ABSTRACT
As I noted in the Introduction, there are constraints on both the production and reception of texts which lead to them being read and judged in certain ways. Although these elements work on the text as a whole, and it is therefore difficult to separate the constraints on production from those of reception (for example, the negative reception that women’s writing receives may discourage women from writing, or may encourage them to write in particular conforming ways), for the purposes of this book it has been necessary to separate these constraints, and in this chapter I will consider the constraints on production.1 Ngugi wa Thiong’o states that:
Over the years I have come to realise more and more that work, any work, even literary creative work, is not the result of any individual genius but the result of a collective effort. There are so many inputs in the actual formation of an image, an idea, a line of argument and even sometimes the formal arrangement. The very words we use are a product of a collective history.
