Browsing by Author "Mengistu, Melakneh"
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Item Guji-Oromo Lyric Folk Poems in the Changing Social Climate(Addis Ababa University, 2009-06) Belay, Ashenafi; Mengistu, MelaknehThe primary purpose of this thesis is to analyze major transformation features of the Guji Oromo folk poetry (weedduu, qeexala and geerarsa) i.e. investigating how the folk poems respond to the various social factors which have left their imprints in one way or another. The contextual study approach is employed to undertake the investigation. This approach focuses on looking at the folk poems through the glass of the dynamic socio-cultural and historical realities which are the fertile grounds for the mushrooming of the folk poems. Through it the researcher attempted to explore the change and continuity in the main .. concerns and the performance contexts of the oral poems. To this end, intensive collection of the poems together with their contextual explanations has been undertaken through field work. Intensive recordings of the poems, informal interview and focus group discussions were used as the main tools to collect the data from the Guji informants in Abbayyaa woreda. The data was transcribed, translated into English and finally analyzed qualitatively. The descriptive analysis of the folk poems: weedduu, qeexala and geerarsa, is presented in the third chapter and the major transformation features of these genres are presented in the fourth chapter. The thesis provides the thematic variations observed in the folk poems across the history of the Guji, the change and continuities in the context of their performance and the main inducing social factors for the changes. The field work coupled with the library research has helped the researcher to arrive at some conclusions regarding the three genres. The lyric folk poems of the Guji, particularly, the geerarsa, qeexala and weedduu have undergone a ', . significant transformation in content and context of performance. The three genres portray the life experiences of the society at different points in time. The investigation indicates that some of the major factors which have led to such transformation include the conquest of the Guji by forces of Mer.elik coupled with the declining of the gadaa system, the introduction and spread of Christianity, and the forces of modernity which is championed by the youthItem The Portrayal of Major Female Characters in Four Amharic Novels(Addis Ababa Universiy, 2008-02) Tsfalidet, Tekle; Mengistu, MelaknehA number of studies have been conducted at both undergraduate and post graduate levels to study the portrayal of women characters in literature though most of them seem to lack depth for they were not analyzed from a clearly defined theoretical frame work. Besides, in previous studies, much attention has not been given to the discussion of the portrayal of women ch aracters in novels written at different periods to find whether strong and liberated women a re appearing in view of the changing real ities. The aim of this thesis is, therefore, to analyze the portrayal of major female characters in four Amharic novels, written during the pre-Italian occupation (1908-1935), the post war period (1941-1958) and the modern period (1950s and 1960s), and see if new images of women are emerging. The novels selected for discussion include: Afework Gebreyesus's Tobya (1908), Hiruy Woldeselassie's Yelib Hassab: Yebirhanena Yetsion Mogessa Gabicha (1931), Negash Gebremariam's Setegna Adari (1964) anct Bealu Girma's Kadma's Bashager (1970). Major characters have been identified and discussed separately in the order of the publication of each book. The portrayals are analyzed from the feminist perspective. The thes is has five chapters. In the first chapter, the statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, limitations of the study, methodology and organization of the paper are presented. In chapter two, feminist theories, literary criticism and review of related literature have been discussed. In chapter three, the portrayal of the female characters is discussed. In chapter four, comparative analyses of the portrayals are presented. Finally, conclusions are given in chapter five. The main finding of thi s study is th at women characlers are portrayed in their traditional and biological roles . They are depicted as loyal housewives, mothers, mistresses, lovers and sex objects. For insta nce, Afework's Tobya is pres ented as beautiful, pious, selfless and physically and menta lly strong. However, despite her tremendous positive qualities, in the end she becomes a mere housewife, h er main role being bearing and taking care of children. Hiruy's Tsion Mogessa is presented as cute and intelligent. She ch ooses to learn writing and reading history instead of preparing tej and tella and cooking and baking enjera. Notwithstanding this however, after her ma rriage she becomes a mere housewife cheerfully performing domes tic duties su ch as cooking and serving within the traditional milieu. Negash 's Ena nu , a victim of early marriage, escapes from a jealous and cruel husband to fin a lly become a prostitute. She bea rs an illegitimate child for whose sake she qui ts her job and as a consequence she suffers from a bject poverty and en dless mishaps. Bealu's Lulit is first presented as proud, assertive a nd aggres s ive. After her marriage, however, she turns out to be weak, timid , selfless and a devout wife who places her husband before herself. Even if glorified as virtuous, devout, intelligent and physically strong for thematic purposes, their ultimate ambition is ma rriage and they are expected to be loyal, obedient and selfless mothers. Other than in the h ouse sphere, they don't participa te in social and political life. Hence, educated , self-reliant and strong women who take part in all areas of life have not been portrayed in the four novels discussed.Item Post-Colonialism and Mainstream Anglophone African Novel [ca.1970-2000]: A Comparative Approch(Addis Ababa University, 2008-06) Mengistu, Melakneh; Kifle, Yimer(PhD)The production, mediation and critical reception of Modem African Literature was bound with the Eurocentric framework until the emergence of the post-colonial theory which fully crystallized in the 1980s. Since the appearance of The Empire Writes Back (1989) which ushered in a typological revision of critical theory, however, dogmatic universalism has been subverted in a bid for paradigm shift from a monolithic critical theory to polyphonic canons. All the more, the Orientalists' defiance of the Eurocentric standard of literatures has triggered introspective indigenous authors to reclaim their history, language and culture. Bearing such assumption in mind, this study was designed to determine tne post-colonial trajectories as reflected in mainstream Anglophone African novel (ca. 1970 -2000). Structurally, the study is organized into four parts and eight chapters. In the Preliminary chapters (1-3), an attempt has been made to shed light on the matrices of and the major issues in the study of Modem African Literature together with the theoretical framework. The Second Part, where the bulk of the work is concentrated, deals with a contrapuntal reading of selected East, West and southern African post-colonial novels in that order under three independent chapters (4-6). The post-colonial obsessions such as tyranny, exile, resistance and representation, endemic xenophobia, underdevelopment, economic dependency, rampant corruption dominance of patriarchal ideology, ordeals of the intellectual and sycophancy of the clergy have been captured vividly in the novels cited. These malpractices are coupled with other variations of oppression like the race-class metamorphosis, militarism, political atrophy and neo-colonialist patronage prevalent in the referent countries. The contemporary works reflect the spirit of the generation of 'angry young men' who are critical of the status quo and determined to put the record straight as aggressively as possible. The perpetuation of such an anomalous phenomenon is primarily attributed to internal colonization, the ineptitude of African demagogues and mass/intellectual resignation rather than British colonialism per se. In spite of the gloom, however, the cosmic vision of these novelists is one of optimism that heralds the probability of a conditional change for the better, however, late. The Third Part (Chapter Seven) dwells upon a comparative analysis of these novels with a view to determining their thematic convergence and stylistic parallelism which traverse nations and regions across mainstream Anglophone Africa. The comparative approach, thus, reveals that all the novels in question except Disgrace (1999) invariably partake thematic and stylistic intertextuality as an expression of political resistance and cultural renaissance. While the subject matter of Anglophone African Literature has commanded unanimity, the question of decolorising its medium of expression still engenders emotive debates between the adherents of appropriation and abrogation of English. After all, the dominance of English-some times described chauvinistically as-The Chosen TongueMoore (1969), has already impacted upon the African cultural productions. Consequently Anglophone African novelists who grapple with the language politics have ventured to decenter RS-EngJish in favor of 'english' which involves editorial intrusions and deviations from the normative usage. Thus, one of the most outstanding achievements of the Post-colonial dialogue with or an act of writing back to the Imperial Center (Britain) is the empowerment of an alternative textual strategy without recourse to the traditional prescriptive rules. The Fourth Part, which draws upon its antecedents and recapitulates the findings of the study, is followed by its implications for post-colonial African writers, curriculum designers and Eurocentric literary critics. The major implications underpin the maintenance of Aristotle's "Golden Mean" and avoidance of extremes, which is believed to be compatible with the age ofmulti-culturalism and globalisation. Thus, the third generation of Anglophone African novelists (ca. 1970 - 2000) has evolved an eclectic approach to the criticism of Modern African Literature in order to accommodate its peculiarities such as thematic 'parochialism' and cultural hybridity due to the accidents of history