Chapter One of this thesis investigates the growth and development of the Tswana short
story. It commences with an evaluation of studies done on this genre and proceeds to a
brief exposition of the Tswana short stories published prior to 1995. It also provides
theoretical backgmund on the modern short story.
The main focus of Chapter Two concerns the major themes explored in Tswana short
stories. These include tradition and culture, love and marriage, the makgoweng motif,
religion as well as corruption and other social problems. This thesis has discovered that
the Tswana Miters not only criticise the negative aspects of these realities, but also
recognise their significance and beauty.
Chapter Three examines the organisational patte~ of the Tswana short story and tests it
against the structural pattenl of the West. It is revealed that the Tswana short story, like
short stories of other cultures, shows a continuous sequence of exposition, development
and resolution. However, it occasionaHy deviates from the nonn and commences with
philosophical commentaries and details irrelevant to the developmental phase. In
structuring their stories, the Tswana writers also use flashback and foreshadowing to link
their events. However, what has been discovered is that foreshadowing occurs less
frequently than flashback in the Tswana short story.
Chapter Four focusses on the word, the sentence and the paragraph and refers to other
related clements such as repetition, rhetorical questions, proverbs, idioms and Biblical
allusions. These elements serve to enhance the style of the Tswana short story and bring
the readers into a dialogic relationship with their language and culture.
Creative writing in Tswana illustrates a strong, dynamic relationship with oral tradition.
Chapter Five shows how writers have cirawn from the wealth of their traditional and
cultural heritage original and wlique devices to improve their works of art. The threads
of oral tradition that reveal themselves in the Tswana short story pertain to the
organisation of material, characterisation, setting, style and language as well as narrative
perspective.
In Chapter Six the findings of the earlier chapters are highlighted and recommendations
for future research are outlined. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil.(African Languages)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/3327 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Sebate, Phaladi Moses |
| Contributors | Mafela, M.J., Kgobe, D.M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (vi, 275 leaves) |
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