Magic realism in Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying (1995) and She Plays with the Darkness (1995).
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Date
1998
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Abstract
I shall argue in this thesis that Zakes Mda's novels Ways of Dying (l995a) and She
Plays with the Darkness (1995b) are magic realist texts that are representative of
the hybrid nature of this literary mode. Furthermore I shall demonstrate that Ways
of Dying (l995a) and She Plays with the Darkness (1995b) share common
elements with a variety of magic realist texts. Mda's own creative and literary
consciousness has been shaped by an intellectual background stemming from
tertiary education at Ph.D level, his teaching positions at various international
universities, and his knowledge of African folk-culture. The seemingly contesting
streams of Western education and African mysticism are not presented as sources
of conflict in Mda's novels, but rather as syncretic forces of potential
transformative power. Mda displays in his project as a novelist, the continuing
concerns of black writers who saw the novel as a tool for socio-political change.
My thesis therefore also investigates the extent to which Mda's use of magic
realism in the novels mentioned above, signals a radical shift in literary
representation by South African black writers who wrote in English.
Mda's novels transcend Black Consciousness-inspired protest that
characterised black literature in the 1970's and 1980's. His use of tropes
associated with magic realism, African folk-culture, the apocalyptic and
carnivalesque has enabled him to create a discursive space for South African black
writers on the international stage, and foregrounds a movement towards literature
that offers opposition to being classified as merely ''black writing". The death of
the old order in South Africa and the birth of a new one, invites questioning and
analysis of the position of the self during a period of cataclysmic change. That the
apocalypse brings with it both death and renewal could be seen within the context
of post modernist visions of the erosion of the self and death as the ultimate reality.
Mda's novels, Ways of Dying (l995a) and She Plays with the Darkness (1995b),
are the first English narratives by a South Afiican black author that can claim
affinities with postcolonial writers such as Carpentier, Marquez, Okri and Rushdie.
These writers reflect in their narratives, the infinite possibilities of magic realism in
reclaiming the self submerged by the colonial experience.
I shall attempt, in Chapter One, a survey of specific theoretical assumptions
relevant to magic realism. Chapter Two will provide biographical details of Zakes
Mda the playwright, poet, theatre practitioner, film producer and novelist and the
importance of magic realism in his writings. Chapter Three is an analysis of Mda's
published plays and points to the early uses of elements consistent with magic
realism in his work. Chapters Four and Five are investigations into Mda's use of
magic realism in Ways of Dying (1995) and She Plays with the Darkness (1995),
respectively.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.
Keywords
Mda, Zakes. Ways of dying., Mda, Zakes. She plays with the darkness., Theses--English.