Dramatizing Postcoloniality: Nationalism and the Rewriting of History in Ngugi and Mugo's The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 225-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oyeniyi Okunoye
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Major Site ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Historical Play

History is not the past: it is a consciousness of the past used for present purposes. (Greg Dening)After empire, it was clear the history of the colonised needed repair. (Elleke Boehmer)This paper identifies history as a major site for identity-formation in the postcolonial world. It draws attention to some strategies of historical reconstruction in African drama by focusing on Ngugi and Mugo's The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, an influential Kenyan play which has also come to be seen as providing a paradigm for the African historical play. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the play is rooted in the counterdiscourse which authorizes revisionist histories in the postcolonial world. The creation of this play is seen as motivated by the desire of the playwrights to interrogate misconceptions and distortions in official Kenyan history, which marginalizes the popular struggle that culminated in the nation's independence. The writing of the play therefore enables the playwrights to celebrate Dedan Kimathi, who personifies the collective aspirations of the Kenyan people, but is demonized in earlier versions of their history. The essay underlines the fact that this version of history is basically conditioned by the materialist vision of the writers.

The Scientific Value Of Research On Mirmukhsin Fikriy

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (08) ◽  
pp. 583-589
Author(s):  
Umriniso Rahmatovna Turaeva
Keyword(s):  
Political Environment ◽  
Continuous Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Scientific Value

The history of the Turkestan Jadid movement and the study of Jadid literature show that it has not been easy to study this subject. The socio-political environment of the time led to the blind reduction of the history of continuous development of Uzbek literature, artificial reduction of the literary heritage of the past on the basis of dogmatic thinking, neglect of the study of works of art and literary figures. As a result, the creation of literary figures of a certain period, no matter how important, remained unexplored.

scholarly journals R. PLEČKAIČIO FILOSOFIJOS ISTORIJOS TYRIMŲ METODOLOGIJA

Problemos ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Gintaras Kabelka
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Problematic Situation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

Straipsnyje nagrinėjami Romano Plečkaičio filosofijos istorijos tyrimų metodologijos svarbiausi elementai: filosofijos istorijos kaip problemų sprendimų kaitos samprata – filosofiją sudaro nuolat kintantys problemų sprendimai; problema yra ir tyrimo prieiga, tyrimo medžiagą konceptualiai struktūruojantis veiksnys; probleminės situacijos (istoriniu momentu susiklosčiusi teorinių elementų konsteliacija, lemianti naujos teorijos sukūrimą) istorinė rekonstrukcija; objektyvaus istorinio supratimo prieiga, kuri filosofiją traktuoja kaip objektyviai ir visuotinai galiojančių žinojimo elementų visumą. Plečkaitis kuria filosofijos pažangios raidos vaizdinį, kurį papildo paradigmų kaitos elementais: radikalus problemų sprendimų pokytis vaizduojamas kaip visiškai naujos probleminės situacijos susiformavimas. Ši traktuojama kaip paradigminė, lemianti visus kitus problemų sprendimo būdus.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: Plečkaitis, problemų istorijos metodologija, probleminė situacija, objektyvus istorinis supratimas.R. Plečkaitis’ Methodology of Historical-Philosophical ResearchGintaras Kabelka SummaryThe article analyzes the methodology of Romanas Plečkaitis’ research, in which the most important ele-ments are: the conception of the history of philosophy as a process of transformation of philosophical problems, which initiates the historical study and provides the material and structures of the interpreta-tion of results; the historical reconstruction of the problematic situation as a constellation of theoretical elements motivating the creation of a new theory; the objective historical understanding, which treats philosophy as the totality of objectively and universally functioning cognitional elements and excludes from the interpretation of the history of philosophy all subjective and metaphysical factors. The picture of progress of philosophy presented in the works of Plečkaitis involves the elements of paradigm shifts. He presents the radical modification of the solution of problems as the formation of a new problematic situation, which is regarded as paradigmatic for the solution of other remaining problems. Keywords: Plečkaitis, methodology of history of problems, problematic situation, objective historical understanding   ine-height: 18px;"> 

The Future of the Past

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Borrut
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Sacred History

Writing the history of the first centuries of Islam poses thorny methodological problems, because our knowledge rests upon narrative sources produced later in Abbasid Iraq. The creation of an “official” version of the early Islamic past (i.e., a vulgate), composed contemporarily with the consolidation of Abbasid authority in the Middle East, was not the first attempt by Muslims to write about their origins. This Abbasid-era version succeeded when previous efforts vanished, or were reshaped, in rewritings and enshrined as the “official” version of Islamic sacred history. Attempts to impose different historical orthodoxies affected the making of this version, as history was rewritten with available materials, partly determined by earlier generations of Islamic historians. This essay intends to discuss a robust culture of historical writing in eighth-century Syria and to suggest approaches to access these now-lost historiographical layers torn between memory and oblivion, through Muslim and non-Muslim sources.

scholarly journals Historians, are Archeologists Your Siblings?

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 369-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Vansina
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
African History ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Relative Scarcity

The historian of pre-nineteenth century Africa…cannot get far without the aid of archaeology.Nevertheless, historians have good reason to be cautious about historical generalisations by archaeologists and about their own use of archaeological material…: it would be a rash historian who totally accepted the conclusions of Garlake and Huffman with the same simple-minded trust as I myself accepted the conclusions of Summers and Robinson.In the beginning, historians of Africa put great store by archeology. Was its great time depth not one of the distinctive features of the history of Africa, a condition that cannot be put aside without seriously distorting the flavor of all its history? Did not the relative scarcity and the foreign authorship of most precolonial written records render archeological sources all the more precious? Did not history and archeology both deal with the reconstruction of human societies in the past? Was the difference between them not merely the result of a division of labor based on sources, so that historical reconstruction follows in time and flows from archeological reconstruction? Such considerations explain why the Journal of African History has regularly published regional archeological surveys in order to keep historians up to date.

A History of ISTAHC: A Personal Perspective on Its First 10 Years

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. David Banta ◽  
Seymour Perry
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
International Society ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThis reflection on the history of the International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care is an effort to describe the creation of the Society and its first 10 years of activity. Without analyzing the forces that spurred the growth of technology assessment internationally or linking events, policies, and changes in the various countries, this essay focuses on the persons and events that surrounded the birth and growth of the Society in the past decade.

The Animal Face of Early Modern England

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 177-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Fudge
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Archival Study

This article is both a work of historical reconstruction and a theoretical intervention. It looks at some influential contemporary accounts of human-animal relations and outlines a body of ideas from the 17th century that challenges what is presented as representative of the past in posthumanist thinking. Indeed, this article argues that this alternative past is much more in keeping with the shifts that posthumanist ideas mark in their departure from humanism. Taking a journey through ways of thinking that will, perhaps, be unfamiliar, the revised vision of human-animal relations outlined here emerges not from a history of philosophy but from an archival study of people’s relationships with and understandings of their livestock in early modern England. At stake are conceptions of who we are and who we might have been, and the relation between those two, and the livestock on 17th-century smallholdings are our guides.

Anniversary Address

1944 ◽  
Vol 24 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 85-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Clapham
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Human History ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Social Order ◽  
Victorian Age

The past year has witnessed a profound change in the fortunes and prospects of the national cause; growing hope has been exchanged for the certainty of victory and ‘how long?’ is the only question yet unanswered. To some of us who have passed an appreciable portion of our lives in the Victorian age, the shattering of the old security, the reversal of the old standards, and the casting of the old society into the melting-pot, may seem too catastrophic a series of changes to have been suitably experienced in one lifetime. Yet to those with a lively historic sense it must afford a certain bitter satisfaction, to have lived in and outlived the most momentous age in the history of mankind and to have been spectators of, or participators in, the grimmest drama of human history. It should furthermore be a stimulus to further effort that we may before long have an opportunity of assisting in the restoration of all that was best in the old life and in the creation of the new social order which will we hope, in time, soften or efface the memories of five purgatorial years.

Promiscuity, Polygyny, and the Power of Revenge: The Past and Future of Burmese Buddhist Law in Myanmar

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa CROUCH
Keyword(s):  
Potential Application ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Family Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

AbstractMyanmar is the only Buddhism-majority country in the world that has developed and maintained a system of family law for Buddhists enforced by the courts. This article considers the construction of Burmese Buddhist law by lawyers, judges, and legislators, and the changes made through legislative intervention in 2015. It begins by addressing the creation and contestation of Burmese Buddhist law to demonstrate that it has largely been defined by men and by its perceived opposites, Hinduism and Islam. Three aspects of Burmese Buddhist law that affect women are then examined more closely. First, Burmese Buddhist law carries no penalties for men who commit adultery, although women may risk divorce and the loss of her property. Second, a man can take more than one wife under Burmese Buddhist law; a woman cannot. Third, restrictions on Buddhist women who marry non-Buddhist men operate to ensure the primacy of Burmese Buddhist law over the potential application of Islamic law. This article deconstructs the popular claim that women are better off under Burmese Buddhist law than under Hindu law or Islamic law by showing how Burmese Buddhist law has been preoccupied with regulating the position of women. The 2015 laws build on this history of Burmese Buddhist law, creating new problems, but also potentially operating as a new source of revenge.

scholarly journals Learning National Identity Outside the Nation-State: the Story Of Latvian Primers (Mid-1940s – Mid-1970s)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iveta Ķestere ◽  
◽  
Baiba Kaļķe ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
National Language ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control ◽  
National Identity Formation

In order to understand how the concept of national identity, currently included in national legislation and curricula, has been formed, our research focuses on the recent history of national identity formation in the absence of the nation-state “frame”, i.e. in Latvian diaspora on both sides of the Iron Curtain – in Western exile and in Soviet Latvia. The question of our study is: how was national identity represented and taught to next generations in the national community that had lost the protection of its state? As primers reveal a pattern of national identity practice, eight primers published in Western exile and six primers used in Soviet Latvian schools between the mid-1940s and the mid-1970s were taken as research sources. In primers, national identity is represented through the following components: land and nation state iconography, traditions, common history, national language and literature. The past reverberating with cultural heritage became the cornerstone of learning national identity by the Latvian diaspora. The shared, idealised past contrasted the Soviet present and, thus, turned into an instrument of hidden resistance. The model of national identity presented moral codes too, and, teaching them, national communities did not only fulfill their supporting function, but also took on the functions of “normalization” and control. Furthermore, national identity united generations and people’s lives in the present, creating memory-based relationships and memory-based communities.

Emotions and Temporalities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margrit Pernau
Keyword(s):  
History Of Emotions ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Perspective

This Element brings together the history of emotions and temporalities, offering a new perspective on both. Time was often imagined as a movement from the past to the future: the past is gone and the future not yet here. Only present-day subjects could establish relations to other times, recovering history as well as imagining and anticipating the future. In a movement paralleling the emphasis on the porous self, constituted by emotions situated not inside but between subjects, this Element argues for a porous present, which is open to the intervention of ghosts coming from the past and from the future. What needs investigating is the flow between times as much as the creation of boundaries between them, which first banishes the ghosts and then denies their existence. Emotions are the most important way through which subjects situate and understand themselves in time.

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