Changing metaphorical constructs in the writing of Jack Mapanje

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Periodical article

Title:	Changing metaphorical constructs in the writing of Jack Mapanje
Author:	MacFarlane, Alison
Year:	2002
Periodical:	Journal of Humanities (ISSN 1016-0728)
Issue:	16
Pages:	1-24
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Malawi Africa
Subjects:	literature poetry Mapanje, Jack Authors cultural change Literary analysis
About person:	Jack Mapanje (1944-)
External link:	https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jh/article/view/6294
Abstract:	Jack Mapanje (Malawi) joins the chorus of African writers whose collective voice is one of dissent and exposure. But, by writing in English, is Mapanje contributing to the demise of his own culture or does his changing metaphorical structure reflect the demands that social history and politics impose upon any poet? The author examines this question by analysing poems from Mapanje's three volumes of poetry: 'Of chameleons and Gods' (1981), 'The chattering wagtails of Mikuyu Prison' (1993) and 'Skipping without ropes' (1998). The author concludes that Mapanje does not subscribe to the Western tradition at the expense of severing his own cultural roots. The very act of striving to synthesize a newly acquired 'writerly' practice with an inherited oral tradition is what succeeds in ushering the reader into Mapanje's 'fourth world': African writing in English. Bibliogr., ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]