Analysis of Yvonne Owuor’s Dust from the Perspective of Socialist Realism Literary Theory

This study entitled Analysis of Yvonne Owuor’s Dust from the Perspective of Socialist Realism Literary Theory attempts to read a Contemporary Anglophone Kenyan novel through the lens of Socialist Realism. Socialist Realism appeared for the first time in a speech of 17th May 1932 by Ivan Gronsky, and gaining worldwide recognition with postcolonial literary works, has been a focal point of different scholarly studies. In Kenya, the author such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o wrote literary works which can be seen in Socialist Realist eyes. The motivations behind taking up this topic are to fill the research gap in reading a novel from Kenya and to observe the trend in the practice of Socialist Realism. The paper aims to show the re-emergence of Socialist Realism literary theory and the presence of Socialist Realist authors; after it was considered an outdated literary theory. And how the novelist from Kenya has applied the features that Socialist Realism is known. One novel has been chosen for this study, Dust. The novel was published after 2000 G.C. To read the novel, the theoretical framework forms at using Socialist Realism different features theorized by critics. The study concludes by finding major features of Socialist realism in the novel. These are optimism, socialist Humanism, class-ness, people-ness, Romanticism and positive hero. And the novelist in Kenya used Socialist Realism associating it with their contexts, connecting it with their respective historical background, shared current statues, commenting on existing economic, social, and political situations.