Authoring The Unspeakables, Moralising The Public Sphere: A Literary Examination Of Social Commitment And The Artistic Vision In Sifiso Nyathi’s Oeuvre

ABSTRACT

This thesis critically analysed how Sifiso Nyathi, through his oeuvre commits to moralise the public sphere, by authoring the commonly unsaid and veiled societal matters. The oeuvre is comprised of five texts, three plays; God of women, The oracle of Cidino, and Tears of fears in the era of terror, a novel; The other presence, and an anthropology of poems; Ballads of insomnia. Each text of the oeuvre deals with a kind of overarching silence in society. The main purpose of the study was to analyse how the author enunciates, re-assesses, makes a judicious inquiry and articulates issues that defy articulation. The researcher evaluated the artistic vision used in the oeuvre to bare the “unspeakables” and the commonly controversial issues that are aggressive toward accepted knowledge. The study employed a qualitative approach and data was analysed using content analysis. Due to the broad nature of the study, the researcher adopted three theories; Maria Pia Lara’s illocutionary approach, The African worldview and Ecocriticism as lenses through which the “unspeakables” were analysed. The study’s major findings revealed that Africans are highly spiritual, superstitious and their belief in ‘another presence’ is undisputable. A patriarchal treatment of women is also bared in the oeuvre. Moreover, Nyathi’s artistic vision is engrossed of day to day life matters in the life of a typical African community which are expressed through various artistic visions. The author succeeded in authoring the “unspeakables” in the Namibian society, allowing imagined alternatives and wide-ranging shades of opinions to be explored. The study concluded that the author successfully employed various artistic visions in the three different genres in his quest to moralise the public sphere. Nyathi authors what society views as taboo, unutterable and forbidden, subsequently bridging the gap between literature and the “unsaid” social realities, opening up avenues for further inquiries and debates. The study strongly recommends further research on “unspeakables” in different genres of African literature to explore the extent of similarities or differences in “unspeakables” in other African societies.