Natural Symbolism in D.B.Z. Ntuli’s: Selected Short Stories

This chapter intends to critically examine the way in which D.B.Z. Ntuli uses natural symbols to convey certain messages in his short stories with special reference to the short stories in the volume Uthingo Lwenkosazana (1978). Furthermore, the study aims to examine the way in which natural symbols relate to real life situations. Various critics have undertaken an extensive critical evaluation of Ntuli’s work but none has adequately covered the aspect of natural symbolism. Mncube (2006) captures weather symbolism in a Master’s study entitled: ‘Weather Symbolism in DBZ Ntuli’s Short Stories’. Aside from Mncube’s inquiry, and Nxumalo’s (2019) Honours study on which this chapter is based, no other research has examined natural symbolism in Ntuli’s short stories. This study aims to remedy that. The study adopts two approaches, namely, the textual approach and the semiotic approach. Textual sources are read and analysed while semiotics, which lends itself to symbolism, is utilised in the analysis of the stories.