This thesis sets off from an a priori hypothetical position that the universality
of certain language features, particularly poetic expression, provides an opportunity
for syncretism in the reading, analysis, explication, and interpretation of African
literature, specifically oral poetry, our teleological point being the formulation of a
syncretic approach.
In the first chapter we undertake an overview of the debate which has been
ensuing among 'African' critics in the search of an 'African' poetics. We proceed, in
the second and third chapters, to undertake a study of two 'Western' schools of
thought, namely Formalist-Structuralism and New Criticism, with a view to setting
the critical theories and practice of some major protagonists of these schools of
thought against sample readings of African oral poetry. In the fourth and fifth
chapters we proceed to select and analyse some of the most prominent critics of
African oral poetry, and undertake detailed case studies of their critical assumptions
and practice, in retrospective comparison with the theoretical paradigms and practical
readings dealt with in chapters two and three.
In the sixth and final chapter we assess the syncretic approach suggested,
together with its implications for the future research and teaching of African oral
poetry. Our findings suggest that the case studies of critiques of African oral poetry
reveal certain shortcomings which might have been strengthened by a perspicacious
awareness of Formalist-Structuralist and New Critical methodology.
From this postpriori perspective we suggest a syncretic approach which, in its
sensitivity to the idiosyncratic features of African languages, will at the same time
acknowledge, adopt and adapt sophisticated poetical analyses which have been
developed by Western poetics. Our findings also suggest specific ways in which
Western standards could be evaluated with a considerable degree of exactitude. We
conclude by, inter alia, opening directions of research which could advance the
debate towards an African poetics beyond doctrinaire wrangle, so that progress can
be made through further close studies of other schools of thought and theories in
order to assess their applicability and/or adaptability to African poetry and other
genres. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D. Litt et Phil (Theory of Literature)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/17266 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Maake, Nhlanhla Paul |
| Contributors | Grabe, Ina |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (300 leaves) |
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