Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Kenyan dramatist and novelist, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, is regarded as one of the most influential African writers today, not only for his creative work but also for his criticism of wider cultural issues - issues such as nation and narration, power and performance, language and identity, empire and postcoloniality. Simon Gikandi’s study offers a comprehensive analysis of all Ngugi’s published work and explores the development of the major novels and plays against a background of colonialism and decolonisation in Kenya. Gikandi places the works in a context that examines the way they engage with the changing history of Africa. Tracing Ngugi’s career from the 1960s through to his role in shaping a radical culture in East Africa in the 1970s and his imprisonment and exile in the 1980s, this book provides fresh insight into the author’s life and the historic events that produced his work.

• Comprehensive analysis of all the published works of one of the most important modern African writers • Detailed presentation of historical and cultural background; Gikandi is himself a Kenyan with an immediate understanding of the context of Ngugi’s writing • Application of latest theories on narrative, cultural production and postcolonialism

Chronology; 1. Introduction: reading texts and contexts; 2. Narrative and nationalist desire: early short stories and The River Between; 3. Educating colonial subjects: The ‘Emergency’ stories and Weep Not, Child; 4. Representing decolonization: A Grain of Wheat; 5. The poetics of cultural production: Petals of Blood; 6. Performance and power: the plays; 7. The prisonhouse of culture: Detained and Devil on the Cross; 8. The work of art in exile: Matigari; 9. Writing freedom: essays and criticism; Conclusion.