Hybridity in Ngugi wa Thiongo's early and later novels: A postcolonial metamorphosis

Abstract

As one of the Postmodernist’s tools of analysis in the field of literary studies, Postcolonial theory has been employed by numerous African, non-African and Western literary critics over the years in myriads of literary discourses. Albeit Ngugi wa Thiongo’s early and later novels namely: Weep Not, Child, The River Between A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross and Matigari for instance have been read through the Postcolonial telescope, the epistemological results uncovered aren’t satisfactory. Consequently, critical re-readings of the texts are much required a little more, given the nature of Postcolonial theory, brimmed with avalanche of theoretical concepts capable of providing new insights into the texts. This is the basis for this study. So, this paper explores the discourse of hybridity in Ngugi’s early and later novels. It goal is not only to demonstrate how the prolific African writer has hybridized the holy Bible in his early and later fictions but also to unveil how the hybridization of the Christian holy book in the early novels, metamorphoses in the later.