Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
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Alex la Cf~~ma k Politics and Aesthet<br />
function which La Guma assigns to literature is radically different from the ideolo<br />
function that Ndebele's realist project envisages''. La Guma's aesthetic is<br />
approached through the work of Lukacs.<br />
the individual existence [of characters] ... their 'ontological being' ... cannot<br />
be distinguished from their social and Ilistorical environment. Their human<br />
significance, their specific individuality cannot be separated from the<br />
context in which they were created (LukBcs 1963: 19).<br />
In Lukacs's tenns, then, the cornerstone of realism is the acknowledgement<br />
b~llrnni Mlchize<br />
in Lukacs's aesthetics of realism, in terms of which individuals are seen as 'social un<br />
who are actively involved in the socio-historical forces that shape their future.<br />
Lukacs's own words: viet connection<br />
What characterizes the type is the convergence and intersection of all the<br />
dominant aspects of that dynamic unity through which genuine literature<br />
reflects life in a vital and contradictory unity all the most social. moral and<br />
spiritual contradictions of a time (Lukhcs 1978:78).<br />
In short, a socio-historical perspective and a broad readership willing to<br />
conscientised are the necessary conditions for the realisation ofrealism.<br />
developing sense of revolt which was fermenting all the time within the<br />
La Guina's South African realism fit into metropolitan realist forms?<br />
has articulated this belief in the potentiality of fiction to capture the quality of'<br />
man life in its profundity. This view is epitomised in the often quoted statement made<br />
148 149<br />
ate literature from life, from human experience and hurnan aspirations' (La Gu~na