Intertextuality: Decolonising Imperial Narrative in Weep Not, Child

ABSTRACT

Imperial narrative paved the way for the ‘superior white’ and ‘inferior black’ psychology for centuries. This article seeks to determine the impact of intertexts employed in Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o's Weep Not, Child in resisting the imperial discourse. The article identifies intertexts in the form of allusions, quotations, and references to the two world wars in Europe. A textual analysis method is then applied to uncover how the intertexts are used to decolonise the invented ‘whiteness’, ‘blackness’, and ‘Europe’. The study relies on selected concepts of intertextuality by Mikhail Bakhtin and Julia Kristeva. The article reveals that the intertexts are employed to disprove the invented discourse about black and white people. The article also discloses how the novel reciprocates the old binary opposition that considers ‘civilised’ Europe as the antithesis of ‘uncivilised’ Africa. Finally, the article suggests that the current world order is directly connected to the imperial narrative, which necessitates consistent counter-narrative to fight the fabricated discourse.

KEYWORDS:

• Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o
• intertextuality
• dialogism
• signifiance
• imperial discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Plato. Republic, Trans. G. M. A. Grube. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1992).

2 Aristotle. Poetics. Edited by D. W. Lucas. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968).

3 Kristeva claims that monologic discourse includes first, the representative mode of description and narration; secondly, historical discourse; and thirdly, scientific discourse. In all three, the subject both assumes and submits to the rule of God, Law, Definition or simply Monologism (Toril Moi, 1986, 41-47).

4 “A second category of ambivalent words, parody, proves to be quite different. Here the writer introduces a signification opposed to that of the other’s word” (Toril Moi, 1986, 44).

5 Ana Gomez, former Member of European Parliament (2004-2019).

6 Viking is a series drama aired from 2013 to 2021. It was written and produced by Michael Hirst.