An Analysis of the Narrative Techniques Employed in Yusuf K. Dawood's Novels
Abstract
This study analyses the narrative techniques employed in Yusuf K. Dawood's novels
insofar as they illuminate his views regarding love and marriage, self-identity, tribalism
and racism, greed and corruption.
We have analyzed his characterization as a significant technique of narration with a view
to highlighting the novelist's approval of inter-cultural marriages as a guarantee to a
cohesive society and as a way of gaining self-identity in the face of identity crisis. The
issue of lovelessness in marriage and Dawood's view of the permanency of the conjugal
union have also been tackled by focusing on characters drawn from varying cultural
backgrounds.
Dawood's views concerning self-identity are extensively analyzed in a chapter titled,
"The Motif of Identity." We have concluded that his triple heritage plays a role in his
concern with integration and assimilation as avenues of guaranteeing an identity.
The novelist's criticism of modern vices is analyzed by specifically focusing on his use of
sharp satiric descriptive focus. Such vices as negative ethnicity, greed and corruption
have been pointed out. We conclude that despite his Indian extraction, Dawood's fiction
has a social relevance in Kenya. Equally although the works are set in Kenya, they also
have a universal significance, since the issues he focuses on, also appeal to consumers of
his fiction the world over.
Publisher
University of Nairobi, Department of Linguistics and African Languages
Description
Master of Arts in Literature