RUcore Resource Object
RUcore Resource Object
TitleIntertextual strategies in African and Caribbean fiction
NameAloo, Enock (author), Edwards, Brent Hayes (chair), McClure, John (internal member), ROBOLIN, STEPHANE (internal member), GIKANDI, SIMON (outside member), Rutgers University, Graduate School - New Brunswick,
Degree Date2011-10
Date Created2011
SubjectLiteratures in English,
Intertextuality ,
African fiction (English)—History and criticism,
Caribbean fiction—History and criticism,
Wynter, Sylvia.--Hills of Hebron,
Lamming, George, 1927-.--Water with Berries,
Ogot, Grace, 1930-.--Miaha.,
Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʾo, 1938-.--Matigari.
Description“Intertextual Strategies in African and Caribbean Fictions” is concerned with modes of narrative emplotment in post-independence writing in Africa and the Caribbean. In the two regions, anti-colonial narratives have been dominant for some time. These self-determination narratives construct what David Scott calls a “space of experience” where the present has triumphed over the oppression of the past and looks toward a “horizon of expectation” in the post-independence period. These Romance narratives, the work argues along with Scott, have lost their explanatory value. This is because questions that those in the post-liberation period ask have changed, and so the Romance narratives no longer provide answers. The dissertation pays close attention to primary texts and authors. The discussion also includes theoretical and critical texts from both Africa and the Caribbean. It uses Sylvia Wynter’s The Hills of Hebron (1962), George Lamming’s Water with Berries (1971), Grace Ogot’ The Strange Bride (1989), and Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Matigari (1987) to show that the Romance narrative mode of emploting the movement of history is inconsistent with the issues which concern post-independence problem-space. In its consideration of these works, it argues that the problem-space of anti-colonial nationalists should not be taken as a monument entrenched in stone that is designed by its creators to have a fixed meaning. Of course, the connection between anti-colonial nationalists and autonomy is vital; but the novels examined here show that the end of colonial rule also produced significant changes in the consideration of historical form and mode of narrative emplotment. The work argues that the transition from colonial rule to independence demands the emplotment mode of tragedy. It highlights the role of tragedy in historical change at the same time as it demonstrates that the novels discussed here call for a re-imagination in the post-independence problem-space.
NotePh. D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Enock Aloo
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttp://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000063320
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.