Characterisation, Authority and Ideology in Ng?g?’s Devil on the Cross

Abstract

This paper analyses the direct characterisation passages in Ng?g? wa Thiong’o’s novel Devil on the Cross (1982). It identifies the different uses of modality, an indicator of narratorial authority, in order to show how the predominant use of modalisation has helped the narrators to mark not only their externality to what they depict, but also their subjectivity or lack of confidence with regard to their interpretations of capitalist characters’ actions. Yet, with a near exclusive use of modulation with regard to the depiction of proletarian personages, these narrators have somehow given clues about their closeness to and admiration for them. All this has helped to deduce their ideological orientation regarding the two groups of characters.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s3p279