Ideologising revolutionary egalitarianism in Jared Angira’s and John Clare’s poetry

Main Article Content

Joyce Wanjiku Wachira
Nicholas Kamau Goro
Jane Wanjiru Mugo

Abstract

Accruing knowledge, critical to understanding societal systems and structures constitutes a basal philosophical problematic to the human intellect. Notably, as disciplines that revolve around aspects of human society and culture, imaginative writing and literary studies rank among the major branches of inquiry invoked to generate ideas, solutions and initiatives for the betterment of human life. Comparatively scrutinising the ideological kinship between the poetry of Jared Angira and John Clare, the objective of this paper is to demonstrate that these poems constitute latent grounds for reflection on and critical engagement with the nature of existence and articulation of social thought and ideologies. Thus, this paper is a nominal effort in appreciating their commonality as an ideological catalytic agency of changing and transforming the social and cultural fabric of life in their societies. Drawing from the critical insights of New Historicism theory, the paper employs textual analysis and historical context study towards illuminating how both poets prescribe a common ideological guiding pattern that it designates Revolutionary Egalitarianism.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Wachira, J. W., Goro, N. K., & Mugo, J. W. (2021). Ideologising revolutionary egalitarianism in Jared Angira’s and John Clare’s poetry. Nairobi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.58256/njhs.v5i1.536
Section
Articles

How to Cite

Wachira, J. W., Goro, N. K., & Mugo, J. W. (2021). Ideologising revolutionary egalitarianism in Jared Angira’s and John Clare’s poetry. Nairobi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.58256/njhs.v5i1.536

References

Angira, J. (1972). Silent Voices. London: Heinemann.

Angira, J. (1979). Cascades. London: Longman.

Angira, J. (1980). The Years Go By. Nairobi: Bookwise.

Angira, J. (1996). Tides of Time: Selected Poems. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.

Ashcroft, B. (2012). Introduction: Spaces of Utopia. An Electronic Journal, 1, 1-17. Retrieved from ler.letras.up.pt

Ashton, T. (1975). The Standard of life of the workers in England, 1790-1830. In Taylor, A. (ed.). The Standard of Living in Britain in the Industrial Revolution, 36-57. London: Methuen.

Attridge, D. & Jolly, R. (eds). (1998). Writing South Africa: Literature, Apartheid and

Democracy, 1970-1995. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bate, J. (2002). The Song of the Earth. Cambridge. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Bayat, A. (2017). Revolution without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

Bennet, A. & Royle, N. (1996). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory: Key Critical Concepts. London: Prentice Hall.

Bloch, E. (1986). The Principle of Hope. 3 Vols. (Trans. by P. Neville, P. Stephen & K. Paul).

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Clare, J. (1820). Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. Retrieved from https://www.johnclare.info/sanada/

Clare, J. (1827). The Shepherd’s Calendar. (e-text retrieved from https://www.johnclare.info/sanada/

Clare, J. (1835). The Rural Muse. Retrieved from https://www.johnclare.info/sanada/

Clare, J. (1835). Poems Chiefly from Manuscript-full e-text. Retrieved from www.fullbooks.com/poems-chiefly-from-manuscript2.html-

Claeys, G. (2013). The Five Languages of Utopia: Their Perspective Advantages and

Deficiencies With a plea for Social Realism. Cercles, 30, 9-16.

Ferrara, C. (2011). The Austrian Version of the English Enclosures III. Retrieved from http://distributistreview.com/the-austrian-version-of-the English-enclosures/

Greenfeld, L., (2001). The Spirit of Capitalism: Nationalism and Economic Growth. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Hall, S. (1996). Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Hammond, L. & Hammond, B. (1995). The Village Labourer, 1760-1832: A Study in the Government of England before the Reform Bill (New ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.

Jayne, Y. (2006). A Study of John Clare in his Historical and Political Context. PhD Thesis, Nottingham Trent University. Accessed 1 Dec 2016. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/252/1/201454

Kehinde, A. (2004). Narrating Postcolonial Disillusionment. Nordic Journal of African Studies,13(2), 238-241.

Kiser, E., & Drass, A. (1987). Changes in the More of the World-System and the Production of

Utopian Literature in Great Britain and the United States, 1883-1975. American Sociological Review, 52(2), 286-293.

Lara, M. (1998). Moral Textures: Feminist Narratives in the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity

Lazarus, N. (1995). (Re)turn to the People: Ngῦgῖ wa Thiong’o and the Crisis of Postcolonial African Intellectualism. In Cantalupo, C. (ed.). The World of Ngῦgῖ wa Thiong’o (pp. 11-25). Trenton, N. J.: Africa World Press.

Ludden, D. (2002). Reading Subaltern Studies. London: Anthem Press.

Lytle, C. (2015). Deracination: Reading the Borderlands in the fiction of Zoë Wicomb. PhD Thesis, University of Barcelona. Accessed on 11 Sep 2020. https://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream

Mandaza, I. (2003). Public Service and Accountability under the Structural Adjustment Programmes. Governance and Public Administration in Africa, 10(3), 22-27.

Mayala, N. (2013). Julius Kambarage Nyerere: Ujamaa Leadership and Mission. SEDOS Bulletin, 45(2), 13-37.

Williams, R. (1973). The Country and the City. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Nduku, E., & Tenamwenye, J. (eds). (2015). Corruption in Africa: A Threat to Sustainable Peace. Geneva: https://globethics.net

Patrick, J. (2006). Understanding Democracy: A Hip Pocket Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Paul, R. (2011). A language that is ever green: The Poetry and Ecology of John Clare. Moderna Sprak, 105(2), 23-35.

Rabie, M. (2013). Saving Capitalism and Democracy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sargent, T. (2000). Utopian Traditions: Themes and Variations. In Schaer, R., Claeys, G. & Sargent, T. (eds). Utopia: The Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World, 8-17). New York: Oxford University Press.

Simpson, J. (Chief ed.). (2014). Deracination. The Oxford English Dictionary Online.

Summerfield, G. (ed.). (1990). John Clare: Selected Poetry. London: Penguin Books.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Udenta, O. (1993). Revolutionary Aesthetics and the African Literary Process. Enugu: Fourth Dimension.

Venn, C. (2006). The Postcolonial Challenge: Towards Alternative Worlds. London:

Thousand Oaks.

Williams, R. (1973). The Country and the City. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Zipes, J. (1989). Introduction: Toward a Realisation of Anticipatory Illumination. In Bloch, E. The Utopian Function of Art and Literature: Selected Essays. (Trans. By Zipes, J. & Mecklenburg, F). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.