 | |
| Author | Zakes Mda[1] |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press Southern Africa (South Africa) & Picador (United States)[2] |
Publication date | 1995 |
| Publication place | South Africa |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-19-571498-9 |
| OCLC | 37694751 |
Ways of Dying is a 1995 novel by South African novelist and playwright Zakes Mda.[3] The text follows the wanderings and creative endeavors of Toloki, a self-employed professional mourner, as he traverses an unnamed South African city during the nation's transitional period.[4]
Ways of Dying examines the concepts of nation-building after the communal trauma of Apartheid. It is an examination of the interregnum period in South African history. Mda experiments with magical realism,[5][6] using it to highlight the interplay of tragedy and laughter in confronting crisis,[7] and the conflicts between social classes and government authority.
- ^ Rochman, Hazel (1 August 2002). "The Heart of Redness/Ways of Dying (book)". Booklist. 98 (22): 1923.
- ^ Austen, Benjamin (February 2005). "The Pen or the Gun". Harper's Magazine. 310 (1857): 85–89.
- ^ Lalami, Laila (11 December 2007). "Revenants". Nation. No. 15.
- ^ Zaleski, Jeff (8 December 2002). "Fiction Notes". Publishers Weekly. 249 (32): 277.
- ^ Goyal, Yogita (Summer 2011). "The Pull of the Ancestors: Slavery, Apartheid, and Memory in Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying and Cion". Research in African Literatures. 42 (2): 147–169. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.42.2.147.
- ^ Lopez, Maria J. (May 2013). "Communities of Mourning and Vulnerability: Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow". English in Africa. 40 (1): 99–117. doi:10.4314/eia.v40i1.5.
- ^ Barnard, Rita (Summer 2004). "On Laughter, the Grotesque, and the South African Transition: Zades Mda's Ways of Dying". Novel: A Forum on Fiction. 37 (3): 277–302. doi:10.1215/ddnov.037030277.