Browsing by Author "Mkhize, Jabulani Justice Thembinkosi."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Realism in the African novel : the case of Sembene Ousmane's God's bits of wood, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's Petals of blood and Pepetela's Mayombe.
(2004) Haricharan, Dhanwanthie.; Mkhize, Jabulani Justice Thembinkosi.
This study is an attempt to examine the use of realism in three African novels by different authors from different countries, which are set at different phases of independence. Sembene Ousmane's God's Bits of Wood, is set in Senegal and is a pre-independence novel. On the other hand, Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, is a Kenyan post-independence novel. Pepetela's Mayombe is set in Angola during the resistance struggle. What these novels share, though, is the use of realism. It is the use of realism, I argue, that enables these authors to capture the political realities of their respective countries. However, each author's employment of realism remains umque. The first chapter engages with the foundational theory of this study. Georg Lukacs' argument on realism will be the point of reference. I attempt to illustrate certain observable characteristics of realism through the examination of this argument found in The Meaning of Contemporary Realism (1956). Lukacs' notions on naturalism, critical realism and socialist realism will be closely examined. But, before that discussion, I will demonstrate the importance of realism in arriving at the "novel" form, which is distinguished from previous literature (for example literature of the Middle Ages). Chapter Two establishes Ousmane's God's Bits of Wood as a socialist realist text. The possible influence of Zola' s Germinal on God's Bits of Wood is examined. The argument being that certain elements of Germinal are resonated in God's Bits of Wood, yet they each still retain their uniqueness. Zola's naturalist style is also evident in Ousmane's novel. But it is in the area of ideology that the two novels differ. God's Bits of Wood is a working class novel that successfully employs socialist realism. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood is the subject of the third chapter. This chapter reflects on Ngugi's use of the socialist realist principles to convey the social and political climate of post-independence Kenya. However, his formulaic use of socialist realism is questioned as it gives rise to a novel that reads as didactic. The Marxist ideology that informs this novel is altogether too obvious. The fourth chapter is an examination of Mayombe by Pepetela. This is a very significant novel in regard to Angolan history. This novel successfully deals with the complexities of the resistance movement. The employment of realism is obvious, however, the kind of realism employed is difficult to categorize. The emotional and psychological trauma of war is illuminated. Although a socialist perspective is evident, a formulaic use of socialist realism is avoided. Pepetela seems to be more interested in engaging in discussion of issues surrounding independence, such as tribalism and power hunger. It is then evident that these authors use realism to attain a simulacrum of reality. However, it is the author's specific perspective that shapes the text that is produced.
Social realism in Alex La Guma's longer fiction.
(1998) Mkhize, Jabulani Justice Thembinkosi.; Attwell, David.
This thesis sets out to examine social realism in Alex La Guma's longer fiction by using Georg Lukacs's Marxist theory as a point of departure. Tracing the development in La Guma's novels in terms of a shift from critical realism to gestures towards socialist realism I argue that this shift is informed by Lenin's "spontaneity/consciousness dialectic" in terms of which workers begin by engaging in spontaneous actions before they are ultimately guided by a developed political consciousness. I am quite aware that linking La Guma's work to socialist realism might raise some eyebrows in some circles but I am nonetheless quite emphatic about the fact that socialist realism in La Guma's fiction is not in any way tantamount to the Stalin-Zhdanovite version of what Lukacs calls "illustrative literature". Rejecting Lukacs's conception that socialist realism is a prerogative of writers in the socialist countries, I argue that gestures towards socialist realism made in La Guma's last novels are rooted in South African social reality. One of the claims being made in this study is that La Guma's novels render visible his attempt to create a South African proletarian literature. For this reason I make a case for Russian precedents of La Guma's writing by attempting to identify some intertextual connection between La Guma's novels and Gorky's work. Where realism is concerned I argue that although La Guma seems to draw extensively on Maxim Gorky in redefining his aesthetics of realism, Lukacs's theory of realism is useful in contextualising his fiction. The first chapter is largely biographical, examining La Guma's father's influence in shaping his political ideology and his literary tastes. Chapter two focuses on La Guma's aesthetics of realism. In chapter three I examine La Guma's journalism as having provided him with the subjects of his fiction and argue that there is a carry-over in terms of La Guma's style from journalism to fiction. Accordingly, I provide evidence of this carry-over in the next chapter on A Walk in the Night in which I argue that while La Guma's style is naturalist the novel is critical realist in perspective. Chapter five contextualizes the shift from And A Threefold Cord, to The Stone • Country as providing evidence of La Guma's use of "the spontaneity/consciousness dialectic". In chapter six I read In the Fog of the Seasons' End in relation to Gorky's Mother as its intertext in terms of its gestures towards socialist realism as seen for example in its "positive heroes", Beukes and Tekwane. There are further elements of socialist realism in Time of the Butcherbird which are nevertheless brought into question by some ideological contradictions within the text this is the central thrust of my argument in chapter seven. I conclude this study with a brief discussion of La Guma's craftsmanship.