A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree "Licence en Langue et Littérature Anglaises".

Résumé,

This study sets out to investigate religious conflicts and conflict of generaton in The River Between. It examines how these conflicts divide the older and the younger generations caught up in them. It also examines the reaction of the younger generation to the new system and the expectation of the older generation.
It shows how Christan missionares have set up, in the Gikuyu communiy, ttols such as religion and education to clear out the Gikuyu traditional culture.

ur study examines the author's portrayal of the Gikuyu elders'resistance against he Christian religion and the conflicts that arse between them and those who received it. It shows how the introduction of Christian religion generates divisions and hatred among the Gikuyu natives : one attached to traditional values and the other converted to the Christian relgion. It further examines how the younger generations from both the two groups were determined to look for the solution to the conflicts by serching the meeting point for those who do not share the same beliefs.

This work is based on the hypothisis that, in The River Between, issues of relgion are partially responsible for the divisions in most African countries. It further seeks to prove that the older and the younger generations vew these issues differently. It shows hat while the old generation thinks that there is no meeting point for poeple who do not share the same beliefs, the younger s searching the meeting point.

The theory hat will center our discussion is the New Historicism Theory. New Historicism is a theory in literally criticism which has been primary developed in 1980s with stephen Greenbelt as its main proponent. It s bsased on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted within the context of both the hostory of the author and the history of the critics. It acknowledges that not only the work of literature is influenced by its author's time and circumstances, but that he crtic's response to that work is also influenced by his environment, beliefs and prejudces. A new historicist looks at literature in a wider historical context, examining both how the writer's time affected the work and how the work reflects the writer's time