The intersection of the self and history in Kenyan autobiographies
Abstract
Life writing has increasingly become a popular genre which calls for sustained interrogation
and analysis of the narratives produced. The autobiography is not only the story of the narrating
subject but can be read as the history of the society within which the subject writes or lives.
This essay reads a selection of Kenyan autobiographies representative of the various periods
that the nation has lived through with a bid to examine how the narrating subjects inscribe
themselves into the history of the nation. I argue that reading Kenyan autobiographies allows
one to understand, through personal narratives, the history and the making of the Kenyan nation.
URI
https://profiles.uonbi.ac.ke/jennifermuchiri/files/the_intersection_of_the_self_and_history_in_kenyan_autobiographies.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11295/80386
Citation
Muchiri, J. (2014). The Intersection of the Self and History in Kenyan Autobiographies. Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 1(1-2), 83-93.Publisher
University of Nairobi