Humour in Kenyan prose

Abstract

This study sets out to examine the technique that Kenyan fiction writers use in creating humour. In order to accomplish this objective, Times Beyond by Omondi Mak'Oloo. How To Be a Kenyan by Wahome Mutahi and Without Kiinua Mgongo by David Maillu have been chosen as primary texts. The decision to make them the key texts emanates from the manner in which they elicit humour in the reader in the entirety of their pages. We proceed from the premise that behind all humour is some level of incongruity either in a statement, feelings, situations and actions, assessments and contexts. We en devour to examine how the different categories of humour have been tailored to bring an overall witty effect in these texts The research is guided by the tenets of New Criticism, which in part emphasises the appreciation of the technique and form of art and the mastery of the artist in a literary work. We benefit from this theory in demonstrating how the architecture of these texts enhances the hilarity of the readers. Largely therefore we interrogate the technique that the authors of these texts have employed to make them stand out as sustainably witty. In our analysis of the three texts, we note the various incongruities that these authors capitalise on for comic effects. For example in Times B-eyond we underscore the incongruities that underlie the use of hyperbole and irony in the realization of humour in this text. Apart from this, we '" demonstrate how Wahome Mutahi draws from the oddities in the habits and mannerisms of Kenyans to evoke humour in How To Be a Kenyan We wind up by explicating the various categories of humour in David Maillu's Without Kiinua Mgongo. An observation that is worth making is with regard to the way that this research brings into sharp focus the scarcity of humour as a stylistic technique in Kenyan prose. If writers will pick up the challenge that this study has presented and consequently churn more humorous works is something we cannot tell. However it is our desire that they rise up to this challenge