LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:11 November 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Post-Colonial Faces: A Comparative Analysis of Point of View in
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s A Grain Of Wheat and
V. S. Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur

Daniel Oppong Adjei, M.Phil. (Literature in English)
Richard Fosu Abekah, B.A. Arts (English & History)

Abstract

Style and content are two concepts or ideas that exist side-by-side in literature. Style or artistic expression in particular really helps to place content (subject matter and themes) of literary works in its proper perspective. This essay is a qualitative work positioned in the context of narrative technique and post-colonial studies. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the importance of narrative point of view in the understanding of post-colonial issues through a comparative analysis of Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat and Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur. Qualitative research approach and post-colonial theory are the two vital tools used in the analysis of the texts.

The findings of this essay reveal that both Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and V. S. Naipaul use first and third person points of view, with varying frequencies, in developing their post-colonial issues. In addition, the study shows that narrative point of view primarily contributes to the development and understanding of post-colonial issues in the two texts under study.

Keywords:A Grain of Wheat, first person, Naipaul, narrative point of view, Ngugi, The Mystic Masseur, post-colonial, third person

Introduction

It is generally agreed that literature provides a lens through which human beings interpret the world in order to cause a social transformation. African and Caribbean writers like other writers from Europe, Australia and Asia write to present issues of their own experiences, imaginations and things they witness in their society. Placing emphasis on this idea, Fanon (1963) in his write-up, On National Culture, as contained in The Wretched of the Earth, argues thoughtfully that since African history, culture and identity have been displaced, disfigured, or destroyed by colonialism, it is the task of the native historians, intellectuals and artists to illustrate “the truths of the nation” (p.225) in order to affirm the existence of African culture. Post-colonial writers draw upon their own experiences and that of their own culture to fight against neo-colonialism. According to Brennan (1990), the novel is one of the means through which these post-colonial nations can be imagined. Deducing from the above statements by Brennan and Fanon, it can be said that Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat and Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur are novels aimed at revising the “disfigured” and “displaced” history and culture of a colonized people in order to create national consciousness among them.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Daniel Oppong Adjei, M.Phil. (Literature in English)
Assistant Lecturer/ Ph.D. Student
Department of English
University of Cape Coast
Cape Coast, Ghana
dantrigger@yahoo.com

Richard Fosu Abekah, B.A. Arts (English & History)
Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
University of Education, Winneba
Kumasi Campus
Winneba, Ghana
nanafosu58@yahoo.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.