English 220
A Grain of Wheat
Lecture 1:
Novel was ground-breaking @ time it was published (1967): first expression of Mau Mau emergency
from an African perspective
Ngugi wa Thiong’o:
- Focused on introspective work that colonialized people need to undergo to unlearn their
inferiority
- Of Gikuyu descent
- Born to working class parents
- His family was involved in Mau Mau Uprising
- Believed that function of literature is to engage with plight of those dispossessed
- Attacks oppression & injustice through his writing
- Critical of fact that Africa’s future as decided upon by foreign powers
- Believed that Eurocentric education degraded African culture & traditions, retarded growth of
African literature
- Stopped writing in English post-1967: believed that this was to be party of neo-colonial process;
subject to linguistic tools of foreigners (still subordinate to Western world)
- Literature must be directly representative of struggles of working- class, oppressed individuals
Setting:
- Set in December 1963: 5 days before Kenyan Independence from British colonial government
- Novel delves into personal histories & motivations of central characters & ties these histories to
broader histories of colonial encroachment, anti-colonial opposition
- Novel takes place in Thabai village
Colonial history of Kenya:
- Colonized by British in 1896
- Socio-political & cultural consequences of colonization: enforced self-alienation & compelled
subjects to identity with cultures & ideologies of masters
THIS IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF JENNA ROSE LOPES- DO NOT ILLEGALLY DISTRIBUTE.
(SUMMARIES MADE USING ENG 220 LECTURES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA: INTELLECTUAL
CREDIT IS DUE TO THE LECTURERS OF THIS MODULE.)
, Kenyan independence:
- First president = Jomo Kenyatta
- Rough transition from colonial to African rule: former administrators do not believe in project of
self-governance, mourning of privileges associated with close proximity to whites,
revolutionaries were too fixated in past & on correcting injustices (wanted further bloodshed),
uncertain future for entire population
Lecture 2:
What is history?
- History like fiction is 1 of several versions of events
- Not entirely legitimate; narrated with subjectivity
- Historical discourse carried ideologies of those who wrote & endorsed it
- Hard to tell history that is not “Western myth” that perpetuates power relations and systems of
domination created by the colonial project
- Without place in narrative of history: become weak & non-existent because only way that
people would come to know about you has been systematically suppressed
- Novel is concerned with danger inherent in accepting dominant discourses of history as only
discourse
- Major concern presented is way in which history suppresses other voices; therefore
misrepresenting, overlooking other lives
- Novel seeks to critique terms that history defines suppressed by: wants to tell stories of those
ordinary people, as their important roles are usually overlooked
The novel as anti-colonial text:
- Depicts devastating effects of colonialism on ordinary people
- Shows that colonialism has long history: system designed by 1 race of people with intention to
subjugate another race
- Dive into personal to be able to see consequences history has on characters’ lives
Structure of novel:
- 3rd person narrator (largely) & 1st person narrator: fusion offers distance while still being
intimate
- Multiple-perspectives: in telling such a complex history, it is crucial that multiple perspectives
are used to shed light into very complexity that Ngugi is attempting to narrate
THIS IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF JENNA ROSE LOPES- DO NOT ILLEGALLY DISTRIBUTE.
(SUMMARIES MADE USING ENG 220 LECTURES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA: INTELLECTUAL
CREDIT IS DUE TO THE LECTURERS OF THIS MODULE.)
A Grain of Wheat
Lecture 1:
Novel was ground-breaking @ time it was published (1967): first expression of Mau Mau emergency
from an African perspective
Ngugi wa Thiong’o:
- Focused on introspective work that colonialized people need to undergo to unlearn their
inferiority
- Of Gikuyu descent
- Born to working class parents
- His family was involved in Mau Mau Uprising
- Believed that function of literature is to engage with plight of those dispossessed
- Attacks oppression & injustice through his writing
- Critical of fact that Africa’s future as decided upon by foreign powers
- Believed that Eurocentric education degraded African culture & traditions, retarded growth of
African literature
- Stopped writing in English post-1967: believed that this was to be party of neo-colonial process;
subject to linguistic tools of foreigners (still subordinate to Western world)
- Literature must be directly representative of struggles of working- class, oppressed individuals
Setting:
- Set in December 1963: 5 days before Kenyan Independence from British colonial government
- Novel delves into personal histories & motivations of central characters & ties these histories to
broader histories of colonial encroachment, anti-colonial opposition
- Novel takes place in Thabai village
Colonial history of Kenya:
- Colonized by British in 1896
- Socio-political & cultural consequences of colonization: enforced self-alienation & compelled
subjects to identity with cultures & ideologies of masters
THIS IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF JENNA ROSE LOPES- DO NOT ILLEGALLY DISTRIBUTE.
(SUMMARIES MADE USING ENG 220 LECTURES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA: INTELLECTUAL
CREDIT IS DUE TO THE LECTURERS OF THIS MODULE.)
, Kenyan independence:
- First president = Jomo Kenyatta
- Rough transition from colonial to African rule: former administrators do not believe in project of
self-governance, mourning of privileges associated with close proximity to whites,
revolutionaries were too fixated in past & on correcting injustices (wanted further bloodshed),
uncertain future for entire population
Lecture 2:
What is history?
- History like fiction is 1 of several versions of events
- Not entirely legitimate; narrated with subjectivity
- Historical discourse carried ideologies of those who wrote & endorsed it
- Hard to tell history that is not “Western myth” that perpetuates power relations and systems of
domination created by the colonial project
- Without place in narrative of history: become weak & non-existent because only way that
people would come to know about you has been systematically suppressed
- Novel is concerned with danger inherent in accepting dominant discourses of history as only
discourse
- Major concern presented is way in which history suppresses other voices; therefore
misrepresenting, overlooking other lives
- Novel seeks to critique terms that history defines suppressed by: wants to tell stories of those
ordinary people, as their important roles are usually overlooked
The novel as anti-colonial text:
- Depicts devastating effects of colonialism on ordinary people
- Shows that colonialism has long history: system designed by 1 race of people with intention to
subjugate another race
- Dive into personal to be able to see consequences history has on characters’ lives
Structure of novel:
- 3rd person narrator (largely) & 1st person narrator: fusion offers distance while still being
intimate
- Multiple-perspectives: in telling such a complex history, it is crucial that multiple perspectives
are used to shed light into very complexity that Ngugi is attempting to narrate
THIS IS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF JENNA ROSE LOPES- DO NOT ILLEGALLY DISTRIBUTE.
(SUMMARIES MADE USING ENG 220 LECTURES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA: INTELLECTUAL
CREDIT IS DUE TO THE LECTURERS OF THIS MODULE.)
