For the young adult, autonomy is a dream: tracing the power dynamics in Ugandan literature

Abstract

Age stereotype and its impact on literature is a factor that has not been sufficiently researched especially in Uganda. This article uses the postcolonial theory to reveal that the young adult demographic category is pushed to the periphery in literature as it is in life. It is part of a research done on representations of the young adult in the fiction of selected Ugandan women writers; where the third objective in the bigger study investigates the power dynamic in literature. The article is a projection of a documentary study that uses critical analysis to explore how young adult characters are denied power in literature. It proposes that since literature has had a positive effect on society by reducing marginality in other aspects, it can do the same in the aspect of young adult power. The study confirms that writers (who target the young adult audience) by portraying young adult characters positively are likely to eventually influence such readers by making them aware of their peripheral positions and subsequently contributing towards redressing the problem of age stereotype. The novel Voice of a Dream by Glydah Namukasa (2006) is the core of the analysis.