History and Violence in Contemporary Kenyan Fiction

Standpoints on Yvonne Owuor's Writings

Godwin Siundu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032408255
• eBook ISBN: 9781000817744
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

This book is a collection of essays on Yvonne Owuor's writings, mainly her most acclaimed novel, Dust as well as Dragonfly Sea and her short story "Weight of Whispers". While the chapters in this book grapple with diverse themes, they generally converge on Owuor's preoccupation with different forms of violence that has dominated Kenya's postcolonial experiences, especially those around the politics of power and the roles of regional, ethnic, and gender identities in influencing such politics. Many of the chapters in this book problematize the violence of genocide, trauma, and flight as they are variously and singularly underpinned by silences that signal the failure of adequate avenues for articulation of what impact such violence has on its victims. Other chapters focus on the style of Owuor's writing, thereby highlighting the many literary innovations that Owuor crafts in order to effectively carry the weight of her concerns.

This book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of Literature, Politics, History, and Sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Swahili Seafarers’ Musings and Sensuous Seascapes in Yvonne Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea
• 3 Surviving the Genocide: The Singularity of Suffering in Yvonne Owuor’s “Weight of Whispers”
• 4 Migrancy as Trauma: Yvonne Owuor’s “Weight of Whispers”
• 5 Rhizomic Writing and Reading of a Nation Coming to Birth in Yvonne A. Owuor’s Novel, Dust
• 6 The Use of Ellipsis as a Narrative Technique in Yvonne Owuor’s Dust
• 7 Why and to Where Does Ajany Run? Culture and Femininity in Yvonne Owuor’s Dust
• 8 Narrating Kenyan Silenced Histories through Fiction in Yvonne Owuor’s Dust
• 9 Let’s Talk About Craft! A Conversation with Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
• Index