The Works of Wally Mongane Serote: The Quest for a Supreme Literary Form

Abstract

SummarySerote's ouvre – the lyrics, the fiction, and the essays – represent a triumph of a special order. Springing from a dedicated artist's effort to master the techniques of evocation, narration, analysis, and revelation which are so important to the craft of writing, they are also the result of Serote's quest for fresh methods to explore the narrative and dramatic possibilities of the South African experience. What is special about Serote's achievement is the manner the three literary forms serve one another. For in keeping with the multidimensional nature of his quest and by the disciplines of the three literary forms, it was necessary that the techniques arrived at be such as would allow him to explore the complex dynamics of the South African experience without violating his passionate dedication to narrative as a fundamental agency for exploring the human condition as it plays itself out in modern South African history.