Literary Representations Of Socio-Political Issues In The Namibian Society In Philander’s The Namibian Stage Chronicles And King Of The Dump And Other Plays

Abstract

The study is a critical analysis of the literary representations of socio-political issues in the Namibian society as portrayed in Philander’s two anthologies: The Namibian Stage Chronicles (2010) and King of the Dump and Other Plays (2005). Namibia attained independence in 1990 and socio-political issues such as unemployment, violence against women and children, nepotism, corruption, poverty, injustice and economic window dressing dominate life. The chosen plays from the two anthologies: “Election Fever”, “King of the Dump”, “The Porridge Queen”, and “Victim of Love” feature these socio-political issues and allow room for comparison on how it was before and after independence. The study found out that problems like corruption and nepotism feed into other problems like high unemployment rates which in turn spearheads for poverty and higher crime rates as well as other social problems. Philander’s plays also raise public awareness regarding socio-political issues that affect people in Namibia and their open endedness gives the public the choice to take action or not. The study also found out from the plays that inequality and injustice have deep roots in pre-independence Namibia as life after independence has only improved for some individuals and remains a daily struggle for the majority of Namibians. The study employed content analysis and is a qualitative desktop study. The study is informed by the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which addresses language issues, power and ideology, as well as discrimination, oppression and injustice and the Marxist literary theory which attempts to draw conclusions about the relations between the literary and the social. The study recommends that future research be carried out on exploring socio-political issues but utilising other literary theories. Also research may be conducted in other genres of African literature to explore socio-political issues, and compare whether societies have any shared experiences.