145 | P a g e In this text, the despised dog from which the bone is snatched represents the village girl from whom the husband represented in this image by the bone is snatched by the city girl who is the snatching dog in this scenario.
Plett (1991) and Porter (1986) argue that intertextual references can be either direct or indirect and in the above examples lithoko have been indirectly referred to. The examples of imagery are not direct lifts from lithoko but are textual proto-types manifesting another way in which MSP as a new text that is coming into being relates to the previous text, lithoko, and in turn assumes the position of the precursor of the subsequent texts (Heinrich, 1991: 17 quoting Grivel, 1978). For example, some of the imagery texts that imagery in MSP can be traced back to, are the following among so many others throughout lithoko:
292. Lejoe-pitikoe la mor’a Lerotholi,
‘Round stone of the son of Lerotholi,’
The image here comes through the metaphor “lejoe-pitikoe” ‘round stone’ that refers to chief Seeiso. Pitikoe is usually a big round stone and here it represents robustness, power and ability to destroy. Its being round is indicative of destructive mobility, especially when rolled down the slope or mountain. Commenting on this image, Damane et al (1974:256) suggest that the communiqué is that Seeiso was dangerous to his adversaries just as round stones were when Basotho rolled them down their mountain fortress to disperse their attackers. Therefore, the image suggests that Seeiso did not only have the weight in terms of being the right heir to the throne according to Sotho custom13, but would also prove dangerous to those who were opposed to him succeeding his father to the throne. As chief, he also had the might and authority to destroy them just as the round stone would destroy those attacking Basotho at their fortress.
146 | P a g e based images as intertexts in modern Sesotho poetry. With regard to eulogues the analysis identified eulogical intertexts throughout the modern poetry spectra. In addition to being inspired and based on historical events, some poems are also relying heavily on eulogues to communicate their message just like lithoko. In some cases, direct segmental lifts from lithoko have been identified. The analysis has established that eulogues of association with peers and clan names are not as common as other associative eulogues and metaphorical eulogues in the selected poetry texts respectively.
New trends with regard to deverbative, metaphorical, descriptive eulogues and eulogues of association have been established. These new trends in modern Sesotho poetry are discussed in chapter six. Furthermore, the analysis has also established that other than the eulogical references, according to Kunene (1971:35- 52), lithoko names can also make allusions to people’s ways of thought and attitudes. Furthermore, some lithoko-names as well as some oral-formulaic structural segments are allusions to some historical events. These have been identified from the following clusters representing modern Sesotho poetry:
(a) 1931 – 1951 poetry texts.
(b) 1952 – 1972 poetry texts.
(c) 1973 – 1993 poetry texts and, (d) 1994 -2010 poetry texts.
The identified lithoko-names and the oral-formulaic segments have been considered in terms of the historical figures, events or occasions they indirectly refer to. The analysis has finally affirmed the view that through the lithoko-names and their references, modern Sesotho poetry has drawn quite significantly from lithoko, either directly or indirectly through the use of some lithoko principles and functions in its composition. The interrelation between lithoko and modern Sesotho poetry revealed through the above analysis, therefore, upholds the view that indeed "we do not create original texts ex nihilo; texts are conceived in the sharing and interrelation with previous and future texts," (Scherer, 2010:29). MSP as a text cannot be said to be original as it contains bits and pieces from lithoko as a text from the past.
147 | P a g e On the other hand, the chapter has identified and discussed images that are culturally based as part of the cultural corpus in MSP. Among others, some of the identified images communicate personal conduct and attributes. In these cases, the images have been found not to be direct lifts from lithoko but textual proto-types. The notion of intertextuality in this respect has fully manifested itself throughout the identified lithoko like, biblical and traditional texts. Therefore, MSP, as Haberer (2007: 58) quotes Barthes, is “a tissue of quotations drawn from innumerable centres of culture.”
Overall, the chapter has dealt with three intertextual aspects from lithoko in modern Sesotho poetry under sections one to two. They are formative structures, and the lithoko content that entails eulogues and imagery as a lithoko device used to communicate the array of issues relating to the heroes and heroines. It is on the basis of the analysis per these sections and findings as summarised at the end of these sections that the study, therefore, affirms that MSP as a literary work of art and as Haberer (2007: 63) observes with works of art, has been inspired by “the Other”, lithoko in these aspects discussed above.
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