What literary criticism theory can be used in critiquing Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiongo?

I am not familiar with this work, but the beauty of the
various literary theories is that many of them work for any work, you just have to ask
yourself the right questions.  For example, with feminist criticism, ask yourself, how
are the women in this novel portrayed?  What is the role of women in this society?  Is
there an intended and perhaps unintended message about the role of women in society as
depicted by the characters in this novel?  What would a staunch feminest say in reaction
to this work?

With formalist criticism, ask yourself the
literary-type questions.  Who is the narrator?  Why did the author choose that type of
narration style?  What is the structure?  Why?  What is the significance of the
setting?  Are there any symbols or motifs and what do they add to the meaning of the
work.

The purpose of thinking about a variety of literary
theories is that they become lenses through which you can look at a text in new ways and
better understand what the author has accomplished.

In the
references, I included a link to a web site that has brief overviews -- read through
them and decided which are most applicable to this novel.