Narrative voice and focalization in the narration of generational conflicts in selected Kiswahili novels
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study explores the deployment of narrative voice and focalization in the narration of the theme of generational conflict. The focus is on four Kiswahili novels: Vuta n’kuvute, (Shafi, 1999) Kufa Kuzikana, (Walibora, 2003) Kipimo cha Mizani (Burhani, 2004) and Tumaini (2006).The study is motivated by the fact that little attention has been paid on the theme of generational conflict in the Kiswahili novel. As a narrative text, the Kiswahili novel is an important medium through which generational conflict as a cultural concept can be communicated. Although generation like any other categorization construct is one of the most powerful analytical tools for studying social relations depicted in literary texts, no literary study in the East African region has so far examined it as an analytical tool in its own right. Moreover, Kiswahili literary studies rarely combine content and form in examining literary works. In an attempt to address this need, the study objectives were first and foremost to explore the nature of cultural communication in the form of generational conflicts in the selected novels. Secondly, the study was to comparatively examine the deployment of literary techniques in the selected Kiswahili novels. In order to achieve these objectives, the researcher sought to answer the following questions:
i. What is the nature of generational conflicts depicted in the selected novels?
ii. How have the authors deployed narrative voice and focalization techniques in the depiction and reading of the generational conflicts in the novels?
iii. How does the implied author in each novel perform a cultural communicative act with the implied reader?
iv. How do the different authors compare and contrast in their narration of the generation conflict theme?
Four Kiswahili novels written and published between 1999 and 2009 were considered. This period is deemed to be the peak of globalization from a point of view of sustained and intensified process. High technological advancement with fast means of transport and electronic media has enhanced international and cultural interactions. Globalization has thus precipitated a sense of post-modernism which has in turn brought about discontinuities and created rifts between different generations of people in many societies (Giddens, 2001: 61). In this regard, it is envisaged that Kiswahili novels published within this period can best capture the theme of generational conflict.
In Kenya and Tanzania, the curriculum is expected to address emerging issues such as peace, gender, child abuse and generational conflict which is a contemporaneous phenomenon (K.I.E. Curriculum Watch, 2008). The selected works are typical realist Kiswahili novels recommended for class readership in higher institutions of education by the Kenya Ministry of Education (K.I.E., 2007) and the Tanzanian Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (T.E.T., 2010). The novels are authored by some of the renowned educationists and novelists in the East African region (Mazrui, 2007: 36-7; Bertoncini, 2009: 2).…
Author: Magdaline Nakhumicha Wafula
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2291924977