An Analysis Of The Development Of In-between Culture In A Grain Of Wheat

As a spokesman for the people and a chronicler of Kenya’s modern history,Ngugi is widely regarded as one of the most significant writers of East Africa.Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat (1967) is set in that final period of Kenyan resistanceagainst the colonial rule of emergency, interrogation, detention, and removals. Thenovel opens with the central character, Mugo, trapped quite literally in a nightmarewhose figurative implications are pursued in the course of the narrative as Mugo findshimself caught between the conflicting demands of loyalty to self and involvement inthe popular struggle, a victim of the knowledge of betrayal and counter-betrayal andof ideology as a fabrication of practice. The theme of cultural imperialism Ngugi hasdealt with in the novel makes great contribution to the inter-textuality of A Grain ofWheat.Since its publication, the novel has attracted wide attention of critics and hasbeen analyzed and commented on from many different perspectives in various literarycriticisms. However, it is a pity that until now few critics have focused their attentionon the systematical analysis of the in-between culture from postcolonial perspectives.Therefore, this thesis aims at, through close examination of A Grain of Wheat in termsof different representations, reveal how the traditional culture survives and how theculture’s in-between develops for those new independent nations.It is wished that this thesis can reinterpret and explore the national culture for thecolonized country from a new angle, thus to enrich the research on this book.Therefore, there are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter One introduces the author andA Grain of Wheat, pointing the significance of this thesis. Chapter Two talks theinternational and domestic studies about this novel. Chapter Three introduced thetheory of Homi K. Bhabha and his book ‘The Location of Culture’ briefly，and talksthe definition of ‘In-between Culture’. Chapter Four is the analysis of the novel.There are three parts in discussion. The first part analyzes the possibility of thein-between culture from three aspects: the invasion of the colonizer and the resistance of the native people, also the collision of native culture. The second part talks aboutthe inevitability of the in-between culture from those important symbols in the novel,such as the train, the Bible, ect. Especially it talks about the behavior of some nativesfor their mimicry. The third part discusses the development of the in-between culturein the ‘Third space’. Meanwhile, it explains the mix-culture between the colonizer andthe colonized. Chapter Five is the conclusion about this thesis.