(Re)Formation of Social Youth Identities in Selected Kenyan Youth Fiction

Abstract

This paper examines how different writers in Kenya portray characters who navigate the question of (re)formation of social youth identities in the face of intervening contexts among them; the emerging global and contemporary cultural trends; pressure for financial success; changing sexuality trends; HIV/AIDS prevalence and single parenthood. The study focuses on Elizabeth Kabui's Was Nyakeeru my Father (2014), Florence Mbaya's Sunrise at Midnight (2014), Bill Ruto's Death Trap (2005), Carolyne Adalla's Confessions of an Aids Victims(1993), Moraa Gitaa's The Shark Attack (2014) and Kingwa Kamencu's To Grasp at a Star (2005). The main objective is to examine the fragmented social identities that emerge in selected Kenyan youth literature.   The paper employs sociological and postmodern theories in its enquiry. It applies the views of a few postmodernist theorists such as Fredic Jameson and Rorty in a bid to explain how these creative writers deal with the themes and the question of youth culture and social identities that are fragmented / unstable / shifting /fluid / fractured and quite ambivalent. This study uses qualitative research strategies to gather information on the selected texts. It applies purposive sampling of primary texts that give a reflection of the youth of the 21^st C but it is also guided by comprehensive reading of texts and textual analysis.  The study therefore raises an argument that youth literature not only lives and mediates the daily experiences in contemporary Kenya, but it remains one of the significant windows through which some of the problems that continue to plague the young adults can be analyzed and understood.