Browsing by Author "Satyo, Sizwe C"

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    A feminist critique of the image of woman in the prose works of selected Xhosa writers (1909 - 1980)
    (1990) Mtuze, Peter Tshobiso; Satyo, Sizwe C
    The study examines, from a feminist point of view, the stereotypic image of woman in Xhosa prose fiction from pre-literate times to the era of written literature (1909 - 1980). Attaching feminist critical theory to conventional literary characterisation gives this pioneering study a human dime,n sion that is bound to rejuvenate traditional critical appredation and highlight the tremendous power of art to reflect or parallel real-life experiences. Consequently, the study transcends the confines of traditional literary criticism. It throws interdisciplinary light on the African feminist dilemma over the past 70 years while focusing on gender stereotyping as a characterisation technique. Chapter 1 clearly demarcates the scope of study and the critical position adopted, while chapter 2 traces stereotypes back to Xhosa folk-tales. In this way, an interesting link or parallel in stereotyping between oral and written literature is highlighted. It is worth pointing out that Chapter 3 is significant in that no women writers' works produced in the first and the second decades have survived. The male writers of the period describe women in strict stereotypic fashion, without fear of contradiction, from Woman as Eve to Woman as Witch, among other archetypal images. The female stereotypic image in the third and the fourth decades, the role of the first two female novelists and the early seeds of female. resistance to male domination, are discussed. in Chapter 4 while Chapter 5 highlights the depiction of female characters by male and female prose writers in the Fifties, culminating in Mzamane's exposure of glaring anti-female social norms and practices. In Chapter 6 the spotlight is cast on the woman of the Sixties and the rise of active resistance to male dominance. Some contemporary women, as pointed out in Chapter 7, have crossed the Rubicon in diverse ways. They are assertive, independent, proactive and relentlessly opposed to male dominance. Chapter 8 sums up the main points in relation to the Xhosa woman's attitude towards Western feminism: while many Xhosa women feel justifiably unhappy about male dominance, they refuse to let their frustrations affect their unity with men in the greater struggle against racism. Although the study concludes on an anti-climactic note for Western feminists, it focuses on this crucial and unique distinction between Western and black feminism.
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    A comparative study of ideology and aesthetics in the novels of selected South African isiXhosa-language writers and Kenyan African authors in English
    (2002) Mdaka, Sibizwa Solomzi; Satyo, Sizwe C
    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.
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    A comparative study of the portrayal of characters in A.C. Jordan's The wrath of the ancestors, Modikwe Dikobe's The marabi dance and G.B. Sinxo's Unojayiti wam
    (1991) Nyamende, Abner; Satyo, Sizwe C
    The characters encountered in The wrath of the ancestors, The Marabi dance and Unojayiti wam bear on an African identity, and they reflect a purely African conception of life. The "Africanness" of their outlook can only be determined when measured against the real life African socio-cultural background. Therefore, as a starting point in this study, I has been essential to explore the various debates about African literature, in an attempt to reveal any common factors that can be used as the basis for a study of the portrayal of characters in this field.
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    Literature between two worlds : the first fifty years of the Xhosa novel and poetry
    (1993) Zotwana, Sydney Zanemvula; Satyo, Sizwe C
    The main preoccupation in this thesis is to illustrate that, although there is no doubt that the missionaries deserve all the praise that they have been showered with, for their role in the development of Xhosa literature, there is a sense in which they can be said to have contributed as much also to its underdevelopment. It is my view that Xhosa literature has had a very unfortunate history, because of having an origin that is located in the history of Christianization. This history has haunted Xhosa literary creativity from its early beginnings to the present. The success of the mission to convert them to Christianity was anchored on the principle of total alienation of the Xhosa from their world-view: from their culture, from their religion, from their chiefs, from their literary art, and even from their homes. The intention was to turn them into new beings - Christian and loyal subjects of the British Crown - and to make them not only reject, but also despise their past. Therefore Western-style education for the Blacks in South Africa did not come out of any sense of altruism on the part of those by whom it was introduced. It was the interests of its initiators and their country that had to be served by the education of the Blacks. It was in this context that Xhosa literature was born. It was produced to promote the interests of the Christian church and therefore those of the British Crown. Its production was controlled by the missionaries, the owners of the publishing houses, but it was produced by the Christian and literate Xhosa most of whom had studied in mission schools. It was produced to crush the past and any aspirations that were in conflict with those of the Christian church and the British imperial designs. In short, it was a literature against its people. However, the Christian and literate Xhosa was never accepted as the equal of the other British subjects who were White. He was excluded from all law-making mechanisms and was affected by the many Native Laws that were passed, as badly as his non-Christian brothers and sisters. He witnessed land dispossession and all the other atrocities perpetrated by White rulers. His literary art had been harnessed to legitimize and perpetrate this situation and he dared not use his art to change it. It is in the light of this context that this thesis contends that Xhosa literature is between two worlds. It is argued that Xhosa literature, because of the writers' dilemma created by their position between these two conflicting universes, has been forced to be mute in the face of the Black people's experiences of oppression, and therefore to be indifferent to the Black people's struggles to resist colonization and to liberate themselves from this oppression. It is however, pointed out that some works are characterised by the writers' attempts to grapple with this dilemma. Finally this thesis advocates complete liberation of literary artists from state control, indirect though it may be, and also a change in the teaching and analysis of Xhosa literature.