Ideology In Selected East African Anglophone Novels: A Comparative Study of Post- Colonial Experience
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Appropriate interpretation is one major aspect in literary study. However, it has been
observed that there exists a problem of interpretation. in the field of-literature. This problem
has led and is leading people who are engaged in literary study to wrong perception of
reality which results in social practices that are misleading. This is a critical problem and
requires careful attention from scholars in the field .In this connection, literature is
basically related to ideology which directly or indirectly controls discourses. Literary
discourses are also expressions of ideology. This point implies that no work of literature is
devoid of ideological content. For this reason, in any literary analysis, the inclusion of
ideological structure is necessary. To be more specific, African literary texts in general and
political novels in particular are in one way or another related to ideology .
. " Concomitantly, the African tradition of thought and African literary tradition are two basic
categories which are intimately or closely related to the long African history. The African
tradition of thought has got expression through its oral tradition which later developed into
written literature. In this connection, it may be noted that modern African literature has
sprung from its own history which is characterized by domination. This also implies that
African literature reflects the African experience in the course of domination which ranges
from the slave-trade to the post-colonial era. The idea of domination is linked to politics,
ideology and power because domination is impossible without political power. In this
regard, most African authors are preoccupied with portraying the colonial and post-colonial
experience of Africa through their works.All of the points indicated above clearly show
. " that there is a link among African history, African politics, African ideology, African
domination and African literary texts. This link presupposes a closer examination of
ideology through which all forms of control are carried out.In addition, the study of
ideology in the African context is very limited. Taking these points into account, this
research sets out to deal with problems of interpretation taking ideological analysis as its
reference point.For this purpose,this study has evolved an integrated framework of
ideology consisting' of three major paradigms.vis.iauthorial.aesthetic and' dominant
ideologies. This framework has been applied to the interpretation of six selected East
African Anglophone novels:Nuruddin Farah's first trilogy,Ngugi's Petals of
Blood,Mwangi's Kill Me Quick and Serumaga's Return to the Shadows.
This thesis contains seven chapters. The first chapter deals with the rationale that
necesitates ideological study in literary texts in line with the background of African literary
tradition. The second chapter is mainly concerned with critical views on many issues in
relation to African literature .Chapter three primarily focuses on reorganizing theories of
. \ ideology to form an integrated model of ideology . In addition, this section attempts to
show how ideological universals can be contextualized based on African ideology and
historical experience. Chapters four to six elucidate the nature of ideology in each selected
novel based on ideological structures that are considered as a paradigm for analyzing
African literary texts .Chapter seven forwards the similarities and differences among the
selected novels in terms of their ideological structure. Finally, chapter eight winds the
thesis up by providing relevant concluding remarks, findings and recommendations.The
major findings of this study are:global theories of ideological interpretation of literary texts
need African contextualization;there has to be meaning relationships among the different
interpretations of the same text;and it is possible to make a distinction between the implied
author and the real author.
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Keywords
Post- Colonial Experience