On The Ordinary In South African Black English Literature:from Njabulo S.Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory To Niq Mhlongo’s Fiction

As “one of the most distinguished young writers” in post-apartheid South Africa,Niq Mhlongo’s works have portrayed the complex ordinary life of people in Soweto township in a new era and depicted black characters with complicated consciousness.The literary representation of such daily life and character depiction chime with the prominent South African scholar Njabulo S.Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory,which ends the“spectacular” Protest Literature in apartheid era on theoretical level and is conducive to the transformation of South African Black English literature in post-apartheid era from the “spectacular” writing to the “ordinary” writing.“Spectacular” Protest Literature regards “artistic commitment to political engagement” as the only defining feature of “relevance” and prefers a black and white style in characterization,highly dramatic and rigid.This kind of writing ignores African people’s real life and their contributions in the revolutionary struggle against apartheid,unable to meet the demands of South African black students’ and workers’ new identity construction.In view of this,Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory advocates to broaden the political implication of literary subject matters,holding that literary subject matters should not be merely relevant with drastic political struggle,but more relevant with black people’s ordinary life as well as the extensive political implications in black people’s daily life.Besides,literary writing should probe beneath the surface of social life and pay attention to psychological motives as well as process to help readers break the closed epistemological structure,and update their knowledge about themselves.Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory has exerted great influence on the first generation of black writers in new South Africa with Niq Mhlongo as its representative figure.This thesis,with the aid of Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory,aims to understand Mhlongo’s Dog Eat Dog and Way Back Home to reveal the ordinary characteristics of Mhlongo’s works in picturing black people’s ordinary life and in depicting black characters.Furthermore,this thesis analyzes the development of the Ordinary Theory by Mhlongo’s works in a new era.Five chapters are included in this thesis.Chapter One briefly introduces Niq Mhlongo’s life experiences,his works as well as literature review at home and abroad,and further points out research questions and significance of this thesis.Chapter Two is mainly concerned with Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory and its influence on South African Black English literature.Chapter Three,with the insight of the ideas about relevance in the Ordinary Theory,focuses on the literary representation of black people’s life in Mhlongo’s works.Chapter Four explores the interior complexity of characters by means of the ideas of interiority in the Ordinary Theory.Chapter Five analyzes the development of the Ordinary Theory by Mhlongo’s works in a new era.This thesis applies Ndebele’s Ordinary Theory to expound the fundamental difference between Mhlongo’s writings and Protest Literature in literary representation of black people’s life and in portrayal of black characters to reveal that Mhlongo’s works embody the ordinary that Ndebele advocates.It further points out that Mhlongo’s works,under the background of new era,develop Ndebele’s writing strategy of “radical displacement of the white oppressors” in Ordinary Theory by rewriting the relations between black and white,which meets the need of a new era to reestablish the relations between black and white and to co-construct South Africa.