Thesis Title: Re-Imagining the Mundane in Mca Tricky’s Comic Performances in the Churchill Show of Kenya

Student’s Name: Nekesa Sylvia Rabeca

Supervisor’s Name:

1. Dr. Joseph Musungu

2. Dr. Felix Orina

ABSTRACT

There is nothing permanent except change. It is present in all fields of life including literature. Advancements in Information and Communications Technology and the emergence of new forms of orality such as stand-up comedy, online jokes and parodies have given rise to emergent or new literatures. This study is an examination of the transient nature of orature. That process that turns an otherwise ordinary story into an educative amusement has not been accorded adequate analysis. The study specifically focuses on how MCA Tricky de-familiarizes the mundane or ordinary happenings in the Kenyan landscape and turns the occurrences into serious literature. It investigates the sources of humour employed by MCA Tricky in his comic performances. There is also an examination of the form and structure of comic performances by MCA Tricky. Lastly it looks at the social significance of MCA Tricky’s comic performances. The theory of entexualization addresses the humor resources employed by MCA Tricky while the General Theory of Verbal Humor handles the form and structure of the said performances. A third theory, semiotics, handles the social significance of MCA Tricky’s comic performances. The literature review focused on works by literary critics who have studied emergent literatures that is stand-up comedy. The methodology adopted a qualitative research design which relies on non-numeric collection of data. Sampling procedures involved purposive sampling of current comic performances in Kenya thus the choice of MCA tricky. This is attributable to the style he employs and the content he delivers during his performances. Data collection was done through downloading the sampled performances from YouTube. Data analysis was done through watching, listening and transcribing the performances to English. The findings of this study will contribute knowledge to studies about new and emergent literature in the current scholarly sphere. The comic performances by MCA Tricky prove that stand-up comedy is a genre that can be studied by literature scholars. One of the findings of this study is that there are several new meanings that emerge from modern comic performances. Consequently, different social contexts in Kenya provide material for performances by various stand-up comedians. Finally, the performances have a definite form and structure just like written texts and thus qualify to be literature. Future research may be undertaken in the area of stand-up comedy as a genre of orature.