The worldings of Ruganda’s plays
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Date
2018-06
Authors
Mugarizi, Evans Odali
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study was a discursive interrogation of Ruganda’s six published plays: The
Burdens (1972), Black Mamba (1973), Covenant with Death (1973), The Floods
(1980), Music without Tears (1982) and Echoes of Silence (1986), from a semiotic
perspective. It focused on four aspects: 1) the location of the plays’ events and action
within spatio-temporal contexts of the dramatic world, 2) investigation of the
perceptual effects that are created out of the use the mechanical techniques of roleplay
and projection, 3) investigation of the signification of non-verbal codes of
communication used in the plays, and, 4) investigation of how the use of various
forms of speech build the meta-narratives and conflicts of the plays. The main
objective of the study was to establish how the use of these elements makes Ruganda's
drama comprehensible and intelligible within the virtual reality of the dramatic world.
It enquired into the dramatic contexts of the plays in terms of spatial location of action
from the mimetic time sense of “here-and-now” in relation to the characters’
experience and their future projections within the time locus of “then” or “elsewhen”
and spatial sense of “elsewhere”. The study was guided by Keir Elam’s (1980)
postulation of the semiotics of drama and theatre that elucidates the ordering of the
dramatic world in relation to the world of reality. The theory emphasizes how
cognizance of the various levels of worlds influences perception and inference of
meaning. This theory aided in the abstraction of different worlds created by characters
resulting from the deployment of the techniques of role-play, projection and aural and
visual symbolism. Thus, when the characters play other characters as opposed to who
they are, they display attitudinal constructions of the other characters that they enact
or impersonate. This creates a different plane of perception of the enacted character.
In addition, the study appropriated John Austin’s (1962) and John Searle’s (1969)
Speech Act Theory to interrogate how the playwright variegates his dramatic speech
for aesthetic effect. The study establishes that Ruganda uses both mimetic and
diegetic forms of speech in his plays for different purposes. The former is used to
construct the first level action of the plays, while the latter constructs the enveloping
action. Dialogue, monologue and narration are used as distinct speech forms to
establish the contemporaneity of the dramatic action and point at the time of
occurrence. The study concludes that Ruganda creates various contexts by use of
technique, symbolism and variegated speech forms that either distance or collapse the
world of reality and the dramatic worlds of his plays
Description
A thesis submitted to the school of humanities and social sciences in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of doctor of philosophy of Kenyatta University. June 2018