The last chapter illuminated the function of proverbs as discursive practices underpinning the African value system, and how they perpetuate and reaffirm the authority of the traditional world. In this chapter, I discuss two post-apartheid novels that have used folktale motifs to provide structural and aesthetic patterns for these modern isiZulu novels. The use of folk narrative motifs has always been a marked feature in novels in the isiZulu literary tradition. These folktale motifs signal themselves as ‘nested’ narratives where aspects or whole narrative motifs are embedded in new contemporary constructions. Certain allusions or intertextual references draw the readers’ attention to known folk narratives structured in similar ways to the novels. Ngubo's (1996) Yekanini Ukuzenza (I am to blame) and Muthwa's (1996) Isifungo(The Vow) are representative of a broader class of novels which rely on folktale motifs to construct a didactic outcome. The first novel draws its structural motif from the folktale of the piglet called Maqinase (the self-willed one). The second novel is heavily indebted to the structural motif of the folktale Mamba KaMaquba (Mamba son of Maquba). Barber's (1987, 2000) popular arts and culture model makes clear how these embedded narratives initiate a dialogue with the newly constructed narratives and how novels that have drawn on folktale motifs produce lessons that favour traditional conservatism.

The emphasis will be on how these texts are constructions of popular discourse.

The impact of traditional oral expressions on modern literature is a phenomenon that has shaped modern African-language literatures and, as Lindfors (1973) points out, has contributed to the creation and exploitation of new aesthetic opportunities. Most isiZulu novels, from the early stages of literary development, have shown a tendency to absorb as much as possible of the narrative devices of folk stories. These devices can be detected in the plotting strategies, archetypal characters, thematic considerations, or the use of predetermined motifs like that of the journey, or binary oppositions especially between good and evil and how good always prevails over evil. According to Schmidt: