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1
Chaka, Ponny Piet. "Mokotaba le kgohlano ho Ditshwantshiso tsa Zakes Mda." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/50026.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2004.<br>Examines theme and conflict in the drama Ditshwantshiso tsa Zakes Mda, which was translated into Sesotho<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines theme and conflict in the drama Ditshwantshiso tsa Zakes Mda, which
was translated into Sesotho by M.W. Tsiu, and published by Unisa Press, in 2002 in Pretoria.
This drama book has five plays.
Chapter 1, introduces the aims of study, problem identification as well as the organization of
study. Chapter 2, deals with literature review on theme and conflict. Chapter 3, is the
analysis of theme and conflict in Se kgitlile lejwe. Chapter 4, analyses theme and conflict in
Re tla binela fatshe la bontate. Chapter 5, is the analysis of theme and conflict in Mantswe a
tebileng a a /la. Chapter 6, is the analysis of theme and conflict in Lera/la. Chapter 7 analysis
of theme and conflict in Tsela.
Chapter 8, deals with conclusion about theme and conflict in Ditshwantshiso tsa Zakes Mda.
It is found that in these five plays, Zakes Mda try to make us aware about the events in the
past in South Africa, a political system in which white people had power over black people
and made them live separately. We learn from these plays how should we live together and
happily.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die tema en konflik in drama boek Ditshwantshiso tsa Zakes Mda,
soos dit vertaal is in Sesotho deur M.W. Tsiu, en uitgegee is deur Unisa Press, in 2002 in
Pretoria. Hierdie dramaboek bevat vyf toneelstukke.
Hoofstuk 1, stel die doel van die studie voor, identifiseer probleme, asook die organisasie van
die studie. Hoofstuk 2, hou verband met teorlee en metodes wat in die studie gevolg word.
Hoofstuk 3, ondersoek die tema en konflik in Se kgitlile lejwe. Hoofstuk 4, ondersoek die
tema en konflik in Re tla binela fatshe la bontate. Hoofstuk 5, ondersoek die tema en konflik
in Mantswe a tebileng a alia. Hoofstuk 6, ondersoek die tema en konflik in Leralla. Hoofstuk
7, ondersoek die tema en konflik in Tsela.
Hoofstuk 8, gee die gevolgtrekking van die studie, met tema en konflik in Ditshwantshiso tsa
Zakes Mda. Dit bied 'n opsomming van die belangrikste bevindinge van die studie.<br>Thuto ena e reretswe ho hlahloba mokotaba Ie kgohlano bukeng va lakes Mda, e leng,
Ditshwantshiso tsa Zakes Mda, e fetoletsweng Sesothong ke M.W. Tsiu, mme va phatlalatswa
ka selemo sa 2002, ke Unisa Press, Pitoria. Buka ena e na Ie ditshwantshiso tse hlano.
Tshwantshisong ka nngwe ho tlo shebanwa Ie mokotaba, ho boelwe ho shebanwe Ie
kgohlano.
Kgaolo va 1, ke selelekela sa thuto ena ka bophara. Mona ho hlaha nalane va lakes Mda ha
kqutshwanyane, sepheo Ie hlophiso va mosebetsi ona. Kgaolo va 2, e hlahisa diteori tse tla
sebediswa ho manolla mokotaba Ie kgohlano ditshwantshisong tsena tsa lakes Mda. Kgaolo
va 3, ho hlahlojwa tshwantshiso va, Se kgitlile lejwe, moo ho shejwang mokotaba Ie
kgohlano. Kgaolo va 4, ho hlahlojwa tshwantshiso va, Re tla binela fatshe la bontate, moo ho
shejwang mokotaba Ie kgohlano. Kgaolo va 5, ho hlahlojwa tshwantshiso va, Mantswe a
tebileng a a /la, moo ho shejwang mokotaba Ie kgohlano. Kgaolo va 6, ho hlahlojwa
tshwantshiso ve, Lera/la, moo ho shejwang mokotaba Ie kgohlano. Kgaolo va 7, ho hlahlojwa
tshwantshiso va, Tsela, moo ho hlahlojwang mokotaba Ie kgohlano.
Kgaolo va 8, ke qeto, mme ho tlo shejwa hore na mokotaba Ie kgohlano di fihletswe, mme
bohlokwa ba ditaba ke ho sheba ka moo mawala a dingolwa a sebedisitsweng ka teng; tsela
eo mokotaba 0 fihletsweng ka ona Ie tsela eo kgohlano e hlahang ka teng. Qeto e fihlellwang
ke hore lakes Mda 0 re elelliswa ka diketsahalo tsa nakong va kgethollo, mme thuto eo re e
fumanang ke va hore re tshwanetse ho phela ha mmoho Ie ka kgotso.
2
Lazley, Christopher Paul. "Spaces and places in Zakes Mda : two novesl." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8945.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-92).<br>The notion of place as something at once geographic, socio-cultural and psychological is a ubiquitous concern in the novels of Zakes Mda. It is surely not by chance that Mda's interest in the novelistic form, which materialised in the publication of Ways of Dying in 1995, was roughly coincident with South Africa's fledgling democracy a year earlier. The end of apartheid meant the opportunity of exploring new forms of cultural discourse untrammeled by the intense politicisation of art that had tended to collapse the literary with the didactic in rather one-dimensional ways. Mda's consideration of place, this thesis argues, is one instance of such an exploration. More specifically, it examines the intersection of the social and the spatial in two of his novels: Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness. Starting at the junction of race, politics and literature, it moves into how the country's changing physical and political boundary lines have effected new ways of relating to its spaces. The focus of the Ways of Dying chapter is on urban space, where migrants and settled urbanites must reconcile the rather fragmented and cosmopolitan character of the city.
3
Liazidi, Hamid. "Les oeuvres de Zakes MDA : Idéologie, dramaturgie et théâtralité." Nice, 1997. http://www.theses.fr/1997NICE2018.
Full textAbstract:
Le but de ce travail est de déterminer les spécificités idéologiques et esthétiques ainsi que les traits distinctifs de l'écriture de MDA par rapport à celle des autres écrivains noirs sud-africains. Afin de démontrer le caractère novateur et distingue de l'œuvre de MDA, nous avons opté pour une approche éclectique et comparative. La première partie de notre recherche est consacrée au rapport entre la dramaturgie et l'engagement de MDA. Elle montre, d'une part son idéologie libérale et modérée dans l'analyse du thème de l'oppression-libération, et d'autre part l'emploi d'une diversité de techniques pour médiatiser le discours et les situations dramatiques. Contrairement à la prédominance de l'idéologique sur l'esthétique dans l'œuvre panafricaniste, MDA les maintient constamment en équilibre. La deuxième partie porte sur les composantes structurales et techniques de l'œuvre de MDA. Elle démontre son esprit avant-gardiste, son innovation, et sa contribution à l'évolution de la dramaturgie sud-africaine. MDA a adapté les techniques empruntées à la dramaturgie et la pensée modernistes au contexte socio-politique en Afrique du sud. Par ailleurs, son insertion des éléments de la culture traditionnelle est destinée à diversifier les thèmes et les situations plutôt que de construire une dramaturgie indigen<br>The objective of this work is to determine the ideological and esthetic qualities as well as the distinctive features of mda's works by comparison to those by the other black south african writers. We have provided an ecclectic and comparative approach in order to demonstrate mda's innovation and distinction. The first part is devoted to the relation between mda's mode of writing and commitment. It shows on the one hand mda's moderate and liberal thought in his analysis of the theme of oppression-liberation and on the other hand his use of various techniques in order to mediate dramatic discourse and situations. The predominance of the ideological properties on the esthetic ones in the panafricanist works stands in contrast to the constant balance mda maintains. The second part focuses on the structural and technical components of mda's works. It demonstrates his avant-gardiste thought, his innovation and contribution to the evolution of the south african writing. MDA has adapted the techniques borrowed from the modernist tradition to the socio-political context in south africa. His implementation of elements from the traditional culture is intended to create a diversity of themes and situations rather than to construct an indigenuous dramatic theory
4
Pires, Ana Luísa de Oliveira Gonçalves. "Present, imagination and memory in Zakes Mda and Mia Couto." Doctoral thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/3946.
Full textAbstract:
Doutoramento em Literatura<br>Apesar de marcadas por contextos históricos e culturais distintos, é possível
observar nas obras de dois dos autores mais significativos da África do Sul e
de Moçambique, Zakes Mda e Mia Couto respectivamente, perspectivas
semelhantes no que diz respeito à recuperação das memórias históricoculturais
e à sua contribuição para a construção e compreensão das
identidades pós-coloniais. Através da ficção, Zakes Mda e Mia Couto
combinam a ligação da História a factos concretos com a necessidade de
revelação associada à memória, criando assim espaços importantes para a
discussão de algumas das mais complexas questões colocadas às identidades
pós-coloniais. Para além dos contextos políticos, culturais e históricos que
caracterizam e distinguem as literaturas sul-africana e moçambicana, tanto
Zakes Mda como Mia Couto assumem nas suas obras a necessidade de
analisar as identidades pós-coloniais contemporâneas dos dois países através
da recuperação das suas memórias históricas.<br>In spite of the specificities pertaining to South African and Mozambican history
and culture, in the novels of two of the most significant literary representatives
of those Southern African nations, Zakes Mda and Mia Couto respectively, it is
possible to observe similar perspectives regarding the recovery of cultural
memories and histories and their contribution toward the construction,
development and understanding of postcolonial identities. Through fiction,
Zakes Mda and Mia Couto combine history’s concern with concrete facts and
memory’s attachment to disclosure, opening important spaces to debate some
of the most complex questions posed to African postcolonial identities. Beyond
the distinctive political, cultural and historical contexts that have shaped South
African and Mozambican literatures, both Zakes Mda and Mia Couto assume in
their novels the need to examine contemporary South African and Mozambican
postcolonial identities by resorting to the reclamation of their historical
memories.
5
Valjee, Kiren. "The rediscovery of South African cultural identity in Zakes Mda's Ways of dying." Amherst, Mass. : University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/267/.
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6
Agboluaje, Oladipo. "Constructions of identity in contemporary African drama : a comparative study of Wole Soyinka and Zakes Mda." Thesis, Open University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.272894.
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7
Hagemann, Michael Eric. "Humour as a postcolonial strategy in Zakes Mda's novel, The heart of redness." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2005. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis sought to demonstrate that humour and the grotesque are the primary tools by which Mda achieve his postcolonial strategies of "<br>writing back"<br>, that is, of asserting an identity in the face of colonial pressures, apartheid and the growing selfishness of many in the new, post-democratic South African society.
8
Van, Vuuren Sonja. "South African satire : a study of Zakes Mda's The Madonna of Excelsior." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/16455.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses Zakes Mda’s The Madonna of Excelsior from three different
points of view, namely post-colonial, feminist and satirical. The latter constitutes the
main interpretation of the novel and serves as a link with the other two discourses –
the key argument being that satire is not a solipsistic form of art, and thus a satirical
text should not be considered on its own, but should rather be interpreted in
conjunction with other cultural discourses. This thesis is of the opinion that one needs
all three of the named viewpoints in order to fully comprehend and appreciate the
depth of Mda’s satire and his comments on South African society. His novel contains
several candid comments on the political situation of South Africa in both the
apartheid and the democratic eras, and his tongue-in-cheek observations force the
reader to consider his novel from a political and a satirical angle. As apartheid is a
form of colonialism and South Africa carries several scars from colonial times (such
as diasporic conditions and multi-cultural identity crises, to name a few of those
discussed), this thesis analyses Mda’s political commentary in terms of post-colonial
discourse. Due to Mda’s use of female protagonists, this thesis also considers a
feminist interpretation as necessary for a better understanding of the novel: through
the use of feminist discourse, the violence that is committed against some of the
female characters in the novel is interpreted as a way of enforcing colonial power
relations. Chapters two, three and four respectively each discuss one of these
interpretations: post-colonial, feminist and satirical, whilst chapter one is devoted to
defining the art of satire.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis analiseer Zakes Mda se The Madonna of Excelsior vanuit drie
verskillende oogpunte, naamlik die postkoloniale, feministiese and satiriese.
Laasgenoemde konstitueer die hoofinterpretasie van die teks, en vorm ook ‘n skakel
met die ander twee diskoerse. Die hoofargument van die tesis is dat satire nie ‘n
kunsvorm is wat alleen bestaan nie, en dus behoort ‘n mens nie ‘n satiriese teks in
isolasie te oordink nie, maar so ‘n teks moet geïnterpreteer word in verbinding met
ander diskoerse. Hierdie tesis glo dat al drie van die genoemde oogpunte noodsaaklik
is om Mda se satiriese kommentaar en aanmerkings oor die Suid-Afrikaanse
gemeenskap werklik te verstaan en waardeer. Daar is etlike openhartige aanmerkings
in die teks wat die politiese situasie van Suid-Afrika in beide die apartheid en die
demokratiese eras aanspreek, en Mda se skertsende kommentaar dwing die leser om
die teks te oordink van ‘n politiese, asook ‘n satiriese, gesigspunt. Aangesien
apartheid ‘n vorm van kolonialisme is, en Suid-Afrika verskeie littekens van koloniale
tye dra (soos disporas en multi-kulturele krisisse, om maar ‘n paar te noem), analiseer
hierdie tesis Mda se politiese aanmerkings in terme van ‘n postkoloniale interpretasie.
Mda se gebruik van vroulike hoofkarakters veroorsaak dat hierdie tesis ook a
feministiese interpretasie benuttig vir ‘n betere begrip van die teks: deur die gebruik
van ‘n feministiese diskoers kan ‘n mens die geweld wat teen sommige van die
vroulike karakters gepleeg word sien as ‘n manier om koloniale magsverhoudinge af
te dwing. Hoofstukke twee, drie en vier bespreek elk een van hierdie oogpunte:
postkoloniaal, feminisme en satiere, terwyl hoofstuk een die satiriese kuns probeer
definieer.
9
Rudolf, Gabriel. "Ways of Dying : The depiction of Life and Death in Zakes Mda's novel." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk och litteratur, SOL, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-10277.
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Abstract This bachelor’s essay focuses on the depictions of life and death in the novel Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda. It claims that the novel is mainly focusing on a concept of life although it is set in a time in South Africa which is filled with death. The theory being used in the essay is mainly the postcolonial theory by Elleke Boehmer regarding terror since her definitions of terror corresponds very well to what is written in the novel. To add to this postcolonial theorist the essay has a feature of the structuralist binaries to enhance the focus upon the dichotomies of Life and Death. The essay discusses the situation of violence in transitional South Africa as described by the novel and focuses mainly on violence and politics to investigate the depictions of death. The representations of life in the novel are mainly shown through the magical realism, the story telling and the funerals which are visited by the main character Toloki. The essay explains that the novel is mainly focused on the binary opposite of life because of among other things the ending and the depictions of the funerals.
10
Jacobs, Anthony Richard. "Flying in the face of convention: "The heart of redness" as rehabilitative of the South African pastoral literary tradition through the frame of universal myth." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2005. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis analyzed Zakes Mda's The Heart of redness in the tradition of South African pastoral and counter-pastoral. It proposed that the novel is a hybrid of both African and European tradition and perspectives. It adduced Northrop Frye's theory of myth and archetypes in literature as a basis for study. It also analysed the novel in its use of irony.
11
Feldbrügge, Astrid [Verfasser], and Hilary [Akademischer Betreuer] Dannenberg. "Nostalgia, Home and Be-longing in Contemporary Postapartheid Fiction by Zakes Mda and Ivan Vladislavić / Astrid Feldbrügge. Betreuer: Hilary Dannenberg." Bayreuth : Universität Bayreuth, 2010. http://d-nb.info/105990876X/34.
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12
Ibinga, Stephane Serge. "The representation of women in the works of three South African novelists of the transition." Thesis, Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1100.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (DLitt (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007.<br>The dissertation focuses on literary representation of female characters in selected novels by three particular South African writers working within the transitional phase (from the formal ending of apartheid up to the present) of South African history. By means of textual analysis, the study investigates how the representation of numerous female characters in these texts reflects on and reflects the sector of South African society that forms the social setting of each text. This thesis explores the portrayal of female characters in selected fictional works by examining the ways in which the novelists Mandla Langa, Zakes Mda (both of them black and male writers) and Nadine Gordimer (a white and female novelist) characterise women in novels depicting this adapting society. In scrutinising these texts of the transition period, the thesis writer employs detailed individual delineation of female characters, to some extent by means of a comparative approach, with emphasis on parallels between as well as differences among the abovementioned authors’ ways of describing South African women’s circumstances and responses to their social predicaments.
In this study literary representations of women are examined in order to evaluate the effects of social and cultural transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. This is done by analysing these authors’ portrayals of women’s circumstances both in the private and public spheres. The thesis therefore contributes to the movement towards a greater recognition of women’s crucial, catalytic function in the achievement of social development and delineates these authors’ expressed awareness of many women’s actual direct involvement in the struggle against all forms of discrimination in society. This research project has been undertaken as an opportunity to investigate the different qualities and types of conduct attributed to female characters in ten selected novels of the transition, on the assumption that the texts reflect something of the way women are perceived and are playing new roles in a changing society. In studying how three significant ‘post-apartheid’ authors depict women affecting and affected by the social conditions of this period, the thesis traces the way the focus of more recent South African writing has shifted from an apartheid-era preoccupation with racial-political issues towards the depiction of private and public, rural and urban social and gender roles available to some contemporary South African women – and of those factors still constraining some other women. Taking in these authors’ portrayals of female political activism and leadership, the thesis also balances previous preoccupation (in South African English literature) with depictions of male political activity.
13
Crous, Matthys Lourens. "Presentations of masculinity in a selection of male-authored post-apartheid novels." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1672.
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14
Mashau, Godani Samuel. "Myth as a tool of literary, socio-economic, cultural and political liberation in selected works of Naguib Mahfouz, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Zakws Mda." Thesis, University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/849.
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15
Steele, Dorothy Winifred. "Interpreting redness: a literary biography of Zakes Mda." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1736.
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This study of Zakes Mda's life and sixteen of his plays and seven novels, written
from 1966 to the present day, set in South Africa, Lesotho and the United States
of America, shows how his life and works interweave, and how his
defamiliarisation mode, his magic realism and his juxtaposed timeframes
stimulate reader response and self-realisation, bringing about change.
Experiences of marginalisation due to early childhood sexual abuse, exile,
and being banished from church, and his involvement in political movements
outside the mainstream, have caused him to be an astute observer of life. He is
sceptical of authority and power, and is as critical of those who seek power,
becoming intoxicated thereby, as of those who give away their power and so
perpetuate unacceptable institutions and their own victimisation. At all times
though, his writing style is creative and entertaining, rooted in the African oral
tradition from which he springs, but also portraying international influences to
which he has been exposed over the years.<br>English Studies<br>M.A. (English)
16
Naidoo, Venugopaul. "Magic realism in Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying (1995) and She Plays with the Darkness (1995)." Thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/8599.
Full textAbstract:
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.<br>Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.
17
Mahasha, Thabo Widley. "African identity : the study of Zakes Mda 's Madonna of excelsior and Bessie Head's Maru." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1386.
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Thesis (M.A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014<br>This study discusses African identity as portrayed in Zakes Mda’s The Madonna of
Excelsior (2002) and Bessie Head’s Maru (1971). It explores identity and its subcomponents
within the South African context as asserted in these novels. Mda employs
a retrospective communal voice that blends historical accounts with fiction in order to
subvert and satirise apartheid nationalism. Head, on the other hand, constructs a
positive image of feminine identity in the world characterised by tribalism, patriarchal
system and stereotypical subjugation of women. She dismantles established racial and
ethnic prejudice against minority groups and the underprivileged. The study applies a
trilogy of theoretical framework to analyse and interpret selected data: Discourse
Analysis, Text Analysis and Afrocentricity. It further examines a fluidity of identities in
both social and political spheres and demonstrates how suppression of these identities
affects individuals and nation states. It reveals that, as a microcosm of Africa, South
Africa reflects atrocious injustices of the past, carried out in the form of colonisation and
apartheid, bringing about a different kind of identity of the African people. These two
novels take us back to the past so that we can understand the present and
subsequently build Africa’s identity of the future.
KEY CONCEPTS
Afrocentricity; Identity; Discrimination; Miscegenation; Otherness; Hybridity; Animalistic
Dehumanisation.
18
Ndibe, Okey. "History and memory in the fiction of Chinua Achebe, John Edgar Wideman, and Zakes Mda." 2009. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3379998.
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This dissertation explores the nature and context of the dialogue between African and African American writers, buttressed by the extensive use of history and memory by Chinua Achebe, John Edgar Wideman, and Zakes Mda, the three writers at the center of this study. Through the reading of three primary texts – Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Wideman’s The Cattle Killing, and Mda’s The Heart of Redness – the dissertation examines not only the writers’ engagement with memory and history but also their deployment of “African” metaphysics, modes of apprehension and narrative traditions. The study foregrounds how a growing number of contemporary African and African American writers share an interest in probing connections, common fissures and tensions in their historical experiences. It explores the writers’ investment in history, concern with memory acts, the deployment of the logistics of ogbanje and its allied concepts within their communicative economies, and their involvement in a tripartite trans-Atlantic response to hegemonic discourse.
19
Mazibuko, Nokuthula. "Mothers, madonnas and musicians: A writing of Africa's women as symbols and agents of change in the novels of Zakes Mda." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/4725.
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Abstract
My dissertation interrogates the ways in which Zakes Mda has made women
central to his novels. I argue that the women characters in Mda's novels are key to
the idea of the rebirth
of Africa (and the simultaneous birth of a (South) African
identity) a
rebirth
made necessary by years of dispossession through colonialism
and apartheid. I will explore how on one level Mda, through magical realism,
represents women as symbols of both destruction and construction; and how on
another level he represents them as complex characters existing as agents of
history. Mda’s novels: Ways of Dying (1995), She Plays With the Darkness (1995),
The Heart of Redness (2000) and The Madonna of Excelsior (2002) critique the
topdown
approach of the postapartheid,
postcolonial
discourse of African
Renaissance a
discourse which aims to reverse the damage done to the lives of
Africans who have been brutalised by history. Mda writes an African renaissance
(with a lower case “r”), which acknowledges and explores the ways in which people
on the margins of power, recreate and transform their lives, without necessarily
waiting for politicians to come up with policies and solutions. The renaissance of
ordinary people privileges the spirit of ubuntu, whereby the individual strives to
work with the collective to achieve a more humane world. Mda’s female characters
are central to the debate on renaissance and reconstruction in that he questions
existing gender roles by
ii
highlighting strongly the rights still denied African women his
challenge to the
discourse is whether a renaissance is possible if the humanity of women (and
others marginalised by class, age, location, ethnicity, and other categories)
continues to be denied. I ask the question whether Mda, goes further, and
envisions women participating as leaders in traditionally male spaces.
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Birama, Prosper Ndayi. "African Traditional Culture and modernity in Zakes Mda's The heart of redness." Thesis, 2008. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_1209_1260524619.
Full textAbstract:
<p> <br></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p align="left">In my thesis entitled &lsquo<br>African Tradition and Modernity in Zakes Mda&rsquo<br>s <i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The Heart of Redness&rsquo<br></font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">, I analyze the way Western modernity and African traditions interact in Mda&rsquo<br>s novel. I suggest that both modernity and tradition interact to produce a hybrid culture. This will become apparent in my analysis of the way Mda depicts the cattlekilling episode and the effects of Nongqawuse&rsquo<br>s prophecy, and also in the novel&rsquo<br>s contemporary characters. Mda shows the development of an African modernity through the semi-autobiographical figure of Camagu who is not slavishly indebted to Western ideas of progress, but is a hybrid of African values and a modern identity.</font></font></i></p>
<p align="left"> <br></p>
21
Saccaggi, Carolina Francesca. "The reinvention of historical discourse in Zakes Mda's The heart of redness and Mike Nicol's This day and age." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/5867.
Full textAbstract:
Post-apartheid South African fiction has been the subject of much heated debate. One
specific aspect of this debate has revolved around the role of history in this fiction. This
is linked to general concerns in the country around ways of understanding history,
especially in relation to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s research into the
past. Tracing the lines of debate which emerged out of the discussions around the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, this research report focuses on the way history is
presented in two novels from the post-apartheid period. These novels are This Day and
Age by Mike Nicol and The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda. Each of the two novels
concerns a specific incident from the past of South Africa, the Bulhoek massacre and the
Xhosa cattle-killing respectively. Through tracing their intertextual relations with
mainstream accounts of the historical events, the research shows how they interrogate
these accounts. Detailed examination of the portrayal of history in each of the novels
leads to conclusions being drawn about the way in which the novels conceive of such
historical ideas as causality, linearity and responsibility. Finally, the research examines
the role of prophecy in the novels, showing how in both of the texts prophecy can be read
as an alternative explanation for events. The research endeavours ultimately to contribute
to the body of critical thought concerning the analysis of post-apartheid South African
fiction.
22
Birama, Prosper Ndayi. "African traditional culture and modernity in Zakes Mda’s the heart of redness." 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3641.
Full textAbstract:
Masters of Art<br>In my thesis entitled ‘African Tradition and Modernity in Zakes Mda’s The Heart of
Redness’, I analyze the way Western modernity and African traditions interact in
Mda’s novel. I suggest that both modernity and tradition interact to produce a hybrid culture. This will become apparent in my analysis of the way Mda depicts the cattlekilling episode and the effects of Nongqawuse’s prophecy, and also in the novel’s contemporary characters. Mda shows the development of an African modernity through the semi-autobiographical figure of Camagu who is not slavishly indebted to Western ideas of progress, but is a hybrid of African values and a modern identity. In my thesis I will look at the way Mda also addresses the issue of the oppression of the Xhosa in colonial history, and the way he demonstrates that the divisions of the past deeply influence post-apartheid South Africa. In this regard, I will show how The Heart of Redness is a critique not only of colonial oppression, but also of the newer injustices plaguing the post-apartheid South African society. The focus of Mda’s critique in this regard is the proposed casino that stands as a model of environmentally destructive, unsustainable and capitalist development. Instead, Mda’s novel shows an alternative modernization of rural South African society, one which is based on community upliftment and environmentally friendly development. Through an exploration of the above aspects of the novel, my thesis shows that Mda’s writing exemplifies a hybrid African modernity, one that incorporates Western ideas as well as African values.
23
Lombardozzi, Letizia Maria. "Gender on the frontline : a comparative study of the female voice in selected plays of Athol Fugard and Zakes Mda." Thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/10448.
Full textAbstract:
It can be argued that critical scholarship has not satisfactorily commented on the portrayal of
women in South African theatre by male playwrights. This dissertation will examine the
presentation of the female voice in the selected plays of two playwrights, namely Athol Fugard and
Zakes Mda, coming from different socio-historical and cultural backgrounds. This comparative
study will re-interrogate the selected representative texts from a feminist perspective, and will
compare Fugard's subversive distrust of the female voice juxtaposed against Mda's refreshing
celebration of the female presence in the selected plays.
Fugard and Mda's female characters are generally seen by their readers, audiences and critics such
as Andrew Hom, Marcia Blumberg and Dennis Walder as fundamentally vital, irrepressible and
certainly more admirable than their male counterparts, as it is ultimately their quest for symbiosis
and affirmation of the self which precludes any passive spectatorship on the part of the audience.
However, paradoxically and ironically, it is Fugard, writing from a relatively privileged white male
position, who consistently places his female characters in positions where their distinct inner
strength is continually undermined. Despite their cognitive ability to engage with their situation,
they are seldom permitted to triumph over the bleakness of their lives, but in fact are rendered
emotionally impotent in the face of insurmountable existential isolation. Always situated within
an interdependent relationship absent of hope and love, Fugard's women characters are never
allowed to forget the role they are expected to assume in a patriarchal society rife with political and
racial overtones. This very impasse in which they are placed by Fugard generally resonates
strongly with the audience, who can identify or empathise with the women, but who are not
afforded an imaginative escape by Fugard.
Mda's female characters are created and portrayed within a similar political and universal system
which perpetuates their exclusion from power and keeps them in servitude. However, unlike the
ultimately silenced women in Fugard' splays, Mda, writing partly from a historically marginalised
position himself, empowers his female characters with the freedom to confront and articulate their
emotions and perceptions. His female characters are inscribed in a multiplicity of social positions,
within which they most often find a solution to their problems and demand an outcome which is
not only determined by outsiders, but by their own inner strength. Although they are less fettered
by class and ideological constraints, they are however more naively drawn than Fugard's female
characters. Whilst Fugard' s female characters in the selected plays are, without exception, left on
the periphery of the play as the ultimate victims of their inescapable circumstances, the female
characters created by Mda more often than not dominate the stage by virtue of their indomitable
resilience, rather than resignation.
This dissertation will also examine Fugard and Mda's presentation of their female characters as
wholly a male's construct, set in a political context which subtextually interrogates race and
gender. The implied assumption concerning the authority of the male writer over women's
narratives will also therefore be questioned. Reference to Fugard and Mda's own personal
histories as well as their other non-fictional writing will be seen as relevant in this regard.
In conclusion, this dissertation will focus on the artificially imposed passivity of Fugard' s confined
and limited female characters, and will compare this to Mda's empowerment of his female
characters through critical awareness. The provocative issues of voice and violence as agency in
both Fugard and Mda's discourse will be viewed, in particular, from within an apartheid system
of governance.<br>Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.
24
Makgato, Kgokologa Saltiel. "The portrayal of sexual abuse in Zakes Mda's The Madonna of Excelsior and J.M. Coetzee's disgrace: : a comparative study." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2269.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.A. (English) -- University of Limpopo, 2010<br>This dissertation examines the way in which two South African novelists, Zakes Mda and J.M. Coetzee, portray the sexual abuse of women during the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The two selected novels used in this research are The Madonna of Excelsior (2002) by Mda and Disgrace (2000) by Coetzee. The research, furthermore, analyses the attitudes of the sexual abusers and their victims in both eras as well as examines the effects of socio-economic imbalances that might have prompted the men to sexually abuse women whom they should be offering protection against any form of violence and abuse. The study furthermore identifies and analyses the factors that hinder victims from reporting their sexual abuse to the police. Finally, this dissertation also presents a comparative study of the differences and the similarities between the way the two novelists portray sexual abuse.
25
Mtheku, Raphael Vikinduku. "The examination of Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness (2000) within a historical context." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/10405.
Full text
26
Qokela, Nontsikelelo Primrose. "Perspectives on female characters in D.P.S. Monyaise's Ngaka, Mosadi Mooka and Zakes Mda's Black diamond / Nontsikelelo Primrose Qokela." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/13409.
Full textAbstract:
In this study, D.P.S. Monyaise’s Ngaka, Mosadi Mooka and Zakes Mda’s Black Diamond are analysed in relation to narrative perspectives on female characters. The main aim of this study is to show how cultural narrative perspectives apply in the comparative study in Ngaka, Mosadi Mooka and Black Diamond, to determine how female characters, particularly Diarona in Ngaka, Mosadi Mooka and Tumi in Black Diamond, are portrayed.
The argument maintained in this study is that, although Monyaise in his Ngaka, Mosadi Mooka gives his female characters an exceptionally strong voice, the social and literary perspectives in his novel still draw very sturdily on traditional frameworks. Monyaise’s narrative style and his narrative investigation of his main themes are evidently influenced by views informed by a traditional frame within which women occupy a culturally marginalized position. Mda, on the other hand, controversially challenges dominant views and consequent modes of behaviour, while also expanding the boundaries of creative writing.
Research on the portrayal of female characters in Batswana literature is still lacking. This study makes a contribution in the sense that it is an explorative investigation from the perspective of postclassical cognitive narratology, which therefore attempts to approach Batswana literature from a fresh theoretical point of view. The intention is also to enrich the field of Batswana literature by adopting a comparative approach.
In achieving this aim, this work adopts the following structure. Chapter one provides the aim and focus of the study. Chapter two discusses the theoretical framework and crucial key terms. Chapter three establishes a background with regard to traditional Batswana cultural views on Batswana women, with emphasis on stereotypical perspectives on women identified through the application of theoretical insights with regard to frames and scripts. The analysis of these traditional perspectives is carried out with reference to traditional Batswana women and the following: the work place; family life; legislation and leadership roles; education; religious belief; and traditional marriage. Chapter four is a comparative analysis with specific attention to the portrayal of the main female characters, that is Diarona in Ngaka, Mosadi Mooka and Tumi in Black Diamond, through application of the theoretical and cultural framework constructed in chapter two and three respectively. Chapter five provides concluding remarks.<br>MA (Setswana), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
27
Pheto, Rakgomo. "Perspectives of tragedy in black South African drama : an analysis of selected plays by Zakes Mda, Mbongeni Ngema and Maishe Maponya / Rakgomo Pheto." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/16301.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation focuses on the nature and manifestation of tragedy within African experience in selected plays written by black South African playwrights. The plays under discussion are We Shall Sing for the Fatherland (1973) by Zakes Mda, The Hungry Earth (1978) by Maishe Maponya, and Sarafina (1985) by Mbongeni Ngema. The many conflicting statements regarding the "death" and existence of tragedy in contemporary drama lead one to ask the following two fundamental questions: Can there be tragedy in contemporary South African drama and what structural devices are there to account for the manifestation of this elusive phenomenon? This dissertation works towards defining the concept of an African vision of tragedy by examining the nature and form in which tragedy manifests itself in South African drama. Secondly, it considers the extent to which this phenomenon is similar or different from conventional elements and structural forms of Western tragic drama. This dissertation argues that there exists a distinct and viable vision of tragedy in black South African drama which can be called African. It contends that dramatic texts do not all have the same degree of profundity of tragic vision because their subject matter, techniques and depth of artistic exploration differ, and vary according to their cultural roots. The basis on which old forms of tragedy are used to interpret the version of contemporary tragedy is therefore called into question, and as a result, the analysis of structural forms and thematic preoccupations of contemporary tragedy needs a set of criteria different from that of Euro-American drama. The portrayal of a tragic hero as a common man whose tragic stature is measured in terms of his ability to feel, to be aware of forces closing down on him in The Hungry Earth, the manifestation of tragedy as generated not only by individual volition, but by an economic structure established by those in power in We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, and, finally, the mingling of tragicomic elements of entertainment and communication to accommodate both tragedy and comic elements without destroying the integrity of either in Sarafina, indicate a definite development and imitation of tragedy from emphasis on form to meaning. By asking a question like: "What constitutes tragedy in black South African drama, and how are such processes represented and modelled in the selected plays?" this dissertation enters into a dialogue of global and local perspectives of tragedy in order to contribute to our understanding of an African, and specifically South African, concept of tragedy firmly rooted in its socio-cultural context.<br>Thesis (M.A. (English))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.
28
Valjee, Kiren M. "The Rediscovery of South African Cultural Identity in Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying." 2009. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/267.
Full textAbstract:
Since the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and his subsequent election to the presidency in 1994, South Africa certainly has not achieved the hopes and dreams of its people or for the rest of the continent. But despite bleak conditions, there are many who still have hope for their country. One of those people is Zakes Mda, and his hope is reflected in his novels. Yet, his novels remain complex. They do not provide all-encompassing solutions or answers to the problems that face the nation. But they do address questions with possibilities, suggestions, and innovation. The South Africa he creates, both in the past and the present, embodies what the real South Africa is and isn’t, and what it has the potential to be. Mda is not afraid to be critical of his own people, he is not afraid to face the history of his country with an equally critical lens, and even more importantly, he is not afraid to face the future of his country with that same critical gaze. This open approach to the people of his country, to its history, and current policies opens up his narrative to imagination, allowing his characters to re-envision themselves more completely and form a more complete and encompassing cultural identity that was previously denied to them.
29
Ntuli, Zanele Nonhlanhla. "Gender and dramatic discourse with reference to Zakes Mda's selected plays." Diss., 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26234.
Full textAbstract:
Text in English, Tswana and siSwati<br>This dissertation examines the multiplicity of social positions within which African
women in the postcolonial era find themselves. It focuses on how the dramatic
dialogue depicts the positions of women in Zakes Mda’sThe Nun’s Romantic Story,
And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses and You Fool, How can the Sky Fall. The
study is intended to explore the dramatic dialogue in these plays and to show
whether there is any evidence of change in women’s positions. It seeks to
demonstrate the extent to which the positions of women have changed and also
how the dramatic dialogue in the selected plays of Zakes Mda indicates the change
in women’s positions.<br>Thutopatlisiso eno e tlhatlhoba maemo a loago a mantsintsi a basadi ba
maAforika ba ba tshelang mo motlheng wa morago ga puso ya bokoloniale ba
iphitlhelang ba le mo go ona. E tota ka moo puisano ya terama e bontshang
maemo a basadi ka gona mo The Nun’s Romantic Story, And the Girls in
their Sunday Dresses le You Fool, How can the Sky Fall tsa ga Zakes Mda.
Maikaelelo a thutopatlisiso ke go sekaseka puisano ya terama mo
metshamekong eno go bontsha gore a go na le bosupi bope jwa diphetogo
mo maemong a basadi. E batla go bontsha ka moo maemo a basadi a
fetogileng ka gona le ka moo puisano ya terama mo metshamekong e e
tlhophilweng ya ga Zakes Mda e bontshang diphetogo mo maemong a basadi
ka gona.<br>Ledisetheshini ihlolisisa tikhundlanyenti tetenhlalo bomake base-Afrika
labatitfola bakuto ngemuva kwesikhatsi sembuso webukolonali
(umbusobucalu). Igcile ekutsini inkhulumomphendvulwane emidlalweni
yaZakes Mda itikhombisa kanjani letikhundla tabomake; i-The Nun’s Romantic
Story [Indzaba yelutsandvo yemasisitela], ne-Girls in their Sunday Dresses
[Emantfombatana etingutjeni tawo teLisontfo] ne-You Fool [Wena Silima], How
can the Sky Fall [Singawa kanjani Sibhakabhaka]. Lolucwaningo lwentelwe
kuhlolisisa inkhulumomphendvulwane kulemidlalo kanye nekukhombisa kutsi
ingabe bukhona yini bufakazi bengucuko etikhundleni tabomake. Ifuna
kukhombisa kutsi tikhundla tabomake tigucuke kangakanani kanye nekutsi
inkhulumomphendvulwane emidlalweni lekhetsiwe yaZakes Mda ikukhombisa
kanjani kugucuka kwetikhundla tabomake.<br>English Studies<br>M.A.(Theory of Literature)
30
Krueger, Anton Robert. "Experiments in freedom : representations of identity in new South African drama : an investigation into identity formations in some post-apartheid play-texts published in English by South African writers, from 1994 - 2007." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/29095.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines ways in which identities have been represented in new South African play texts. It begins by exploring various ways in which identity has been described from various philosophical, psychological and anthropological perspectives. In particular, the thesis describes its methodology in terms of Gilles Deleuze's definition of "rhizomatic" structures. The introduction also elaborates ways in which drama is uniquely suited to represent ¨C as well as to effect ¨C transformations of identity. The thesis then moves on to an examination of specific texts in terms of four broad areas of investigation ¨C gender, political affiliation, ethnicity and syncretism. In these chapters a number of play texts are investigated from different points of view. Firstly, in a chapter on gender, the thesis focuses specifically on issues of masculinity and exile in plays by Athol Fugard, Anthony Akerman and Zakes Mda. This chapter explores orientations of the masculine which have become embedded within notions of nationalism and patriotism. In terms of political affiliations, the thesis looks at what Loren Kruger has called "post-anti-apartheid theatre" (2002: 233) and considers the trend away from protest theatre. With reference to the plays of Mike van Graan it also examines new forms of protest theatre. This chapter also explores plays which were inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and looks in more detail at Ubu and the Truth Commission by Jane Taylor. When considering ethnicities, the thesis reflects on how identity in terms of an ethnic collective is most often premised on laws of exclusion, and on the construction of what Benedict Anderson refers to as an "imagined community" (1991: 15). Representations of ethnic identities are then analysed in Happy Natives by Greig Coetzee. Syncretism seems to present a preferable description of how South African identities can be constructed and the thesis then elaborates attempts to forge a new identity in terms of amalgamation and a creative fusion of cultural resources, with particular reference to the plays of Brett Bailey and Reza de Wet. In the conclusion of this thesis, the thorny issue of racial identities is considered, and in particular the trope of the "rainbow nation", which many writers regard as a problematic blanketing description which cancels out difference. Instead, Ashraf Jamal's "radical syncretism", which does not seek to subsume heterogeneous identities, is suggested as a viable means of approaching definitions of identity. The final chapter also briefly touches on the development of physical theatre in South Africa and describes how the body can be used as a tool for transformation, relying principally on the writings of Mark Fleishman and Eugenio Barba in this regard. Finally, again resorting to a Deleuzian vocabulary which describes identity as constructed in terms of lines operating on particular planes, the thesis considers whether it may not be more beneficial in the post-apartheid context to favour paradoxical processes which relinquish identities, instead of those which attempt to consolidate them. @ 2008 Author Please cite as follows: Krueger, AR 2008, Experiments in freedom : representations of identity in new South African drama : an investigation into identity formations in some post-apartheid play-texts published in English by South African writers, from 1994 - 2007, DLitt thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10282008-141823/ > D497/gm<br>Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2008.<br>English<br>unrestricted