Ideology and the Representation of Female Characters in Ngiigi wa Thiong'o's The River Between and A Grain of Wheat
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis aims at showing and analyzing the representation of female
characters in Ngugi's two novels-The River Between and A Grain of Wheat
from ideological perspectives. To accomplish the study, the notions of
ideology and literary representation are discussed. Though ideology IS
defined as a set of beliefs, it has specific definitions depending on its
kinds. Different types of ideologies such as dominant, authorial,
aesthetic, patriarchal and gendered are looked at in the study. Thus,
based on ideology and literary representation as a theoretical framework,
all female characters in the selected novels are examined.
The study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the
introduction to the study. The second chapter is devoted to the review of
literature on the issues of ideology and representation. The third chapter
is analysis and interpretation of the two selected novels. The analysis is
divided into four major sections and it analyses and interprets the
representation female characters from dominant, authorial, aesthetic,
patriarchal and gendered ideological points of view. Finally, the last
chapter deals with the conclusion to the analysis in the third chapter,
where the representation of female characters in the two novels is
examined from the ideological dimensions.
The analysis and interpretation of the novels show that female characters
are victims of the dominant, gendered and patriarchal ideologies. Ngugi,
using his authorial ideology, has shown the different nationalistic roles
female characters have played in the two novels. Finally, the study has
confirmed that the representation of female characters in the two novels
reveals the realities of women in the social context of the period when the
novels were written.
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Keywords
Characters in Ngiigi wa Thiong'0's