M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Many Southern Sotho authors have made important contributions to Southern Sotho literature. Their works cover a wide range of subjects which evince great differenees in significance and depth. We note this in the different books they have written and the themes they have treated. Unfortunately, to date, no serious evaluation of their books has been attempted. The real value of the works is still unkrown to the reader. No effort has been made to unearth the gist of the artist's imaginative power and also to pin-point the weaknesses, so that they oan be remedied. The critical and creative functions must be developed simultaneously if our literature is to attain great heights. At present there is, in most works, a kind of 'stagnation' and spiritual poverty which is realized in a failure to appreciate the meaning of our cultural milieu. We live, as it were, consciously in the present, out- - rooted and transported from cultural forces as if they do not impinge on our minds . There is a lack of depth and failure to recapture the essence of human feeling and thought, less ability and intellectual skill to interpret the world around, and a general incompetence to explain and unfold the very being of human sensitivity. / African Languages / M.A. (Bantu Languages)

M.A. / Lestrade (1949) has already stated that the African people themselves regard traditional praise poems as the highest form of their literary art. Scholars such as Goma (1967), Kunene (1971) and Swanepoel (1983) have already highlighted some aspects concerning the "literariness" of Soho dithoko tsa marena. In this study, an attempt is made to highlight some of the literary features of dithoko within the literary framework established by the Russian Formalists almost a century ago. Focus is placed on the devices used by the traditional composer to create poetic' language, which is different from everyday communicative language. In the study an important vehicle used by traditional composers to create - literariness namely the application of allusion to violate normal language usage is investigated. The interaction between the so-called narrative lines in dithoko and events alluded to in the poems is discussed. Allusion and traditional beliefs are also focused on. The function of poetic devices such as metaphorical language, symbols and poetic diction is also investigated within the framework of the Formalists.