Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Resistance

by Amitayu Chakraborty

Overview

As a part of Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literature, the book explores the complex of ways in which Ngugi wa Thiong’o wrestles with issues of nationalism and ethnicity through his politically subversive and creatively intense literary texts. His novels and plays are fraught with his anxiety, resistance, and defiance concerning Gikuyu ethnicity, Kenyan nationalism, and a curious, globalectic imaginary. In this way, the book re- appreciates Ngugi offering scholarly insights into the present debates over identity politics as well as aesthetics that animate contemporary research in postcolonial studies, world literature, and African studies across the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032709420
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/30/2025
Series:	Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Amitayu Chakraborty works as Assistant Professor of English at Durgapur Women’s College. He did his PhD from Visva- Bharati in 2017. His doctoral dissertation was on Ngugi wa Thiong’o. He has a keen interest in postcolonial studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section One: Why Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Again!)?

Section Two: Conceptualising “Nationalism” and “Ethnicity”

Section Three: Nation- Building, Political Tribalism, and Moral Ethnicity in Kenya/Africa

Section Four: About the Book

1 The Phase of Anxiety (1950s– 1960s)

Section One: Gendered Anxieties in The Black Hermit

Section Two: Clitoridectomal Anxieties in The River Between

Section Three: Anxieties, Conflicts, and Violence in Weep Not, Child

2 The Phase of Polemics (1960s– 1970s)

Section One: Nationalism, Ethnicity, and the Trials of the Unheroic in A Grain of Wheat

Section Two: Moral Ethnicity and Marxist Revolution in Petals of Blood

Section Three: Marxism and Mythopoeia in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

3 The Phase of Defiance (1970s onwards)

Section One: Subaltern Self- Mastery and Dialogic Resistance in I Will Marry When I Want

Section Two: Myth, Ethnicity, and Plurality in Devil on the Cross and Matigari

Section Three: Globalectic Defiance in Wizard of the Crow

Conclusion

The Outcome: A Pursuit of Globalectics