Browsing by Author "Lenta, Margaret Mary."

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Albert Sumbo-Ncube : AmaNdebele oral historical narrative and the creation of a popular hero.
(2000) Hurst, Christopher.; Lenta, Margaret Mary.
In 1998 I conducted a series of interviews with Zimbabweans who recounted, often using English, their memories of Albert Sumbo-Ncube. From these I have selected and transcribed five interviews with ZIPRA ex-combatants in which they tell the story, as they remember and elaborate on their memories, of Sumbo's escape from Rhodesian police custody at the Victoria Falls in 1977 during the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. The interviews represent Sumbo as a hero and reveal the folk hero creation process at work. This hero figure was created by people who needed an effective figure of oppositional propaganda and who did not have access to the technology and resources of the Rhodesian government. Their narratives were communicated orally and they fused material found in the Rhodesian government-controlled newspapers with an amaNdebele oral tradition. I shall draw on Hobsbawm's (1972) notions of the social bandit and Robens's (1989) study of the folk hero creation amongst post-slavery African-Americans in order to understand the ZIPRA guerrillas' hero creation. The Sumbo folk hero creation served to promote an ideal self for the Zimbabwean guerrillas and their recruits. Sumbo's daring and his ability successfully to defy authority evoked admiration amongst the guerrillas in the 1970s, and in 1998 revives for them the idealism of the struggle. In Zimbabwe the 'hero' has become a contested category, because of the government's will to control the historical representation of the liberation struggle by promoting an official history with official categories of heroes. Working with Barber's notion of popular African arts (1987 and 1997), I argue that a folk hero can be redefined as a 'popular hero' when created by a proletariat and expressed by means of a popular art form. The interviewees use a specific form, the oral historical narrative, to preserve and transmit the Sumbo hero figure. I argue that though this oral historical narrative is less fixed in form and occasion than praise poetry, songs and genealogies, it nevertheless possesses identifiable and recurrent characteristics and I have established a number of criteria for identifying oral historical narrative as a genre. In order to avoid taking a generalised and essentialising approach to the notion of 'African culture', I have drawn on theory that is as specific as possible to the understanding of oral historical narratives within the context of siNdebele speakers in Zimbabwe. I have drawn on research published by Hofmeyr (1993) and Scheub (1975) because they focused on Nguni-speaking societies. Their research is further supported by my own research conducted in the rural area of Tsholotsho in Zimbabwe. The analysis of the oral historical narrative genre used by the interviewees demonstrates that significant formal and performance skills occur in this type of narrative which takes place within apparently informal conversations.
Irony in Herman Charles Bosman's Oom Schalk stories.
(2003) MacDonald, John William.; Lenta, Margaret Mary.
Herman Charles Bosman's Oom Schalk stories have made him one of the most popular writers in South Africa, and the rural Marico District in which the stories are set a popular tourist destination. This popularity is largely due to the storytelling figure of Oom Schalk, the likeable old boer raconteur, who tells the stories and ironically pokes fun at his Marico community. This image of Oom Schalk and the Oom Schalk stories is one which was created and nurtured by Lionel Abrahams who was almost single-handedly responsible for the collection and republication of many of these stories after Bosman's death. The image of Schalk, and therefore the intention of Bosman in creating this fictional narrator, as a benign figure has been contested by some literary critics and defended by others. The debate has revolved around the extent to which Bosman's use of irony in the stories addresses the explicitly racist attitudes of Schalk and the Marico community. Unfortunately the debates around irony have been hampered by a lack of attention to the nature and functioning of irony. In my introduction I look at the problems that many critics have in trying to define the diverse body of writing that Bosman produced and the way in which this has defined a particular critical approach to Bosman. In Chapter 1 I discuss how the history of publication of Bosman's Oom Schalk stories and literary criticism has defined an approach to these stories which is often inappropriate. I also discuss some of the literary critical implications of the recent recollection and republication of Bosman's work in The Anniversary Edition. In Chapter 2 I address the issue of irony in the Oom Schalk stories. I deal with the way in which irony is constructed in the Oom Schalk stories. This discussion includes an analysis of the narrative structure of the short stories and the way in which the figure of Oom Schalk is used to create different levels of irony. In Chapter 3 I examine some of the Oom Schalk stories in detail in order to demonstrate the way in which Bosman's deployment of irony produces an identifiable pattern which establishes a basis for a discussion of Bosman's ironic intent in writing these stories.
Nadine Gordimer after apartheid : a reading strategy for the 1990s.
(1997) Dimitriu, Ileana.; Lenta, Margaret Mary.
The aim of this study is to suggest, by selective example, a method of interpreting Gordimer's fiction from a 'post-Apartheid' perspective. My hypothesis is that Gordimer's own comments in her key lecture of 1982, "Living in the Interregnum", reflect not only her practice in the years of struggle politics, but suggest a yearning for a time beyond struggle, when the civil imaginary might again become a major subject. She claims that she has continually felt a tension in her practice as writer between her responsibility to 'national' testimony, her "necessary gesture" to the history of which she was indelibly a part, and her responsibility to the integrity of the individual experience, her "essential gesture" to novelistic truth. In arguing for a modification of what has almost become the standard political evaluation of Gordimer, my study returns the emphasis to a revindicated humanism, a critical approach that, by implication, questions the continuing appropriateness of anti-humanist ideology critique at a time in South Africa that requires reconstitutions of people's lives. The shift in reading for which I argue, in consequence, validates the 'individual' above the 'typical', the 'meditative' above the ideologically-detennined 'statement', 'showing' above 'telling'. I do not wish to deny the value of a previous decade's readings of the novels as conditioned by their specific historical context. The philosophical concept of social psychology and the stylistic accent on neo-thematism employed in this thesis are not meant to separate the personal conviction from the public demand. Rather, I intend to return attention to a contemplative field of human process and choice that, I shall suggest, has remained a constant feature of Gordimer's achievement. My return to the text does not attempt to establish textual autonomy; the act of interpretation acknowledges that meaning changes in different conditions of critical reception. My study is not a comprehensive survey of Gordimer' s oeuvre. It focuses on certain works as illustrative of the overall argument. After an Introduction of general principles, Chapter One focuses on two novels from politically ' overdetermined' times to show that even in the 'years of emergency', Gordimer's commitment to personal lives and destinies had significantly informed her national narratives. Chapter Two turns to two novels from less 'determined' times as further evidence of Gordimer' s abiding interest in the inner landscapes behind social terrains. Having proposed a critical return to the 'ordinary' concerns of the 'civil imaginary', the study concludes by suggesting that the times in the 1990s are ready for a new look at the most intensely lyrical aspects of Gordimer' s art: her short stories. The specific examples culminate, at the end of each chapter, in brief observations as to how the reading strategy might apply to other works in Gordimer's achievement, as well as to an 'interior' as opposed to an 'exterior' accent in South African fiction as a whole.
A new species of writing : a study of the novels of Samuel Richardson.
(1978) Lenta, Margaret Mary.; Edgecombe, Terence.
No abstract available.
The substantive representation of women in parliament with specific reference to the provincial legislature of Gauteng, 2001-2004.
(2006) Ramnath, Nitha.; Lenta, Margaret Mary.
In this study, I examine the substantive representation of women in the Provincial Legislature of Gauteng. The general perception is that if there is a substantial numerical representation of women in parliaments, then women's concerns will be adequately represented. My purpose was to understand how women perceived political representation. I found that although all the women whom I interviewed were interested in women's matters, they did not wish to be confined to the role of representing women, but wished to involve themselves in a broader spectrum of concerns. Although in South Africa there is an increase in the representation of women in the legislature, this is not necessarily being translated into effective and gender-sensitive policy-making. The partylist system of proportional representation was found to impact negatively upon the ability of women to represent women's concerns as women were constrained by the male dominated party and senior party officials. A legislated quota system would ensure that women from all parties are represented and the inclusion of a constituency-based electoral could counterbalance the control of parties. Female representation is subjected to numerous challenges from men, and from political parties which may not wish to prioritise the concerns of women. The introduction of formal political institutions in parliament would be best placed to monitor the selection process in parliament as well as ensure fair practice. The gender impact of the political and policy process can only be recognised through institutional mechanisms rather than the presence of women alone. Women themselves are by no means unanimous concerning what is best for them as parliamentarians or how they should represent the concerns of women. Channels of communication should be opened for women to understand each others cultural constraints. Although mechanisms, like the Women's Parliamentary Caucus, do exist for women to carry out representation, the effectiveness and status of the Caucus is questionable due its institutional status. Formalising the WPC as a standing committee would create a platform from which women could act to represent the concerns of women.