A comparative study of ideology and aesthetics in the novels of selected South African isiXhosa-language writers and Kenyan African authors in English
Although scholars such as Gerard (1981) and Perera (1991) have long been advocating the creation and adoption of a comparative methodology for the study of African literature, little scholarly effort has thus far been exerted to establish such a methodology. This study aims to make a small contribution in this direction by elaborating an appropriate comparative method and demonstrating its efficacy by applying it in the comparative assessment of ideology and aesthetics in South African isiXhosa-language novels and Kenyan African novels in English. The authors chosen for this purpose are Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Meja Mwangi from Kenya, and A.C. Jordan, P.T. Mtuze and R Siyongwana from South Africa. The methodology is grounded in the materialist ideological analysis of the Marxist theorist Frederic Jameson. It incorporates a strong emphasis on characterisation and rhetoric, drawing on Classical European and African oral tradition. In eschewing altogether the modernist and postmodernist European literary paradigms, it seeks to synthesize a critical approach consonant with certain core principles of African culture, including a respect for the heroic idiom and a firm belief in the ethical and socially instructive value of art.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations