Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare and contrast isiZulu and Sepedi detective narratives with an objective of developing criteria and evaluating instruments for writers and scholars across African languages. The rationale was that detective narratives, a genre that has its own rigid plot, and which remains insufficiently unexplored in the African languages, could actually offer solutions to some of the crime related challenges that our society is facing. To come up with a reliable recommendation, the researcher systematically examined four detective stories by four prolific writers. Msimang’s Isigcawu Senkantolo and Masondo’s Walivuma Icala represented isiZulu, while Bopape’s Nnete Fela and Kekana’s Lenong la Gauta represented Sepedi. With murder as the crime at the center of each of the above named stories, by getting to the inner being of a murderer, the texts offer a lot in terms of sensitizing society on the nature of crime, with particular to murder cases. Various literary theories that were deemed relevant in the study were applied. Amongst them, intertextuality and intratextuality were found valuable in guiding conclusions and recommendations reached. The findings of the study were two pronged; firstly, if in constructing their stories, authors of this genre could adopt the approaches used in this study, African languages could potentially see an increase in the number of detective narratives produced, and secondly, readers’ interest in this genre could equally develop.