“Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels

This study is an analysis of the depiction of Pungwe (Night Vigil) in selected Shona novels and songs. The study uses Bakhtin’s description of a historical phenomenon-cum-literary theoretical framework called the carnivalesque. The theory’s tenets apply to the analysis of Shona novels and songs. It...

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Main Author: Viriri, Advice
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Unisa Publications 2016
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Online Access:http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14505
http://hdl.handle.net/11408/1504
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author Viriri, Advice
author_facet Viriri, Advice
author_sort Viriri, Advice
collection DSpace
description This study is an analysis of the depiction of Pungwe (Night Vigil) in selected Shona novels and songs. The study uses Bakhtin’s description of a historical phenomenon-cum-literary theoretical framework called the carnivalesque. The theory’s tenets apply to the analysis of Shona novels and songs. It is demonstrated that although the depiction of the Pungwe in the literature varies between or among Shona authors, there is general consensus that the carnivalesque elements of the Pungwe encouraged a subversion that undermines virtually all categories of social privilege in the novels and the songs. The carnivalesque theory encourages analysis of fiction and songs that produce the pluralising of meanings of the Pungwe in the Shona novels and songs that are rendered semantically unstable. Narrative instability is transgressive and its liberating potential manifests itself through the different activities and energies mobilised at the Pungwe. As a carnival square, the Pungwe institution found in the Shona novel and songs is portrayed as the main site for resisting imperial domination in Rhodesia. Linked to the carnivalesque is the idea of dialogism. The study reveals that the dialogism experienced at the Pungwe as depicted in the Shona novels and in some popular songs contain multiple voices that combine and manifest diversity of ideological perspectives. Pungwe narratives in the novels and songs are represented as liminal spaces where plurality of political consciousness on the historical causes and trajectories of the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe are revealed. The study contributes to the scholarship on the Shona novel by revealing how Pungwe which is an oral institution finds permanent residence in the narrative interstices of the Shona novel.
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spelling ir-11408-15042022-06-27T13:49:07Z “Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels Viriri, Advice Pungwe, Chimurenga War, dialogism, carnival, carnivalesque, heteroglosia, polyphony, chronotope, Shona novels, Songs This study is an analysis of the depiction of Pungwe (Night Vigil) in selected Shona novels and songs. The study uses Bakhtin’s description of a historical phenomenon-cum-literary theoretical framework called the carnivalesque. The theory’s tenets apply to the analysis of Shona novels and songs. It is demonstrated that although the depiction of the Pungwe in the literature varies between or among Shona authors, there is general consensus that the carnivalesque elements of the Pungwe encouraged a subversion that undermines virtually all categories of social privilege in the novels and the songs. The carnivalesque theory encourages analysis of fiction and songs that produce the pluralising of meanings of the Pungwe in the Shona novels and songs that are rendered semantically unstable. Narrative instability is transgressive and its liberating potential manifests itself through the different activities and energies mobilised at the Pungwe. As a carnival square, the Pungwe institution found in the Shona novel and songs is portrayed as the main site for resisting imperial domination in Rhodesia. Linked to the carnivalesque is the idea of dialogism. The study reveals that the dialogism experienced at the Pungwe as depicted in the Shona novels and in some popular songs contain multiple voices that combine and manifest diversity of ideological perspectives. Pungwe narratives in the novels and songs are represented as liminal spaces where plurality of political consciousness on the historical causes and trajectories of the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe are revealed. The study contributes to the scholarship on the Shona novel by revealing how Pungwe which is an oral institution finds permanent residence in the narrative interstices of the Shona novel. 2016-06-06T12:32:21Z 2016-06-06T12:32:21Z 2013 Thesis http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14505 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/1504 en Unisa; open Unisa Publications
spellingShingle Pungwe, Chimurenga War, dialogism, carnival, carnivalesque, heteroglosia, polyphony, chronotope, Shona novels, Songs
Viriri, Advice
“Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels
title “Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels
title_full “Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels
title_fullStr “Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels
title_full_unstemmed “Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels
title_short “Seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected Shona novels
title_sort “seiko musina morari?”: the carnivalesque modes of the pungwe institution in selected shona novels
topic Pungwe, Chimurenga War, dialogism, carnival, carnivalesque, heteroglosia, polyphony, chronotope, Shona novels, Songs
url http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14505
http://hdl.handle.net/11408/1504
work_keys_str_mv AT viririadvice seikomusinamorarithecarnivalesquemodesofthepungweinstitutioninselectedshonanovels