Abstract

This study examines the use of symbols and images as poetic techniques in South African poetic writing. The poems seek to address the issues of sociopolitical injustice, apartheid, oppression and man’s inhumanity to man in the society, a kind of counter – attacking the apartheid system of the South African society, which allows for inequalities and abject poverty of a section of the society while the other section thrives in affluence. At the end we discover how Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali expose the terrible state of affairs in South Africa through their revolutionary implantation of symbols and images.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Title Page i

Certification ii

Dedication iii

Acknowledgement iv

Abstract v

Table of Contents vi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study 1

1.2 Biography of Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali 4

1.3 Purpose of the Study 6

1.4 Justification of the Study 7

1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study 8

1.6 Methodology 8

End notes 9

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Poetry as a Societal Outlook 11

2.2 The Sociological Approach 12

2.3 Apartheid in South African 15

End Notes 18

CHAPTER THREE:

(A) Symbols and Images as Poetic Techniques in the

Poem of Dennis Brutus “a Troubadour I Traverse” 19

End Notes 29

(B) Symbols and Images as Poetic Techniques in the 30

Poems of Oswald Mtshali

End Notes 37

CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

4.1 Summary 38

4.2 Conclusion 40

Bibliography 42

Appendices 43