The different levels of stylistic realisation in Sam Kahiga's Dedan Kimathi

Abstract

The study set out to examine how effectively Sam Kahiga has employed the different levels of stylistic realization in his novel Dedan Kimathi. It examines the means by which he appropriates a historical event artistically. It also examines the reconstruction of Kimathi as a character in fiction, and how that reconstruction portrays him and his role in the Mau Mau Movement. The study adopts a stylistic and new historicism approach to determine the interaction between Kimathi as fiction and Kimathi as historical reality, since the text cannot be known separate from its historical context. The study has endeavoured to establish the fact that Kahiga has successfully re¬constructed the image of Kimathi through the use of various narrative strategies such as the use of the omniscient narrator, imagery and the epistolary mode; and that he has recreated what might have happened. Webster in Studying Literary Theory posits, "The product of the creative imagination translates into the intentional fallacy (23)." Kahiga has successfully injected a 'creative imagination' dimension in his portrayal of Kimathi. He dwells on details on other events, situations and characters not directly implicated in projecting Kimathi's image, but which afford the reader a broader view of the Mau Mau Movement. Sam Kahiga has, despite the similarities and discrepancies between historiography and fiction rehabilitated Kimathi's image; and has eschewed the extremes of historical distortion and artistic idealism.