Acts of naming: The detective plot in Masondo's fiction

Abstract

Masondo's acts of naming as a literary device are peculiar and unconventional. Similar names for characters migrate across all his detective narratives, representing varying personalities, psychologies and emotional states. He achieves this by using familiar names, not to create stereotypes and archetypes, but to de-stereotype representations so that they reflect the intriguing and complex psychologies of a modern society. This article aims to investigate this stylistic technique in two of his detective narratives, namely Ingwe Nengonyama and Ingalo Yomthetho, both published in 1994.