Institutional Repository

Short stories for life : implications of the Canonisation of the Zimbabwe story-telling tradition, with special reference to selected Zimbabwean short stories

Show simple item record

dc.contributor.advisor Sengani, T. M.|q(Thomas Maitakhole),|d1952-
dc.contributor.advisor Mutasa, D. E.
dc.contributor.author Mbwera, Shereck
dc.date.accessioned 2017-05-23T14:54:30Z
dc.date.available 2017-05-23T14:54:30Z
dc.date.issued 2016-12
dc.identifier.citation Mbwera, Shereck (2016) Short stories for life : implications of the Canonisation of the Zimbabwe story-telling tradition, with special reference to selected Zimbabwean short stories, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22592>
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22592
dc.description.abstract This study examines the myth of the surrogate power of canonicity by exposing the condition of liminality of the Zimbabwean short story genre within African literary canon. Building on the hypothesis that canonisation distorts literature the study postulates that literary canon produce predictable biases in construing the position of the short story. It fossilises and condenses the marginal genres to the extent that the existing canon repertoire hardly recognises them. The peripheral but de facto canon of the short story genre entertains a strong relationship of heteronomy to the mainstream/central canon. This thesis studies this relationship which determines canon formation within the African literary systems. It challenges the prevailing status quo in which the short story is polarised against other literary modes. The polarity creates a charged diametric force between the presumed canonical genres and the supposedly non-canonical short story mess. What lacks in this equation of conflicts is a sense of revival, reformation and continuity of the short story canon. The marginality of the short story canon is predicated on factors external to the genre itself, such as the influence of colonial institutions, collegiate institutions and publishers on writers. These factors pervade the dialectics of canonical marginality of the genre. The study, which argues that there is no unanimity on theory of canon, proposes Africulture, as both a theory and praxis of Afrocentricity, to function as an arbiter of short story literary reputation and consecration. The research reveres the autonomous value of African story-telling tradition which withstood the test and movement of time, in the process, surviving not only the historical-cum-cultural threat of colonial loss and canonical displacement, but also the throes and will power of new media and digital technologies. The ascendancy of the electronic short story genre to canonical status remains questionable. Critical controversies abound about the canonicity of electronic literature. The study employs Technauriture as a theoretical model for rethinking the transcendence of the electronic short story canon. The study concludes that, by virtue of its resilience, the short story ought to be treated as a wholesale and independent genre, worth of full scale appreciation. en
dc.format.extent 1 online resource (ix, 260 leaves)
dc.language.iso en en
dc.subject Africulture en
dc.subject Technauriture en
dc.subject Short story en
dc.subject Canonicity en
dc.subject African literary canon en
dc.subject Cybernetic literature en
dc.subject E-short story en
dc.subject.ddc 896.397532
dc.subject.lcsh Shona fiction -- History and criticism
dc.subject.lcsh Literature and morals
dc.subject.lcsh Social norms in literature
dc.subject.lcsh Short stories, Zimbabwean (English)
dc.title Short stories for life : implications of the Canonisation of the Zimbabwe story-telling tradition, with special reference to selected Zimbabwean short stories en
dc.type Thesis en
dc.description.department African Languages en
dc.description.degree D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)


Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search UnisaIR


Browse

My Account

Statistics