Browsing by Author "Kozain, Rustum"

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    Contemporary english oral poetry by black poets in Great Britain and South Africa : a comparison between Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mzwakhe Mbuli
    (1994) Kozain, Rustum; Sole, Kelwyn
    The general aims of this dissertation are: to study a form of literature traditionally disregarded by a text-bound academy; to argue that form is an important element in ideological analyses of the poetry under discussion; and, on the basis of this second aim, to argue for a comparative, rigorously critical approach to the poetry of Mzwakhe Mbuli. Previous evaluations of Mbuli's poetry are characterised by acclaim which, the author contends, is only possible because of under-researched criticism, representing a general trend in South African literary culture. Compared to Linton Kwesi Johnson's work, for instance, Mbuli's poetry does not emerge as the innovative and progressive art - in both content and form - it is claimed to be. Mbuli and his critics are thus read as a case study of a general trend. Johnson and Mbuli mainly perform their poetry with musical accompaniment and distribute it as sound-recording. This study's approach then differs from the approaches of general oral literature studies because influential writers on oral literature - specifically Walter J. Ong, Ruth Finnegan and Paul Zumthor - do not address the genre under investigation here. Nevertheless, their writings are explored in order to show why particularly Ong and Finnegan's approaches are inadequate. The author argues that using the orality of the poetry as an organising, theoretical principle is insufficient for the task at hand. On cue from Zumthor, this study suggests an approach through Cultural Studies and conceives of the subject matter as popular culture.
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    Plastic city and other stories
    (2004) Davids, Carol-Ann; Kozain, Rustum
    Plastic City and Other Stories is a set of inter-connected short stories that capture moments in the lives of members of one family. The stories traverse more than five decades of the family's years lived in Cape Town, South Africa. While the stories are essentially about the individual, greater matters - outwardly beyond the character's experience - affect and influence the decisions, choices and, ultimately, the lives of each character. The collection is underpinned by several themes - the most pertinent being the familial bond which serves as a link between stories and enables the reader to become acquainted with the characters through several perspectives as they recur through-out the collection. There are also other, more subtle themes that fonn a connection between events happening decades apart. A, not entirely unobtrusive, narrator links these independent allegories together via inter-leading pieces, adding another dimension to the collection by virtue of her role as, not only narrator, but also as family member. Nine stories with nine inter-leading chapters make up the collection of Plastic City and Other Stories.