Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
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In her articles on written Zambian fictional literature in English, Ranka Primorac ascribes the term ‘local cosmopolitanism awareness’ to the novels she discusses: “(…) an awareness of the...Show moreIn her articles on written Zambian fictional literature in English, Ranka Primorac ascribes the term ‘local cosmopolitanism awareness’ to the novels she discusses: “(…) an awareness of the transnational and/or the universal situated within a condition of local embeddedness” (2010: 52). Analysing the symbols of mobility, this thesis attempts to show how Zambian novels operationalize the notion of local cosmopolitanism. Physical mobility has three features: progress, in the sense of moving forward; retrogression, in the sense of moving backward; and stagnation, in the sense of not moving. The figures of mobility in the novels can be characterised in three themes: availability of good transportation and infrastructure; lack of good transportation and infrastructure; and the movement of the Other. The first two themes concern the movement of the ‘Self’: the character whose viewpoint is centralized in the specific element of the book. The third theme focuses on the perception of the Self on the Other. Focalization of the characters in the passages will then determine whether or not local cosmopolitanism awareness is present. As the aim of this thesis is to strengthen Primorac’s perspective on Zambian literature, it proposes a new approach to unveil the notion of local cosmopolitanism. By using figures and representations of mobility, the ideas on and practices of cosmopolitanism can be carried out in fictional literature. In this light, the main research question is: how are the ideas and practices of cosmopolitanism carried out through figures and symbols of (im)mobility in three Zambian novels?Show less
