| dc.description.abstract | The objective of this study was to analyze and evaluate the construction of gender identity and authority in the Kiswahili novel in E. Africa. The works that were analyzed were Euphrase Kezilahabi's Rosa Mistika (1971), Zainabu Burham's Mwisho wa Kosa (1987) Kyallo W. Wamitila's Nguvu ya Sala (1999) and Clara Momanyi's Tumaini. (2006). The study used a conceptual framework that comprises New Historicism, Gender Criticism, Social Cognitive and Social Development Theories and Stylistics.
New Historicism enabled the study to map the evolvement and development of the wider genre of Kiswahili Literature referred to as prose, narrowing down to the definition of the Kiswahili novel sub-genre. Gender Criticism was useful in interrogating and situating the chosen texts while Social Learning and Cognitive Development theories were useful tools for understanding of character behaviour in the different social settings. The stylistic aspects were analyzed within stylistics focusing on the interface between style and content examined by the previous theories.
This study has shown that the construction of gender identity and authority is influenced by a number of factors; inter alia, generic context, social factors and ideological underpinnings of the texts under analysis. It was also found out that, form and style in the texts, had a significant impact in mapping gender identity and authority as thematic and analytical concerns. | en_US |
