The Changing Face of Moral Vision in The Amharic Novel
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Date
2007-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In this study were examined eleven Amharic novels by six authors for their moral vision. A combination of moral and sociological approaches of literary criticism was put to use for the study. The novels were selected on their representational merits as they belong to three historical periods: before 1974, 1974-1991 and after 1991.
The specific purpose of the study being to explore and describe the changing face of moral vision in the novels selected, the study also made use of a combination of the structuralist and the new-historical or cultural critical methods. Discussed in six major chapters in three parts, the study reveals that there is a continuum of moral vision between and among the novels, on the one hand, and between the novels and the discourses of the periods that gave rise to the novels, on the other. Haddis’s and Dagnachew’s novels discussed in chapters 3 and 4 respectively reveal that the state of morality in feudal Ethiopia was characterized by moral provincialism with respect to the feudal lords, the then dominant class.
Through the gestures of their characters striving for self-assertion and justice Haddis’s novels in particular strongly suggest the need for change of the scenario that subjected the people to plight-full life. But then, the change so envisioned, of necessity, had to come through social upheavals, and these are depicted in Bealu’s and Tesfaye’s novels. As discussed in chapters 5 and 6, respectively, the novels by these two authors tend to circumscribe morality around the underdog masses, though the depictions are constrained by elements of egoism and vengeance. In the last two major chapters (i.e. 7 and 8), Fiqremarqos Desta’s and Sisay Nigusu’s novels are examined as showing a moral vision that transcends the notion of moral provincialism altogether. Fiqremarqos’s novels uphold the virtue of respect for others, both individuals and social groups, while Sisay’s novel challenges us to heed our conscience; for conscience is infallible.
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Amharic Novel