‘Hegemony’, ‘Traditional’, and ‘Organic Intellectuals’ in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah (1987) and Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow (2006)

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Date

2023

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Publisher

Mouloud Mammeri University

Abstract

This research is a comparative study that explores the issues of ‘Hegemony’, ‘Traditional Intellectuals’ and ‘Organic Intellectuals’ in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah (1987) and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow (2006). Relying on Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, particularly on his analysis of ‘Hegemony’, ‘Traditional’ and ‘Organic Intellectuals’, this work examines how both authors present the post-independence periods in Nigeria and Kenya. Their focus is to criticize the oppressive systems and the betrayal of the ruling class. While the first chapter investigated in ‘Hegemony’ and ‘Traditional Intellectuals’ who seek to keep their ‘Hegemonic’ power, the second chapter explores ‘Organic Intellectuals’ who resist and challenge the oppressive structures. Through close readings of the two literary works, the basic findings of our work is that both Anthills of the Savannah (1987) and Wizard of the Crow (2006) present the different ways in which intellectuals either support the existing power or strive to change it and influence the social and political lives of the postcolonial African countries.

Description

54p. ; 30cm(+CD-Rom)

Keywords

Achebe, Ngũgĩ, Hegemony, Traditional Intellectuals, Organic Intellectuals, Postcolonialism

Citation

Literature and Interdisciplinary approaches