Language Use in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s “Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary”

Abstract

Language is an important tool in our societyandinhuman life in particular. It plays an essential function not onlyincommunication but also in restoring and maintaining harmonyininterpersonal relationships. The style in which language is usedportrays a lot about the language users and the audience as well. InNgugi Wa Thiongo’s “Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary”, thereisa distinctive usage of language that expresses his resistance totheoppression meted out to them by the colonizer and reinforces thetheme of cultural identity as well. This paper will examinethespecific instances of language use, such as Idioms, proverbs, codemixing, and switching, that were used to bring out the themes inhisbook. The researcher was interested in highlighting the different styles of language usage and further establishing the reasons whythe author used them. The research was primarily limited toNgugi wa Thiongo's Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary. The scope of theresearch was within the realm of Prison Narration. The researchwas Library based qualitative study involving close and in-depthanalysis of the selected text in order to bring out Ngugi’s language choices.