The Body Writing In Ngugi Wa Thiong’o Post-colonial Works

Ngugi wa Thiong’o,one of the most important African writers today,has been repeatedly nominated as a popular candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.In his works,colonial hegemony,related race,violence,and rebellion can be demonstrated with the help of the body of the colonizer and the colonized.The body has become the basic dimension and focus of Ngugi’s post-colonial creation.Currently,,the academic community has not formed a focused study on the body dimension of Ngugi’s works,let alone the systematic analysis from the perspective of the body.With the aim of revealing the deep connotation of Ngugi’s post-colonial writing,this article mainly relies on the body theory and combines three novels--“Children,Don’t Cry","A Grain Seed" and "The Devil on the Cross" to explore its complex connection with factors,such as discourse,colonization,culture,and ethnicity.Therefore,as for the meaning of the selected topic,this article enriches the domestic Ngugi’s research to a certain extent.The first chapter of the thesis reveals the physical suppression of the colonial discourse in Ngugi’s works.In the colonial context,the colonists link physical differences with racism and patriarchy,and establish differentiated body in the self and the other through the color and the gender,thus finding seemingly reasonable excuses for brutal aggression.At the same time,they continue to strengthen the discipline and control of others through body violence,body consumption and other means.In his literary works,Ngugi uses the scaly bodies of the blacks to mercilessly expose the humanity’s distortions and barbaric behavior of the colonists,to expose the hypocritical nature under the civilization mask to the sun.The second chapter explores the negative effects on physical repression.In Ngugi’s works,the negative effects of physical repression are not unilateral,which leads to a dilemma between the colonizers and the colonized.In other words,for blacks,long-term physical discipline and spiritual indoctrination have not only made them hate dark skin and long for white skin,but also plunged them into an endless circle of self-colonialism.For whites,all kinds of rules in colonial discourses have also imprisoned and restrained their bodies,making them perform themselves according to specific rules.Moreover,in the process of conquering the other,the colonists’ bodies also need to endure both physical and psychological torture.In the novels,Ngugi describes the multiple physical dilemmas faced by white people in the colonies,which may be seen as a critique and reflection on colonial practice from another angle.The history of body discipline can also be transformed into the history of body resistance.The third chapter mainly discusses the black people’s counterattack,resistance,and challenge.In Ngugi’s novels,black people use the body as a place of resistance and defense.Some blacks undermine the authority of white colonists with silence and hunger,and use the body’s silence as an important strategy to resist the oppression of the empire.Some blacks no longer believe in white authority and abandon their blind worship of white skin.Meanwhile,they begin to find the beauty of their skin.Some blacks creatively embezzle the Bible and use reformed texts to resist the colonists.Some blacks rely on the power of the revolution,sacrificing themselves at the cost,to completely expel the colonial forces in Kenya.While calling for black resistance,Ngugi doesn’t forget to reveal a kind of human concern in his works:he carries out extreme revenge on some black people with a truthful description,and hopes to stimulate people’s reflection on excessive violence.In addition to the direct resistance of the blacks in the novel,Ngugi also uses unique techniques to deeply criticize the colonial authority.Therefore,chapter four mainly analyzes Nguj’s body writing strategy.On the one hand,Ngugi subverts the image of the empire male in traditional colonial literature,and dismantles the"connection" of patriarchy and colonial discourse by shaping with a thriving body.On the other hand,in Ngugi’s novels,the privileged colonists are overthrown from the altar,the filth and ugliness of the "civilization" of the empire are revealed,and the colonial hierarchy is further criticized and mocked with the aid of grotesque body rhetoric of the colonists.