The Voice Of Subversion: An Interpretation Of A Grain Of Wheat From A Postcolonial Perspective

Writing in the context of postcolonial culture, and starting with the localperspective, Ngugi subverts the ideology of empire by rebuilding African civilization,restoring the national historical memory, and refuting the distortion and prejudice ofOrientalism. Ngugi reshapes the image of western empire through the strategy ofwriting back to the empire, and reflects on the local culture and points out thatopenness, tolerance, acceptance and integration will be the only way by which acountry like Kenya can move forward. This paper, based on A Grain of Wheat andusing the postcolonial theory, analyzes Ngugi’s strategy of writing back to the empireand the narration of native culture through a close reading of the text, and exploresNgugi’s deep thinking for the conflict and fusing of civilization in the postcolonialcontext.This paper consists of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion. Thefrist part is a brief introduction to Ngugi and his A Grain of Wheat, and this alsoincludes a literary review at home and abroad, and the significance and methods ofthis paper.Second part of this paper is divided into three parts: in the first part, the authorinvestigates the image of Africa in the western text, and takes Heart of Darkness of Conrad as representative, at the same time, combined with the relevant comments forthe text, analyzes the Oriental ideology of Conrad behind the text. Based on thedistortion and uglification of imperial text for Africa, Ngugi subverts and deconstructsthe colonial narration by restoring the local culture and restating the national memory.The second part of this paper also points out the double image of colonial empirethrough the strategy of writing back to the empire. Ngugi criticizes colonialism butdoes not make Africa the center. He break the binary structure and has an objectivedescription for the colonial empire.The third part is an in-depth analysis of and reflection on Ngugi for the nativeAfrica, Ngugi pointes out that integration of civilization is the only way for Africa torebuild the essence and spirit of culture.The conclusion part is a summary of the body of the paper.