ABSTRACT
Some kinds of fiction deliberately set out to denaturalize, contest or in some way put up a resistance to dominant discourses, the subject positions they offer, and the ideologies embodied in them. Cultural production, including the production of works of fiction, is crucial in the generation of versions of historical events from non-domi nant perspectives, what Edward Said has called 'repressed or resistant history' (Said 1985: 94). It is also essential as part of a dom inated people's awareness of their condition. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan writer in exile in London, makes a distinction between two kinds of literature which is close to the distinction between socially reproductive and empowering fiction which informs this book. Ngugi's concern is the literature syllabus in Kenyan schools: litera ture either oppresses, by shoring up dominant imperialist discourses, or contributes to the struggle for liberation from them (Ngugi 1981). This view of literature places a value on politically motivated fiction which runs counter to the dominant literary-acad emic notions of what makes fine literature: liberal humanist notions of universality, timelessness.
