Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

c::onomii, social and political iiinitations, Ro~vers wiii !?(oom aile\v in all
e~i\irorlrnei?l of 1i:tppincss in a lifc lived ill digiiity, a Iifk of li-cetiiril1 ailtl
coinrntieshil? aniong our peoples (Ida Ci~rn~a 197 1 : 120).
It would seem, then, that La Gums has fully grasped Plekha~~ov's argutnent that th
watcr but ~nust buy it by the bucketful from some local cup1oite1- tlrcn I also
cntcrtain the secrctlrope that when somcbody I-catis it he will be movcd to do
something about those robbers who havc turned my country - into a material
and cullu~~l wasteland for thc majority oftlie iuiiabitants.
'social utility of art' is not 'an itnn~anent principle' and that he agrees with Plekhanov'
thesis in genel-ai.
Iio~vcver, as Henri Arvon (1973: 14) points out, Plekhanov 'refuses to put a
and literature in the service of party politics'. This is where Ida Gulna parts compan
with Plekhanov and, instead, embraces 1,enin's principle of partisanship in literature.
is perhaps not surprising that La G~una should subscribe to Idenin's principle
partisa~lship in literature when one considers that La Gulna served his apprenticesl
(as a writer) as a reporter under the auspices of New Age, a politically pal-iisal
n be inferred from this statement, in La Guma's terms, it is not enough for
ure to depict the social situation truthfully, but, in addition, the ideological effect
erature should be to transform the consciousness ofthe readers even to the extent of
ng them on to engage in some fonn of action! Tt would seem, then, that it is for this
se that La Gu~na turns to social realism as an effective means of conscientizing his
newspaper that was not only 'run by [Communist Party] members [and] consistent1
reflected party policy [but whose] position 01-1 international matters was [also] virt~lall
indisti~iguisl~able from the foreign policy of the Soviet Union' (Forman & Odendaa
ntra Gordimer and Fugard
significance which La Guma attaches to the ideological filnction of literature and
1992::xxii). Significantly, it was apparently with regard to Party publications that 1,eni concept of tendentiousness can also be seen in his literary criticism. This is bcst
XVI-ote his famous paper on partisanship, 'Organisation and Party L,iterature' in 19
However, one may argue that La Guma, like his counterparts in the Soviet Union in
1930'~ cxtends Lenin's principle ofpartisanship to include creative works ofliteratur
This can bc scen most obviously in La Guma's argument that one 'cannot of cours
separate one's social and political allegiances fi-oni one's creative work' (
1978:49). It would seern, therefore, that La Guma subscribes to Plekha~~ov's aes
in so far as it is co~npatible with his liberation discourse and that, where the question o
tendentiousness is concerned, La Gurna does not seern to distinguish between his xvorks
and his political allegiances. This does not, however, mean that in Ida Gu~na's works the
political message whicli conforms to his political allegia~~ces is always explicitly
lnplified in La Guma's critical essay on Nadine Gordimer's The Bl~ck
reter.r-Notes on African Writing. In the first section of this work entitled
I African Fiction in English', Gordimer makes a critical assessment of African
e written in English which she sees as beginning with the Negritude movement.
distinguishes between African writers who are 'testifiers to social
e'-those who tnerely provide a 'sort of context of expression, of bald
ound fact' (Gordimer 1973:Sfjand those who write 'literature' in which the
ofthe writing matters. Having made a critical appraisal ofsome literary texts by
riters as Achebe, Ngugi, Ayi Kweyi Armah and others, Gordimer (1973:32)
ludes that African English literature's best writers are critical realists in the
stated-Land, in this sense, his practice would seem to be at odds with his theory. k6csian sense-establishing a link between the past and pointing towards the
The concept ciStendentiousness in La Guma's aesthetics is linked to his belief we-and that this is the direction in which African literature is developing.
in the ideological S~inction of literature, a belief to which La Guina (19?1:20) lnakes
In response, La Guma takes issue with Gordimer's exclusive treatment of
consistent referer-rce:
lish literature written by Africans and her measuring of them against European
dards. He describes this special treatment of 'African literature as "literary
A writer. if 11e is collscious of what is going on around him. automatically
artheid"', a practice which, in his view, results in the construction of 'a cultural
reflects he real picture] ... and through portraying the life around him also
ntustan' ('Gala' 1974a: 103,102). According to La Gunla, Gordimer's reservations
produces liis omn ideas about it. Of course. what should bc borne in mind is 'testifiers to social change' are due to these authors' giving too much attention to
that a writer is s~rpposed to he conscious of the dil.eclion in which his works
aregoing to point .... I think that it is the roleofthc consciouswriter to guitie
the morals. [hc perspcctivcs and ob,jectives oStlic commrinity.
issues'. But, La Guma argues, 'softening the social impact has never guaranteed
ccess for any work of art' ('Gala' 1974a: 105). What is crucial in La Guma's terms is
ther the ideological co~nmitment of the writer and the extent to which his writings
111 La Guma's view, then, a writer is not only a chronicler of the expcriellces o
ontribute to human progress. In his words:
co~nn~unity but he is also an ideologue providing guidance to the perspectives o
community. It is against this background, then, that La Gurna (1?70:237) expresses the
intended ideological effect of his writing ofAt7cld4 Thvecf0ldCot.d in these words:
The writer's participation in the develop~nent of life is nleasured by the
ideological artistic level of his work. the depth of his depiction of events and
problems. Tile writer [nust find the epicentre of events and deterlnine his
place in Lliem, his point ofview. Tlren Ire will find application Ibr Iiis talent
\Vhcn 1 write 111 a book illat so~ncwlrcre in Soutll Africa pool-pcoplc lravc i~o
a~ld personal exper-ie~rce and will wol-tirily serve the cause of acstlrctic and
social progress. There are vvriters who work in a kind of vacuum. who stand
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