The Use of Orality to Invoke Setting and Thematic Aspects in Children’s Stories

APA Citation: Muriungi, C. K. (2021). The Use of Orality to Invoke Setting and Thematic Aspects in Children’s Stories. Ngano: The Journal of Eastern African Oral Literature, 2, 27-38.

Abstract

This study aims at examining how orality is utilized in children’s stories. The study
argues that orality as a stylistic device in children’s texts not only helps in creating the
narrative structure but it also helps in revealing the setting and themes of children's
stories. The essay uses close textual reading to examine how orality interacts with the
written form in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s children’s text Njamba Nene and the Flying Bus. I
argue that the amalgamation of oral features like songs, poems, proverbs and other
oral art forms from oral tradition, into the text situates the narrative in specific set ups,
and to bring out cultural identity, among other themes visible in the narrative. Inclusion
of such oral features in stories for children in the twenty first century, not only helps
children to think about the rich African oral tradition, but these oral features also help
in shaping the imagination of young readers.