PLOT ISOMORPHISM IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN AND EAST AFRICAN (SWAHILI) LITERATURE

Abstract

Until now no detailed comparison has been made between modern Southern African and Eastern African Bantu literature. Such investigations are important at least for two reasons: linguistically, to examine the potentiality of related developing languages in expressing actual social problems in modern literary form; and culturally, to consider the ability of creating nationally profiled literatures in African languages. Developing literatures in Africa share isomorphic plot features because African populations have experienced almost the same problems raised by Western cultural impact. The general term ‘acculturation’, covering this experience, corresponds to rhetorical categories, such as ‘problem’ and ‘solution’, whereas narrative categories, such as ‘setting’, ‘episode’, ‘complication’ and ‘resolution’ constitute variables which express national or ethnic distinctions.