• Login
    View Item 
    •   MUT Research Archive
    • Journal Articles
    • School of Humanities and Social Sciences (JA)
    • Journal Articles (HSS)
    • View Item
    •   MUT Research Archive
    • Journal Articles
    • School of Humanities and Social Sciences (JA)
    • Journal Articles (HSS)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Literary Writers and the Subaltern: (Mis)-representation of Some Marginal Groups in Selected Contemporary African Novels

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Full Text Article (309.3Kb)
    Date
    2024-02
    Author
    Nyongesa, Andrew W.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Dominant literary conversations like post-structuralism have crowned the literary writer as an impartial and reliable voice for the voiceless in oppressive cultural settings. Since the marginal group is weak and cannot speak for themselves, the intellectual is given express authority to articulate their issues. Emerging voices have nonetheless questioned the author’s eligibility to speak for the marginal groups. Given the diversity typical of the marginal group, these voices doubt the author’s ability to perfectly represent it. This article extends the conversation that the literary writer lacks the capacity to speak for the marginal group because of their heterogeneity. Using the postcolonial concept of representation, the article overturns the literary writer’s articulation of issues affecting marginal groups in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame, Brian Chikwava’s Harare North and Zukiswa Wanner’s London, Cape Town, Joburg. The ideas of Gayatri Spivak will form the theoretical basis of interpretation. One major finding of the study is that the author cannot perfectly represent the marginal groups without silencing some of them.
    URI
    https://journals.mu.ac.ke/index.php/lift/article/view/368
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378401117_Literary_Writers_and_the_Subaltern_Mis-representation_of_Some_Marginal_Groups_in_Selected_Contemporary_African_Novels
    http://repository.mut.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/6420
    Collections
    • Journal Articles (HSS) [38]

    MUT Library copyright © 2017-2024  MUT Library Website
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
     

     

    Browse

    All of Research ArchiveCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    MUT Library copyright © 2017-2024  MUT Library Website
    Contact Us | Send Feedback