Ijenda namasiko kumanoveli wesiZulu

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This study examines the portrayal of women characters in two postcolonialZulu novels: Asikho ndawo bakithi (1996) and Itshwe/e lempangele (1998).The study is approached from a feminist theoretical framework and focuseson gender and culture. The study concentrates on patriarchal relationsbecause they are most widely used as the foundation for a specificallyfeminist investigation of sexual relations.The study examines two postcolonial novels with the objective to establishhow the writers portray women characters after the introduction of the 1994democratic dispensation in South Africa. In the past, women characters wereportrayed as stereotypes: they were either too bad or too good in line with thedictates of the patriarchal society where women are expected to take asubservient role, and men to assume the dominant role. This has made thecharacter of women in fiction exaggerated and one-dimensional in the sensethat the women characters do not develop, nor do they behave in variousrespects like normal human beings. The women characters are often victimsof several circumstances caused by patriarchy and other socio-economicfactors. The aim of analisying the two novels is to compare them and observehow women, as literary characters are portrayed.The study found that in Asikho ndawo bakithi women characters are portrayedas normal women who respond appropriately to the challenges of theirenvironment. Yet the fact that they live in abject poverty and are homeless,make them victims of the social ills that take their lives cheap. This situationcreates tremendous stress and pressure on their lives and leads to gradualmoral degradation beyond their control.Itshwele lempangele can be viewed as a post-apartheid novel because it hasdemocritised images of women characters. For example, Ndelebuli teacheshis father, Sonqisha that he should never beat up his mother whenever theyhave problem. Ndelebuli thus becomes an epitome of a young man who treatsmaidens and married women with dignity, respect and tolerance in the novel.Another issue addressed in the novel is that the women characters portrayedbelong to multicultural environments and the exemplary marriages are crosscultural.Of the two novels, Itshwele lempangele presents images of liberated womenwhereas in Asikho ndawo bakithi, women characters are portrayed as victimsof the legacy of the social ills of the apartheid era.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University