Intertextual Borrowings in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s 'Petals of Blood'
Abstract
In every writing, literary and non-literary, no text exists as a complete isolate and complete authorial innovation. It manifests and results from multiple borrowings, conscious and otherwise, from other texts. Following Kristeva (1986), Genette (1997) and William (2010), this study analysed Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s novel, Petals of Blood, to uncover differing extents of textual borrowing in the form of reference, quotation, parody, borrowing, allusion and translation. The study used document review and textual analysis to generate the data that was then subjected to content analysis register occurrences of different forms of intertextuality. Data analysis and interpretation entailed placing these occurrences into themes, establishing frequencies, and computing percentages. The resultant data were summarised and presented in tables and figures, coupled with evidential excerpts gleaned from the text. Borrowing emerged as the most predominant intertextual element, accounting for more than one-third of all intertextualities in Ngugi’s novel. In second came parody and allusion in that order. The other three forms of intertextuality—quotation, reference and translation—are comparably less pronounced in the novel. Conclusively, Ngugi's intertextuality subscribes to the spirit of Africanizing the English as a literary medium in the mould of what terms decolonize the mind of an African writer.
Keywords:
Africanizing English, borrowing, intertextuality, literary language
References
Abor, R. 2012, Lexical borrowing as a Resource for the Construction of Identities in Selected 21st Century Nigerian Novels. Marang: Journal of Language and Literature (22)
Acim, R. 2015, The Question of Intertextuality and the Perception of Muslims: The Case of the New
Ahmed, W.F.S. (2014). The QurʾÄnic Narratives Through the Lens of Intertextual Allusions: A Butterfly' songs from 'To Pimp A Butterfly'. Bachelor of Music Thesis, Edith Cowan University.
Aikhenvald, A. Y. 2006, Grammars in contact: A cross-linguistic perspective. €“ Grammars in contact: A cross-linguistic typology. Eds Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Amin, F. 2021, Love and Money: Erotic Materialism In Ngũgĩ wa Thiong ' o ' s Petals of Blood ' . Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol.12, no.1, pp.13-21, http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.
Backus, A. D. 2010, The role of codeswitching, loan translation and interference in the emergence of an immigrant variety of Turkish. €“ Working Papers in Corpus-based Linguistics and Language Education, vol.5, no.2, pp.225 €“241.
Bakhtin, M. 1981, The dialogic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M. 1986, Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bamiro, E.O. 1994, Recasting the Centre: Ngugi wa Thiong'o analysis. Discourse and Society and the Africanization of English, Kunapipi, vol.16, no.2, pp. 193-217.
Eme, C, A. & Mbagwu, D.A. 2011, African Languages and African Literature UJAH: Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities, vol.12, no.1, pp. 114-127.
Fairclough, N. 1992, Discourse and text: Linguistic and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis. Discourse and Society, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 193-217.
Fairclough, N. 1992, Discourse and text: Linguistic and intertextual analysis within the discourse
Fairclough, N. 1993, Critical discourse analysis and the marketisation of public discourse: The universities. Discourse & Society, vol.4, no.2, pp.133-168.
Fairclough, N. 1993, Critical discourse analysis and the marketisation of public discourse: The universities. Discourse & Society, vol.4, no.2, pp. 133-168.
Fitzsimmons, J. 2013, "Romantic and contemporary poetry: Readings". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gerard G. 1997, Para texts: Thresholds of interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gerard G.1997, Palimpsests: Literature in the second degree, Channa Newman and Claude Doubinsky (trans.), University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE and London.
Gogoi, G. 2017, A Study on Chinua Achebe ' s Use of Proverbs in Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), vol. 22, no.12, pp. 52-56.
Hallam, L. 2012, Intertextual Interventions in the Novels of Marlene Streeruwitz And Lilian Fischinger. Doctoral Thesis, University of Nottingham.
Hooper, G. 1998, History, Historiography and Self in Ngugi ' s Petals of Blood. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol.33, no.1, pp. 47 €“62. https://doi.org/10.1177/002200949803300105
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/parody In newspapers and publicists discourses. SHS Web of Conferences 55, 04021 https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185504021
Jacobmeyer, H. 1998, "Ever After: A study in intertextuality", Carl Hanser Verlag. Retrieved on 15 March 2021.
Keller, E. 2013, "Crafting a Masterpiece: The Genre Mosaic of Harry Potter" e-Vision.
Hebel, U. J. 1989, Intertextuality, Allusion, and Quotation: An International Bibliography of Critical Studies (Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature). Greenwood Press.
Killam, D.G. 1980, A Note on the Title of Petals of Blood, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol.15, no.1, pp.125-132. https://doi.org/10.1177/002198948001500112
Kristeva, J. 1980, Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. New York:
Literary Approach. Doctoral Thesis, Gothenburg University.
Kristeva, J. 1986, The Kristeva Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Manqoush, R. Yusof, N. & Hashim, R.S. 2011, The Use of Historical Allusion in Recent American and Arab Fiction GEMA Online „¢ Journal of Language Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 57-68.
Mao, Z. 2015, Intertextuality in Institutional Talks €“ A Corpus--Assisted Study of Interactions.
Marijani, F.C. 2014, Analysis of Literary Devices in Selected Novels of Severine Ndunguru. Unpublished M.A. Dissertation, Open University of Tanzania.
McArthur, T., Lam-McArthur, J., Fontaine, L., (eds.). 2018, The Oxford Companion to the English Language (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191744389.
Mitchell, M. 2007, "Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: Transformations and Adaptation". Sydney Studies in English, vol.3, no.3, pp. 39 €“55.
Mitra, A. 1999, "Characteristics of the WWW text: Tracing discursive strategies". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 5, no. 1, pp.1083-6101.
Mwangi, E. 2004, The Gendered Politics of Untranslated Language and Aporia in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood. Research in African Literatures, vol.35, no. 4, pp. 66-74. doi:10.1353/ral.2004.0099.
Ngumo, M. C. 2021, Hybridising Gikuyu in the face of globalisation: The case of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's novel Murogi wa Kagogo. Journal of Languages and Culture, vol.12, no. 1, pp. 27-36.
Nikitina, J. Lebedinskaya, O. & Plakhova, O. 2018, Allusion as a feature of intertextuality of Saddam Hussein. Discourse and Society, vol.5, no.1, pp. 49-80.
Noring, A. 2016, Use of Intertextuality as a Narrative Device in Susan Hillʼs The Woman in Black: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 5, no. 1, pp.1083-6101.
Ouhwaite, C. 2020, "You crossed my mind ... before?" An intertextual analysis of songs from 'To Pimp. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
Richard, R. 2008, Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier. Archived from the original on 16 August 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2021
Salmani Nodoushan, M. A. 2015, The secret life of slurs from the perspective of reported speech. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, vol. 9, no.2, pp.92-112.
Shakespeare. 2004, Italy and Intertextuality. Marrapodi, Michele. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719066672. OCLC 56657010.
Skovide, H. 2007, Code-switching in Chinua Achebe ' s Novels. A Masters Dissertation, School of Humanities and Informatics.
Stratton, F. 1980, Cyclical Patterns in Petals of Blood. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol.15, no.1, pp.115 €“124. https://doi.org/10.1177/002198948001500111
TawfiqHamamra, B. & Qararia, S. 2018, The Function of Code-Switching in Selma Dabbagh ' s ' Out of It ' . Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol.9, no.2, pp.126-130.
Turco, L. 1999, The Book of Literary Terms. University Press of New England University Press. ISBN 9780719066672. OCLC 56657010.
Uściński, P. 2015, The Creative Role of Parody in Eighteenth-Century English Literature (Alexander Pope, John Gay, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne). Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Warsaw.
Wali, O. 1963, ' The dead-end of African literature ' , Transition, vol. 10, pp. 13-15.
Wandschneider, L. 2005, Henry Fielding ' s 'Joseph Andrews' in terms of parody, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/78921
William W. 2010, The World's Oldest Literature: Studies in Sumerian Belles-Lettres; Leiden; Boston: Brill
Yeibo, E. 2013, Nativisation of English in African Literary Texts: A Lexico-Semantic Study of Transliteration. In Gabriel Okara's The Voice. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1 No. 13, pp202-208.
Zabus, C. 2007, The African Palimpsest: Indigenisation of Language in the West African Europhone Novel. 2nd Enlarged (ed.). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Zhu, Y. 2021, Biblical Allusion in Three Charles Dickens Condition-of-England Novels. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Karlstad University.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 CC BY-ND 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
