24 Literature as a Medium: From the Ideal to the Empirical

Chair: Patrice Mwepu

Our literature panel will focus on “Medialities” taking into consideration the nature of literature production, as art, as well as the hermeneutics done by literary critics on literary works. We will attempt to demonstrate how universes created by writers could serve as complete media between two or more different worlds. Literature generally is a language whose understanding of meaning is supposed to require going beyond the ordinary language, which is made up of signs of a denotative nature. In this sense, it could be said that the understanding of the literary essence itself is esoteric in the sense that only those initiated in the domain would understand the quintessence of the message conveyed, and could ultimately transmit it to the general public. Thus, in its raw form, literature is an important medium that oscillates between two worlds, that of the initiated and that of the common public. In this perspective, African literature, as a medium, is no exception. Through selected texts, the panel would like to demonstrate and argue on how metaphorical imageries serve as vehicles of culture from the world of the insider to the world of the ordinary people in modern Africa. Regardless of the language used by African authors, the hermeneutics of the texts shows however that the knowledge that is produced by artistic imagery has the capacity to contribute significantly to the production of knowledge in various scientific and community development fields.

Panelists: Prof Patrice Mwepu, Rhodes University, Moderator Prof Ncedile Saule, Rhodes University, Discussant Dr Thando Njovane, Rhodes University, Discussant Mr Mangaliso Buzani, Rhodes University, DiscussantProf Peter Simatei, Moi University, DiscussantDr Carolyne Sambai, Moi University, Discussant