Socialist Realism in Ngugi Wa Thiongo's I Will Marry When I Want
INTRODUCTION
Socialist realism, a slogan adopted by the Soviet cultural authorities in 1934 to summarize the requirements of Stalinist dogma in literature: the established techniques of 19th‐century realism were to be used to represent the struggle for socialism in a positive, optimistic light. Socialist realism had its roots in neoclassicism and the traditions of realism in Russian literature of the 19th century that described the life of simple people. Socialist realism held that successful art depicts and glorifies the proletariat 's struggle toward socialist progress. It demands of the artist the truthful, historically concrete representation of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic representation of reality must be linked with the task of ideological transformation and education of workers in the spirit of socialism. Hence, this paper gives a critical presentation of what socialist realism is using Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s I Will Marry When I Want and Festus Iyayi’s Violence as a case study. The texts have their historical and fictional settings in Kenya and Nigeria respectively.
The Marxist theory, upon which the socialist realist literature set their canon, is that which is characterized with class stratification and struggle. Therefore we see two categories of characters; the Ahab Kioi wa Kanoru, Jezebel, and the Kiguunda, Gicaamba, Wangeci, Njooki in I Will Marry When I Want and Obofun, Queen and Idemudia, Adisa, Osaro, Omoifo, Mama Jimoh, in Violence they both portray the bourgeoisies and the proletariats respectively. Based on the Marxist theory, that states: let the rulers tremble at the communist revolution. The poor has nothing to loose, but there chains. There have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!
The texts gave a truth and faithful presentation where the working class organizes liberation activities, in the examples below from the texts
Socialist realism, a slogan adopted by the Soviet cultural authorities in 1934 to summarize the requirements of Stalinist dogma in literature: the established techniques of 19th‐century realism were to be used to represent the struggle for socialism in a positive, optimistic light. Socialist realism had its roots in neoclassicism and the traditions of realism in Russian literature of the 19th century that described the life of simple people. Socialist realism held that successful art depicts and glorifies the proletariat 's struggle toward socialist progress. It demands of the artist the truthful, historically concrete representation of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic representation of reality must be linked with the task of ideological transformation and education of workers in the spirit of socialism. Hence, this paper gives a critical presentation of what socialist realism is using Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s I Will Marry When I Want and Festus Iyayi’s Violence as a case study. The texts have their historical and fictional settings in Kenya and Nigeria respectively.
The Marxist theory, upon which the socialist realist literature set their canon, is that which is characterized with class stratification and struggle. Therefore we see two categories of characters; the Ahab Kioi wa Kanoru, Jezebel, and the Kiguunda, Gicaamba, Wangeci, Njooki in I Will Marry When I Want and Obofun, Queen and Idemudia, Adisa, Osaro, Omoifo, Mama Jimoh, in Violence they both portray the bourgeoisies and the proletariats respectively. Based on the Marxist theory, that states: let the rulers tremble at the communist revolution. The poor has nothing to loose, but there chains. There have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!
The texts gave a truth and faithful presentation where the working class organizes liberation activities, in the examples below from the texts