USE OF CHARACTERIZATION AS A STYLISTIC DEVICE IN KISWAHILI NOVEL: EXAMPLE FROM SIKU NJEMA AND KIDAGAA KIMEMWOZEA NOVELS-KEN WALIBORA.

Abstract

According to Ntarangwi (2004), literature portrays in a wider way the realism of the society. In addition, he states that one function of literature is to help human beings to bring out personal and society’s challenges. It is a tool that helps human beings to understand themselves and their environment. Therefore, this paper aims to highlight the environmental and thematic realism in the Siku Njema (1996) story book. The paper has applied the Realism Theory in order to bring out the environmental and thematic realism. The data used was collected by reading the selected text then analysed according to the research objective and the theory tenets. The results indicate that the environment and the themes discussed in the selected text are real because the environmental place names used by the writer are found in real places in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. In addition, the themes highlighted by the writer have a close relation with the challenges the present society is facing. The writer seems to have been influenced by his immediate environment and happenings. This is an indicator that his work has not been created from a vacuum hence literature is a true picture of the society.