Baptism of Clay or Yaka, a Polyphonic Novel

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating the polyphonic discourse played out in the novel Yaka by the Angolan writer, Pepetela, through the observation of the way which the narrators’ discourses are constructed. Our objective is not only try to understand how the different voices dialogically composed contribute  to make the content and/or meanings of the work apprehended, but also the way such content is shown and  signifies to the reader. Thus, the narrators’ voices and the discourse of the character Yaka (a statue that besides being an African work of art is also the magic object that provides the title of the novel) will be analyzed. Seeking to “unveil” the tangled discourses woven by the author, we will try, based on Bakhtin’s concepts of polyphony and dialogism (1973, 1981, 1997), to support the reading of the novel, set in Angola for four generations of a Portuguese colonial family. Such critical approach, nevertheless, does not exclude either the analysis of the novel’s historical-fictional network or its political-ideological content.