Love in the time of mirrors: the real and the imaginary in Zakes Mda's The Sculptors of Mapungubwe. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sewlall, Harry
• Is Part Of: English Academy review. Volume 33:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 24
• Page End: 37
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: ecological responsibility -- homoeroticism -- imaginary -- Mapungubwe -- Zakes Mda -- sculptors; South African literature (English) -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; English language -- Africa -- Periodicals; 820.9968
• DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2016.1153571
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1013-1752

Abstract

Abstract : In his acceptance speech for the Oliver Schreiner Prize in 1997, Zakes Mda, while repudiating the influence of Latin-American magic realism in his fiction, went on to validate the presence of the real and the unreal in his works as an expression of a quintessentially African world-view (1997. The English Academy Review 14: 279–281). In The Sculptors of Mapungubwe (2013. Cape Town: Kwela Books), Mda conjures up the mythic aura of an ancient civilization that existed around the year '1223 CE' (p. 3) in the precincts of Mapungubwe in Southern Africa. In recuperating the past, the novel sets in motion a contemporary dialectic on issues such as artistic freedom in a politically intolerant society, our ecological and ethical responsibility for other life forms that share our planet, attitudes towards homoeroticism, and above all, corruption in government circles and how it taints the rest of society. This article postulates that the appeal of The Sculptors of Mapungubwe lies in its dual conception – as a work of popular fiction on one level, imbricated in the mythical, and as an artistic chronotope on the other, attesting to the contrary states of human nature across time and space.