SYMBOLS AND IMAGES AS POETIC TECHNIQUES IN SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY, THE EXAMPLE OF DENNIS BRUTUS AND OSWALD MBUYISENI MTSHALI
ABSTRACT
This study examines the use of symbols and images as poetic techniques in South African poetic writing. The poems seek to address the issues of socio-political injustice, apartheid, oppression and man’s inhumanity to man in the society, a kind of counter – attacking the apartheid system of the South African society, which allows for inequalities and abject poverty of a section of the society while the other section thrives in affluence. At the end we discover how Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali expose the terrible state of affairs in South Africa through their revolutionary implantation of symbols and images.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Biography of Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Justification of the Study
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study
1.6 Methodology
End notes
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Poetry as a Societal Outlook
2.2 The Sociological Approach
2.3 Apartheid in South African
End Notes
CHAPTER THREE:
(A) Symbols and Images as Poetic Techniques in the
Poem of Dennis Brutus “a Troubadour I Traverse”
End Notes
(B) Symbols and Images as Poetic Techniques in the
Poems of Oswald Mtshali
End Notes
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
4.1 Summary
4.2 Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas, this literary device is used by poets to create a mental picture in the mind of readers, it is also used to widen their reasoning faculties see Northrop Frye “Anatomy of criticism” (1957) describes four types of symbol i.e Symbol as an image, a metaphor, a sign and it representation of an idea, this work is based on the symbolic image on Frye (1957) with reference to the sociological archetypes used by the selected poets.
An image is a mental representation of anything not actually presented to the senses but which appeal to our senses through words. Thus we often speak of “seeing” something in the “minds” “eye” some times we may run over a tune in our mind.
