The interaction between culture and characterisation in Uthingo Lwenkosazana by D.B.Z. Ntuli, with special reference to the short story iPhasika

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation has been to investigate character portrayal from a cultural semiotic point of view in DBZ Ntuli's collection Uthingo/wenkosazana with special reference to the short story iPhasika. Character portrayal takes place via techniques, which fall into two broad categories, namely direct and indirect. Naming as a characterisation technique is seen as a typical Zulu characterisation device, which resorts under the indirect technique. Culture has been described as a learned, not inherited thing, which derives from ones social environment and distinguishes itself from human nature on the one hand, and from individual personality on the other. The sign is a conventionalised representation of something else, which aims to communicate something, which in literature can be conventionalised within the boundaries of the text. Cultural signs signify a certain norm or principle. In Uthingo /wenkosazana character portrayal and culture cannot exist without the other. In this novel: (i) culture can merely constitute the social setting in which a character finds itself, without characterisation as such; (ii) a character can constitute culture; (iii) a character can interact with culture, in which case it: (a) shows superiority towards that culture, or (b) is dominated by that culture. In iPhasika, Kholiwe has dynamic interaction• with culture although she is dominated by it whereas uSikhumbuzo in Bafanele ukugcotshwa and uVusumuzi in Iziqongo zezintaba do not interact dynamically with their cultures although they are dominated by them