

Decolonize Practical Criticism?

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (270) ◽  
pp. 227-236
Author(s):  
Ben Etherington ◽  
Jarad Zimbler
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Critical Practice ◽  
Practical Criticism

Abstract This article reflects on what it might mean to decolonize practical criticism in the current moment by considering previous responses to the same imperative. It discusses critical and institutional interventions by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Mervyn Morris, Chidi Amuta, and, more recently, Harry Garuba and Benge Okot. In this way, the article demonstrates that the antidote to colonial paradigms of literary criticism has not been a pedagogy that prioritizes context over text but a critical practice oriented to a work’s formal and technical context of intelligibility. Such a practice demands that readers inhabit the literary constraints and possibilities encountered by postcolonial or otherwise peripheral writers.

The Journey Motif and The Re-Reading of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o: Devil on the Cross, Matigari and Wizard of the Crow, a Gikuyu Trilogy

Utafiti ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
Emmanuel P. Lema
Keyword(s):  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Social Agenda ◽  
The Cross

This essay employs the journey motif to re-read three novels by Ngugi wa Thiong’o: Devil on the Cross, Matigari and Wizard of the Crow. It is argued here that these three novels form Ngugi’s era of Gikuyu fiction; they are chosen to represent his celebrated decision to freely tap from Gikuyu orature. Ngugi’s use of indigenous language in these novels bridges the historical and chronological gaps separating the three narratives; they constitute a trilogy that retells Ngugi’s parable about postcolonial Kenya and Independent Africa more generally. By exploring the different physical, metaphorical and psychological journeys that permeate the atmosphere of all three novels, this interpretation enhances their value in light of Ngugi’s broader political and social agenda.

scholarly journals "UM CURANDEIRO PÓS-COLONIAL"

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarso Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Frantz Fanon ◽  
Stuart Hall

Tendo como tema o neocolonialismo e suas consequências, o artigo tem como objetivo principal analisar a seguinte proposta feita pelo autoexilado autor queniano Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, em seu mais recente romance, Wizard of the Crow: a necessidade de uma autoanálise por parte da África Negra neocolonial. Para tanto, o artigo discute o próprio conceito de neocolonialismo, os turbulentos eventos que levaram ao exílio de Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, assim como as linhas mestras de Wizard of the Crow,  tendo como pressupostos teóricos ideias de autores como Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe, Stuart Hall, além do próprio Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o sobre como o contexto neocolonial afeta as populações colonizadas, mais especificamente, as da África Negra. A título de ilustração dos pontos levantados, o artigo aborda a enfermidade chamada de white-ache no romance, e, como ela acomete um dos principais personagens da obra, Titus Tajirika. Um dos resultados obtidos com a investigação desenvolvida ao longo do artigo é evidenciar como a análise da doença, do tratamento e da cura Tajirika deixam bastante claros a proposta e o projeto literário de Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.        

scholarly journals A perda da identidade cultural em Wedding at the Cross, de Ngugi wa Thiong’o

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Elizandra Fernandes Alves ◽  
Nelci Alves Coelho Silvestre
Keyword(s):  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
The Cross

Baseando-se principalmente nas teorias sobre a identidade desenvolvidas por Stuart Hall e publicadas em Identidades Culturais na Pós-modernidade (2006), e em outras, como as de Eurídice Figueiredo (1998) e Bill Ashcroft (2001), no presente artigo analisa-se alguns dos aspectos da perda da identidade cultural na literatura pós-colonial africana escrita em língua inglesa. Tem-se, como corpus, o conto Wedding at the Cross, presente na coletânea Secret lives and other Stories, originalmente publicada em 1975, do queniano Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Na análise do conto o foco fica, mais especificamente, no personagem principal, Wariuki/Livingstone Jr., e na forma como sua identidade fragmentada reflete a natureza hierárquica do processo de colonização ao qual seu povo foi submetido. Na análise da diégese deve-se apresentar, ainda, como, pelos cinco descentramentos discutidos nos estudos de Hall, o personagem em questão revela-se um sujeito cuja crise identitária parece ter sido instaurada devido ao binarismo no qual foi socialmente educado.

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