The poetry of C.T. Msimang : a deconstructive critique

This study attempts to offer a reading of Msimang's poetry from the perspective of deconstruction. In this course it is necessary to introduce and elaborate on certain deconstruction strategies. This is mainly effected in the second chapter, where consideration is given to diachronic and synchronic perspectives on deconstruction. However, not all the ramifications of the various radical insights offered by deconstructive approaches into the various fields are explored, only the significant texts by mainly French theorists and their American disciples are investigated. Secondly, this study seeks to show that the Zulu poems under consideration are highly amenable to a deconstruction reading. This thesis examines the various practices to absorb, transform, and integrate deconstruction and to make the theory applicable as a critical method within the African languages critical environment. In the third chapter, I am chiefly concerned with the claim that a text never has a single meaning, but is a crossroads of multiple ambiguous meanings. Explaining the historical context, the interdisciplinary scope, and the philosophical significance of Derrida' s project are explored in the fourth chapter. Language has no determinate centre nor any retrievable origin or truth. Belief in such is no more than nostalgia, says Derrida. What actually exists is a complex network of differences between signifiers, each in some sense carrying the traces of all others. With psychoanalysis in the fourth chapter, the focus is not on the differences between the deconstructive and psychoanalytic critics, but on their shared assumption that works ofliterature are in some sense indeterminate. These properties lead to the sixth chapter, which deals with intertextuality according to Derrida, Barthes and Bloom. The seventh and last chapter is the general conclusion in which main observations are summarized and important aspects highlighted. Finally, this thesis attempts to illustrate why the deconstructive procedure of analysing texts in such a way as to explicate their partial complicity with the theory, makes this deconstructive reading of Msimang' s poetry possible.African LanguagesD.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages

A psychoanalytical evaluation of C.T. Msimang's novel Buzani Kumkabayi

The aim of this study is to critically examine the place and value of psychoanalytical literary theory for applicability to African literature. In the second chapter of this study, consideration will be given to diachronic and synchronic perspectives on psychoanalysis, which is necessary for a complete understanding of the utilization of this theory on the text. The third chapter deals with the problems encountered with psychoanalysis, within African languages as well as beyond African languages. The main chapter of this study is the fourth one, where a detailed examination of the psychoanalytical concepts will be applied to the selected novel. The fifth and last chapter is a general conclusion in which main observations are summarized and important aspects highlighted.African LanguagesM.A. (African Languages