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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Fragmentation, Orality and Magic Realism in Kezilahabi's Novel 'Nagona' |
Author: | Khamis, Said A.M. |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | Nordic Journal of African Studies |
Volume: | 12 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 78-91 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | literature Swahili Literature, Mass Media and the Press |
About person: | Euphrase Kezilahabi |
External link: | https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/341/324 |
Abstract: | This paper looks at Euphrase Kezilahabi's (Tanzania) novel 'Nagona' (1990). In particular, it is a response to a 1998 article by M.D. Gromov. Contrary to Gromov's thesis, which postulates the structural ambiguity of 'Nagona', the present paper argues that the structure of Kezilahabi's novel is discernible when the fluidity of the genre 'novel' is taken into consideration and when elements of sociocultural patchwork and chaos characterizing contemporary African societies are brought in. On the one hand, the novel is fragmented, and pregnant with religious, philosophical, political and social rhetoric. On the other hand, it uses 'orality' and 'magic realism' for its fictional strategies. 'Nagona' seems to challenge the possibility of an 'absolute' generic definition. Nevertheless, 'fragmentation', orality and magic realism are the peculiarities that make this a unique - if structurally not the most idiosyncratic - novel in Swahili literature. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] |