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Name:
Nagla Drashsti P.
Roll
no: 8
Paper
no : 14 The African Literature
Class:
M.A : Sem-4
Year:
2016-2018
Enrollment
no : 2059108420170021
E-mail
address: nagladrashti38@gmail.com
Submitted:
Smt S.B Gardy
Department
of English Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar
University,Bhavnagar.
Assignment topic: The Politics
and Spaces of Voice: Ngugi’s ‘A Grain of
Wheat’ and Conrad’s ‘Heart of Dakness’.
· Abstract:
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's classic A Grain of Wheat
displays unmistakable debts to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, yet markers of this
particular Conradian connection have been largely ignored by critics, who have
mostly concentrated on the connections with Under Western Eyes. In this essay,
I argue that this odd intertextual oversight can and should be rectified, with
a view to refocusing discussion of A Grain of Wheat on the questions of
literary form posed by Heart of Darkness. These formal questions, located at
the nexus of voice, “addressivity,” and community, in turn, connect to crucial
issues of the place of literary production in the postcolonial polity. In
particular, they point to the significant change in Ngũgĩ's cultural politics
and aesthetic practice in the mid-1970s, as he became increasingly involved in
popular community theater. The reading offered in this article, by shifting the
focus of intertextuality to the more complex connections with Heart of
Darkness, loosens A Grain of Wheat's bond, somewhat, with metropolitan
literature and foregrounds the novel's integration into Ngũgĩ's project of
autochton (and popular cultural) postcolonial emancipation. Because of the
central, indeed, archetypical place of A Grain of Wheat in the African literary
tradition and even in received understandings of the process of independence in
East Africa, this recalibration of readings of the novel takes on a broader
significance than merely that of studies of postcolonial intertextuality.
- Difference between both novel:
In “The Politics and Spaces of Voice: Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, West-Pavlov argues that the classic comparison of A Grain of Wheat and Under Western Eyes is compared too often. The previous blog post explains this relationship in more detail, but West-Pavlov states that the comparison merely reduces both texts to their author’s political ideas. By comparing A Grain of Wheat with Heart of Darkness, written by Conrad, instead, we can look at narrative strategies that create a broader form of political community and agency. West-Pavlov states that his “article proposes alternatives to the well-nigh automatic association of A Grain of Wheat with Under Western Eyes and to the thematic interpretations this produces by turning to the apparent dead end of the novel’s allusions to Heart of Darkness.” The parallels in West-Pavlov’s comparison are more formal and look at the use of narration as the primary point of comparison. In both works, the agency of voice plays a prominent role in structuring Ngugi’s theme concerning independence and the struggles that precede it in a colonized country.
The narrator in Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat follows the same structure as Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The narrator gradually transforms from omniscient to participatory, or in other words, third person to first person. Ngugi copies Conrad’s narrative structure because it shows the connection between past and present through narration (omniscient) and collective memory (participatory). West-Pavlov states that this type of narration is important because it shows knowledge and non-knowledge, it can be both objective and subjective. The narration is more persuasive and allows readers to agree with his central themes.
Ngugi uses these narrative techniques to highlight his two main themes: darkness and isolation. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad writes “the air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom” and in A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi mimics this statement by writing “a gloom hung over the morning session… contrary to what might be expected on Uhuru day.” This comparison highlights the darkness theme. Again Ngugi draws upon Conradian elements when Conrad writes “we live, as we dream – alone” (HD) while Ngugi writes “every man in the world is alone, and fights alone, to live” (AGW) to highlight the isolation theme. West-Pavlov argues that these two themes remove any possibility of emancipatory narrative when talking about a colony gaining its independence; thus, damping any optimism in the colonized community.
Looking back to The Tempest or the small amount of A Grain of Wheat that we have already read, where do you see the themes of isolation and darkness in a colonized country? Does darkness overtake merely the colonized? Or is darkness a universal attribute in the process of colonization and the process of emancipation? In addition, do you agree Ngugi’s theme of isolation? Do people in colonies truly feel isolated, or are they merely lost while trying to assimilate to the culture of the colonizer?
- Theme of isolation and darkness in Grain of Wheat:
The theme of
isolation and darkness in a colonized country comes up in A Grain Of Wheat when
reminiscing on the detention camps.
“’Why do you tell me all this? I don’t like to remember.’
‘Do you ever forget?’
‘I try to. The government says we should bury the past’” (Thiong’o 66).
Everything associated with detention camps is dark. The image of burying something implies both isolation and darkness. The ground creates a definitive line between what is above it and under it and what is under it clearly is dark because it receives no light. Mugo states that the government wants them to bury what happened and lead it behind, so essentially he is trying to forget and bury an event that isolated him from normal life and cast a dark, often fatal cloud over the people of the country. Darkness is a universal attribute of colonization as a whole because colonization creates chaos among the people and often evokes violence out of both parties. To answer the last question, it is a combination of both. People in colonies feel isolated because their space is being encroached upon and taken away as more and more of the country becomes colonized. They do also feel isolated and almost trapped in limbo because they do not know how to the new culture and don’t particularly want to because that means abandoning their ways.
“’Why do you tell me all this? I don’t like to remember.’
‘Do you ever forget?’
‘I try to. The government says we should bury the past’” (Thiong’o 66).
Everything associated with detention camps is dark. The image of burying something implies both isolation and darkness. The ground creates a definitive line between what is above it and under it and what is under it clearly is dark because it receives no light. Mugo states that the government wants them to bury what happened and lead it behind, so essentially he is trying to forget and bury an event that isolated him from normal life and cast a dark, often fatal cloud over the people of the country. Darkness is a universal attribute of colonization as a whole because colonization creates chaos among the people and often evokes violence out of both parties. To answer the last question, it is a combination of both. People in colonies feel isolated because their space is being encroached upon and taken away as more and more of the country becomes colonized. They do also feel isolated and almost trapped in limbo because they do not know how to the new culture and don’t particularly want to because that means abandoning their ways.
Work cited:
2.)
https://resistanceandpowerofthewill102w.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/the-politics-and-spaces-of-voice-ngugis-a-grain-of-wheat-and-conrads-heart-of-darkness/
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