Title:   WOMEN IN THE LITERARY DREAM OF NGUGI WA THIONG’O: GENDER PORTRAITURE AND FEMALE REVOLUTIONARIES IN DEVIL ON THE CROSS

Abstract
The trajectory in the portrayal of heroism by Ngugi wa Thiong’o began with his first late fiction. His massive affinity to strong female characters becomes the new paradigm that defines his latest narratives subsequently, complementing his total embossment of Gikuyu orature in his fictions after 1980. Ngugi introduces a women-driven revolution using a strong female character that is determined to fight capitalism and its enablers in the fictional country of Ilmorog. Using Devil on the Cross, Ngugi’s first standard novel written in his native G(K)ikuyu language, this study attempts to portray woman power that is strictly intentional and enigmatic. Ngugi presents his women as remaining thorough in their revolutionist outlook even at the point they decide to bolster the role. Using the Jungian Theory of archetypes, this work attempts to establish the larger-than-life personality of Ngugi’s heroine indicative of his frantic expectation of the brutal cleansing of the post-independent Africa, and a total wipe-off of neocolonization from the streets of Africa. He inaugurates this fantastical revolutionist approach with the introduction of an elderly woman, Wangari as part of a collective unconscious that must bring to fruition the redemption of the continent by all means. A textual analysis of Devil on the Cross illuminates the spontaneous tendency of Wariinga who quickly transforms from a bride to an assailant; typical of the woman of Ngugi’s literary dream, at a time it is most needed.
Keywords: Revolutionary agents, Gender portraiture, Feminist writing, Collective unconscious, Jungian theory of archetypes

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Publication Date: 2023-04-06