Home > Sociology, Social Work > Vol 3 No 1 June 2015 Abstract 10
Re- Thinking the Institution of Marriage in the 21st Century and Beyond- New Historicism Approach to the Swahili Novel
Leonard Sanja, Ayub Mukhwana Absract This paper aims at analyzing the Swahili novel in the quest to show that the definition of the institution of marriage has changed and so there is need to redefine it. The paper seeks to explore the themes of marriage and religion in the last two decades. In our discussion, we base our examples on two novels; Paradiso (2005) and Kala Tufaha (2007). The aim of the paper is to show that marriage is a very vital organ of society and due to its varied interpretations occasioned by social – cultural and religious interpretations not forgetting changes brought about by globalization and technology, we assert that the effects to this institution are enormous. Marriage is key to societal existence and any change to it affects and threatens its existence and indeed the rest of humanity. It is with this understanding that we cannot separate the work of fiction and realities in this institution. Thus, the thesis of this paper is that we cannot interpret meaning in creative works independent of societal context in terms of time and place. In this paper the theory of New Historicism which recognizes historical contextuality is used.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jssw.v3n1a10