| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is divided into five chapters.
In the introductory chapter I have tried to map out
the place of children's literature in Kenya. That
oral literature is more popular than written literature
is a fact clearly pointed out in the introduction.
Included in the introduction is also the fact that
written prose, about which this thesis is, falls in
three major categories. These are Euro-centric,
colonialist and African. An attempt is made to
describe each one of these categories.
The operative definition of the term imagery is
also given in the introductory chapter. Coupled with
the definition is the effort to explain the central
role of imagery in children's literature vis-a-vis the
children's impressionability. The aims of the thesis,
its scope and limits, the rationale and literature
review are outlined.
The introduction also deals with the hypotheses,
the theoretical frameworks and the methodology. The
theoretical frame-works within which the hypotheses
are to be explored fall into four main categories.
Each one of them is discussed and its place in the
thesis explained. Research methods used in collecting
and synthesizing data are also explained.
In Chapter One, Euro-centric literature used
by children in Kenya is examined. The imagery in
Snow White and The Seven Dwarf by Disney, Cinderella f..
by Perrault, Adventures of Sam Pig, by Alison Uttley
and fllary Plain To The Rescue by Gwynedd Rae are discussed.
Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella are fairy
tales.
Chapter Two focuses on colonialist literature.
Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Min$ and Allan Quatermain
and Humphrey Herman's Tales Told Near A Crocodile are
discussed. These two novels justify the place they
occupy in this thesis because they are both rich in
imagery that are typical of colonialist literature.
In Chapter Three, three African novels are studied.
These are Asenath Odaga's The Village Son, Makumi's
The Good i1edicine Bird and vegesa's Captured By Raiders.
The styles of these three authors form the main discussion
on imagery in Kenya-based literature for children.
These three chapters do not presume to exhaust
the subject of imagery in children's prose fiction in Kenya. The thesis does simply throw light on the
issue of children's prose fiction by presentin) critical
analyses of sample texts from the three main groups of
written-prose read by children in Kenya. Throughout
the thesis, the focus is on the hypotheses that there ----
is a direct relationship between their age encountered
in children's literature and the behaviour pattern of
these children and that every author of children's
prose writes to influence the children to see the society
from a definite angle. | en |
