social realism in alex la guma's longer fiction

205 Pages·2011·10.51 MB·English

SOCIAL REALISM IN
ALEX LA GUMA'S
LONGER FICTION
BY
JABULANI JUSTICE THEMBINKOSI MKHIZE
SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR DAVID ATTWELL
Submitted in fulfilment ofthe requirements for the degree of
Doctor ofPhilosophy in the Department ofEnglish,
University ofNatal
January 1998
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated firstly, to my late father, Julius. and my late brother. Senzeni - I know
they would have been proud of this achievement. Perhaps most significantly, this work is also
dedicated to two important women in my life: mother. Adelaide, and my wife. Siphokazi. Both
of them have had to put up with testing situations during the course of this study and thereby
bear, in many different ways)the consequences of my almost obsessive preoccupation with this
work.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A number of people and institutions contributed in the process of bringing this work to fruition.
Firstly, Iwish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor. Professor David AttwelL for his
advice and assistance since the inception of this project. His subjection of my work to critical
scrutiny has always been accompanied by constructive criticism and encouragement. Secondly,
I am indebted to Shoba Sooklall, for her diligence and amazing patience as she typed and re
typed drafts of this document.
I also wish to thank CSD for financial assistance as well as the Programme of African Studies
staff at Northwestern University in the US for the fellowship award as well as the conducive
atmosphere they created for me to do my work during the six month period I spent in that
institution in 1996. The University of Transkei as well as the University of Durban-Westville
administrators also deserve credit for granting me six mont~study leave periods in 1994 and
1996 respectively. The staff of Mayibuye Centre at the University of Western Cape also
deserves credit for the warm support they gave me when I visited this institution for research
purposes. Ialso wish to extend aword of gratitude to my colleagues in the English Department
not only at Durban-Westville but also at the University of Transkei and University of Natal in
Pietermaritzburg for their moral support and encouragement.
The following number of people also deserve praise for their generosity m granting me
interviews and for answering a number of other questions in response to my curiosity: Barry
Feinberg, Brian Bunting, Phila Ndlovu. Blanche La Guma. Roger Field. lames Matthews,
Vladimir Shubin, Apollon Davidson, Larisa Saratovskaya and a number of others I have not
mentioned here.
Lastly. Iwish to thank my wife. Siphokazi. my mother. Adelaide. my children Linda. Sandile and
Mongezi for their support, resilience and their fortitude especially during my absence in 1996.
Thanks also to my sisters Thandiwe and Phumla and all my other relatives for their moral
support.
DECLARATION
I hereby state that this thesis, unless specifically indicated to the contrary in the
text, is my own original work.
Jabulani Justice Thembinkosi Mkhize
1fi~\
January 1998
Sovietsky narod
Lenin's spirit lives in our distant land -
our names are Dadoo, Fischer, Kotane, Marks.
Sovietsky narod
Gorky's spirit lives in our distant land -
our names are La Guma. Hutchinson, Kgotsitsile. Serote.
Sovietskv Narod
A.N.C. Kumalo
ABSTRACT
This thesis sets out to examine social realism in Alex La Guma's longer fiction by using Georg
Lukacs's Marxist theory as apoint ofdeparture. Tracing the development in La Guma's novels
interms of ashiftfrom criticalrealism to gestures towards socialist realism I argue that this shift
isinformedbyLenin's "spontaneity/consciousnessdialectic" interms ofwhich workers beginby
engaging in spontaneous actions before they are ultimately guided by a developed political
consciousness. I am quite aware that linking La Guma's work to socialist realism might raise
someeyebrowsin some circlesbut I am nonetheless quite emphatic about the fact that socialist
realism in La Guma's fiction is not in any way tantamount to the Stalin-Zhdanovite version of
whatLukacs calls "illustrative literature". Rejecting Lukacs's conception that socialist realism is
aprerogative ofwriters inthe socialist countries, I argue that gestures towards socialist realism
made in La Guma's last novels are rooted in South African social reality.
Oneofthe claimsbeing made in this study is that La Guma's novels rendervisible his attempt to
createaSouthAfricanproletarianliterature. Forthis reasonImake acase for Russian precedents
ofLaGuma'swritingbyattemptingto identify some intertextual connection between La Guma's
novels and Gorky's work. Where realism is concerned I argue that although La Guma seems to
draw extensively on Maxim Gorky in redefining his aesthetics ofrealism, Lukacs's theory of
realism is useful in contextualising his fiction.
The first chapter is largely biographical, examining La Guma's father's influence in shaping his
political ideologyand hisliterarytastes. Chaptertwo focuses on La Guma's aesthetics ofrealism.
Inchapter three IexamineLaGuma'sjournalism as having provided him with the subjects ofhis
fiction and argue that there is a carry-over in terms ofLa Guma's style from journalism to
fiction. Accordingly, I provide evidence ofthis carry-overin the next chapter onA Walk in the
Night in which I argue that while La Guma's style is naturalist the novel is critical realist in
perspective. Chapter five contextualizes the shift from AndA Threefold Cord, to The Stone •
Country as providing evidence ofLa Guma's use of"the spontaneity/consciousness dialectic".
Inchapter sixIreadIn theFogofthe Seasons' Endin relation to Gorky'sMother as its intertext
in terms ofits gestures towards socialist realism as seen for example in its "positive heroes",
Beukesand Tekwane. There are further elements ofsocialist realism in Time ofthe Butcherbird
whichare neverthelessbroughtinto question by some ideological contradictions withinthe text
this is the central thrust ofmy argument in chapter seven. I conclude this study with a brief
discussion ofLa Guma's craftsmanship.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER ONE Alex La Guma: Cultural and Political Development 1
CHAPTER TWO Realism in Alex la Guma's Aesthetics 31
CHAPTER THREE : Journalism: the Roots ofAlex la Guma's
Counter-discourse 67
CHAPTER FOUR From Fact to Fiction: A Walk in the Night 93
CHAPTERFIVE "Road to Consciousness" :Anda ThreefoldCord
and The Stone Country 109
CHAPTER SIX ANarrative ofResistance: Gestures Towards
Socialist Realism in In the Fog ofthe Season'sEnd 133
CHAPTER SEVEN : Reading the Ideological Contradictions in
Time ofthe Butcherbird 150
CHAPTEREIGHT Conclusion 166
WORKS CITED 171
PREFACE
AlexLaGumawas probably the most prolific black South African writer in his lifetime - having
writtenfourteen short stories~ five novels and one play. Yet as a result ofhis banning and that of
his writings in the country ofhis birth a whole generation was deprived ofaccess to his work.
The result has been that, at least until 1992 only one full length study ofLa Guma's novels had
been produced within this country's borders; other studies ofLa Guma's work have been done
either by foreign scholars abroad or, ironically, by other South African scholars who had to go
abroad to write theirtheses on this author's work.
Thepoliticalchangesinthecountry sinceFebruary 1990have helped make La Guma's work more
accessible to literary scholars withinthe country's borders. The result is that there has been an
upsurge ofinterest in La Guma's works which have since been reinstated into the South African
literary canon. Accordingly, this has created a need for more research on La Guma's writings,
whichwill help draw students~ attention to his contribution to the South African literary legacy
and~ hopefully, generate some critical debate on his work. This project is~ therefore, a minor
contribution to this debate which will, hopefully~ be taken up by other scholars.
Insomecirclesitwould, perhaps~ be regarded as an anachronism that at a time when theories of
modernism and postmodernism, amongst others, have been used as paradigms to analyse,
challenge, relativise and interrogate the concept ofrealism in literature~ one would set out to
examinethe nature ofrealism in a particular author's works. Nonetheless~ this should not come
asa surpriseespeciallywhen one attemptsto examine the writings ofa self-confessed realist such
as La Guma, who, as this study will show, was obviously conscious ofthe literary
(i)