Post-Independence Disillusionment in Petals of Blood and Devil on the Cross
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Date
2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Owing to the growing political depravity that has become the norm in many new born
African nations, post-colonial African novelists use their literary works to depict the
socio-economic and political realities of the continent. Initially, African literature was a
tool for celebrating the heroic achievements of African past; later it was used for anticolonial
struggle. Presently, it is being used as a veritable weapon for depicting the postcolonial
disillusionment in African nations. Therefore, African literature is always
chained to the experiences of the people of the continent. In this paper, an attempt is
made to examine the discourse of post-independence disillusionment in Petals of Blood
(1977) and Devil on the Cross (1982) as both novels depict an undistorted image of a
post-colonial African state, Kenya, with all its complexity of problems. The study
consists of four chapters: the introductory chapter provides general insights into the
whole work by introducing why it became necessary to conduct the research and what it
sets out to deal with. The second chapter focuses on a review of related literature in
accordance with the thematic preoccupations of the author in the two selected novels.
The third chapter is concerned with a critical analysis, in which an attempt has been
made first to critically examine the two novels separately, and then conduct a
comparative analysis as an attempt to show the pertinent issues in both novels.
Accordingly, the study has found out that the aforementioned literary works deal with
post-independence disillusionment: political corruption, social class stratification,
gender inequality, resistance and liberation which are widely foregrounded in both
novels. In the two selected novels the author teaches that the solution for the people’s
disillusionment with the tyrant political elites is to move against imperialism and its
recent manifestation, neo-colonialism, and embrace socialism or communism as a
natural way of life for the people of Kenya (Africa). The fourth chapter provides
concluding remarks, and summary based on the findings of the study. To be more
specific, the study deals with post-independence disillusionment, as experienced by the
people of the referent country, and depicted in the texts under the study.
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Keywords
Blood and Devil on the Cross