The Representation of Prison and Prisoners in Ngugi’s Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary and Orhan Kemal’s 72nd Ward

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how two distinct authors, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Orhan Kemal, express their experiences in prison as a result of being imprisoned by their own states due to their opinions, as well as how they portray the conditions of the prison and prisoners. Ignoring the fact that both works are written in different literary forms, the events recounted by both authors are completely encountered and witnessed by themselves. Ngugi’s work focuses on the plight of political prisoners, detailing how the prison administration treated them horribly through government indoctrination, as well as how the inmates coped with these circumstances. On the other hand, Orhan Kemal portrays the prison life he witnessed while imprisoned for political reasons, focusing particularly on the lives of the impoverished, poor, and outcast prisoners. In his story, he discusses not only the life of the prisoners, but also the prison atmosphere and the warders’ degrading attitude toward them. In light of these considerations, Kenyan writer and scholar Ngugi wa Thiong’o ’s work, which he composed in the form of a diary, and Orhan Kemal’s story 72nd Ward, in which he tells the events he witnessed, were compared and contrasted, accordingly, the parallels and differences between the two writers were explored.