Structural Analysis of Theme Through Technique of Yeshitela's Novels
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Date
2001-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The obj ectives of this thesis mainly focuses on a n attempt to
implement structural analysis method on texts, that help one to arrive at
intended themes. For this purpose, Yeshitla Kokeb's novels Wogegta and
Dosegnaw h ave been selected. The themes of these n ovels, eman cipation
a nd commitment respective ly, are hig hli ghted through the utilization of
ch aracterization a nd p lot techniques.
The a n alysis of the techniques doesn't mainly fo c us on content. As
a critique, i t is dealt here as an achieved content, the form, the work of
art. Different structur es by which the form got constructed, had h e lped
to explicitly show, how the t echniques are utilized for the purpose
aforemention ed. Hence, those different structu r ing methods of
theoreticians that proved to suit the analysis a re only applied. Moreover,
the research er h as endeavored to devise h e r own structu rin g approach.
The research has revealed that the economic, social and political
life of our society can easily clearly be visuali zed through t h e utilization
of different stru cturing methods. It has also proved the existence of
a dopting t heoretical frame works ,whic h might h elp one to invent her I his
own theory of structuring method.
The firs t chapter o f this thesis comprises the introduc tion, a nd the
methodology the researcher e mployed in analyzing the texts and the
problems e n countered .The li terature review of differen t theoreticians,
who h ave done analysis on c h a r acter and plot is s h own in the second
ch apter.
In Wogegta among oth e r s, the researcher h as tried to apply the
most detailed consid er ation of the organization of lexies, which Roland
Barthes distinguished as five "c odes" w hich a r e applied in the reading of
a text. Structures of these literary codes, i.e . the proairetic code (code o f
action); the cultural code (which refers to all the system of knowle dgeand values); the symbolic code (which refers to the theme); the
connotative code (which expresses th emes developed around ch aracter s);
and the hermeneutic code (code of puzzle) which help in the
ch aracterization technique are attempted to be a pplied on the text in the
third ch a pter. Moreover, the theories contribution to the advancement of
the emancipation and other themes is also examined.
Furthermore, in the fourth chapter, plots of Dosegnaw with its
relevance to the development of commitment and other themes are
endeavored to be structurally highlighted. Hence, Greimase's
'contractu a l sequence', Todorov's postulation of a set of basic categories,
Barthese"s cultural code identification and Shklovsky's type of
para llelism and their contribution towards the progression of the themes
are examined.
The researcher had intermingled Barthese's codes with
characterization techniques and has attempted to establish viable
slructures. The structures relevance to the development of the themes is
a lso examined . Besides from among diffrent types of characterization
methods, I have pinpointed those areas III the chronological
characterization method tha t should be ra mified. Moreover, the
researcher has adopted Greimase's "four term homology" into "three" so
that it fits to analyze Doseganw th oroughly. Specifica lly, my
investigation deals with :
(a) Different ch a racterization technique th eories which are
combined with Barthese's codes moreover theories of
analysis of plots are also interpreted.
(b) The effect of applying a characterization method on
Wogegta's theme is explored.
(c) The effect of plot construction on Dosegnaw's theme
is also examined.
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Keywords
Structural Analysis