A study of selected post-apartheid plays in isiZulu

M.A. (African Languages)Abstract: Written Zulu literature commenced in the early 1900s after the introduction of writing by European missionaries. Apart from the fact that it is a young literature, its trajectory through apartheid is another reason that it has not yet reached a high level of sophistication. Under the hegemony of apartheid, African language writers could not fully explore topics of their choice. At the same time, there was a great divide between African language writers and writers who were published in English so that mutually beneficial influence was minimal. African language writers became, to a large degree, subservient to ‘Bantu Education’, so much so that one scholar, Janheinz Jahn, lamented: ‘Es ist nur Lesestoff für die Unterstufe’ (‘It is only reading material for the lower level’; Groenewald, 2004: 174). After more than 20 years of liberation one can accept that some trends in the African literature would continue; at the same time, one expects that political liberation will have brought about thematic and formal developments. By investigating a number of post-apartheid plays within postcolonial criticism, the aim of this study is to offer a critique of some post-apartheid developments in selected plays. While it is not the aim of this study to describe the development of written Zulu plays since its inception, through apartheid to the present day, selected post-apartheid full-length plays will be studied against the background of documented trends in Zulu plays. When investigating thematic developments, identity formation will be a focus area. For instance, this thesis will plot some intricacies of gender, race, and culture in the selected post-apartheid Zulu plays. This study falls within the ambit of the qualitative textual procedure. Concepts useful for criticism will be gleaned from a reading of theoretical literature. The outcomes of this study show that themes found in both moral and cultural plays have changed after 1994 while the structure of these plays is still not markedly different from the plays written prior to 1994. Most of the themes found in these plays still tend to be on social issues and little comment is offered on socio-political and socio-economic issues of South Africa, especially after 1994. This state of affairs should however not over-shadow important matters that the dramatists wrote about in democratic South Africa, matters such as the Human Immuno-deficiency..