| Essays on African and Carribbean Literature, Culture and Politics.Ngugi writes in his introduction -- The present collection of essays is an integral part of thefictional world of The River Between, Weep Not, Child and A Grain of Wheat. Most of them werewritten at about the same tLme as the novels; they have been products of the same moods andtouch on similar questions and problems. There are differences. In a novel the writer is totallyimmersed in a world of imagination which is other than his conscious self. At his most intenseand creative the writer is transfigured, he is possessed, becomes a medium. In the essay thewriter can be more direct, didactic, polemical, or he can merely state his beliefs and laith; hisconscious self is here more at work. Nevertheless, the boundaries of his imagination are limitedby the writer s beliefs, interests, and experiences in life, by where in tact he stands in the worldof social relations This must be one of the reasons that readers are curious about a writer sopinion on almost everything under the sun -- from politics and religion to the conservation ofwild life! The writer is thus forced, either by the public or by the needs of his craft, to define hisbeliefs, attitudes and outlook in the more argumentative form of the essay. NGUGI WA THIONG O is best known for his novel Wee~ not, Child (AWS 7), which in 1964was one of the first novels to alert the literary world to the fresh and original contribution thatAfrican writers were making to world literature. The River Between (AWS 17), A Grain ofWheat (AWS 36) and Petals of Blood (AWS 188) have confirmed Ngugi s stature as a writer ofgreat scope and ambition, as have a volume of short stories, Secret Lives (AWS 150), and threeplays, The 7~al of Dedan Kimathi (AWS 191, written with Micere Mugo), This Time Tomorrow(in AWS) 78) and Fhe Black Hermit (AWS 51).Since the publication of Homecoming in 1972, a second collection of Ngugi s essays has beenpublished under the title Writers in Politics. The second volume testifies to a declared politicalcommitment that has been elaborated in Ngugi s most recent work, especially in Detained: AWriter s Prison Dial_ (AWS 240), a series of reflections inspired by his detention without trial inKenya during most cf 1978; the play that is believed to be responsible for his detention,Ngaahika Ndeenda -- I Will Marry When I Want (AWS 246, written with Ngugi wa Mirii), andhis latest novel, Devil on the Cross (AWS 200). |
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