0.1. Presentation and limitation of the topic.

The present research paper is written in the domain of literature. The latter is, according to Lionel Thrilling, quoted in The Norton Introduction to Literature, “the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise accent of cariousness, possibility, complexity and difficulty”. It is not things but a way to comprehend things as Norman N. Holland declares.

In the English Novel, Pelican book (9154: 16), Welter Allen states that a literary narrative is a long piece of work which states a totality, and characterization is only an aspect of it. Allen also puts that characterization is not the only aspect of literary narrative.  Its other aspects are plot, dialogue, theme, style, etc.

The present work focuses on two of these aspects which are namely Characterization and Thematic Study in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s “Neria”, a Zimbabwean movie.

0.2. Choice and interest in the topic.

Characterization and thematic study in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s “NERIA” were chosen with much interest. The choice of the two aspects was motivated thanks to the researcher’s hope that they will bring the readers to better understand the narrative and penetrate the author’s mind to find out the message that he is conveying through the different characters and themes developed in his narrative. Besides, I was very much interested and attracted by the way each character performs his / her role and by the way they are developed throughout the narrative. From the beginning to the end of the story, the later are coherently developed. The themes developed in the narrative also caught my interest by the way that they are not different from what real people, especially women, undergo in their real lives.

0.3. Scope of the study.

This research paper analyses two aspects of the studied literary narrative, which are characterization and thematic study. It presents the different characters portrayed in the narrative “NERIA” to its readers. It also discloses the main message conveyed by the narrative though the characters’ actions, reactions and relationships.

0.4. Problem statement.

The narrative entitled “Neria” dramatizes a central character that gets into trouble with

her family-in-law, just because she works, but does not stay at home as other cultural women do. The cultural society does not at all bear this situation. Second, after her husband’s death,

Neria is in conflict with her in-law family because of inheritance properties. This central character, i.e. Neria, is hated both by her mother-in-law and her brother-in-law, although these were supposed to help her after the death of her husband. The comprehension of the central character’s struggle to capture her family-in-law’s confidence constitutes the real problem under study in this novel.

0.5. Research questions.

Taking into consideration the conflict that prevails in “Neria” some questions are likely to come to the researcher’s mind, and to which right answers could enable to address the problem. The target research questions are:

1.Why should it be seen as unbearable in the narrative to have a woman, especially a widow like Neria, inheriting her husband’s properties after the death of the latter?

2.In the conception of the narrative, who should have the right of inheriting a husband’s goods after his death? Why?

3.What should Neria do to be allowed to benefit from her husband’s belongings after the latter’s death? Why?

0.6. Hypotheses.

The above research questions lead to some provisional answers that are considered as hypotheses of this work.

1. African culture’s tenors continue believing that woman must stay home doing house

work and looking after the children. This situation causes women to suffer all along their life in the house hold, and especially after their husbands’ death, when they have nobody to provide them with anything to support their families.

2. As the Holy Bible, in the book of Genesis 2: 24 states, a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife in such a way that the two become one person. This explains that, when Neria’s husband got married, he was no longer part of his parents’ family but forms his own family with his wife. Since then, he should work for his own family and not for his parents’, even if he may be helping sometime, if he wants to.
3. Women are the ones who should take possession of their husbands’ goods after the latter have died. In fact after their husbands’ death, widows remain with the whole family’s charges including bringing them up, schooling them, feeding them and clothing them. Women should also inherit their husbands’ goods because they help their husbands to be successful in their jobs and they are the only legitimate responsible of their families after their husbands’ death.

0.7. Methodological approach.

The present work is the result of audio-visual and textual approaches. The audio-visual approach being an approach which includes both sound and images at the same time was helpful in that it helped me grasp the message integrally by watching the different characters’ actions and reactions in the movie. The textual approach, defined by the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary as an approach connected with a text, helped me get the necessary review of literature on the study of theme and characterization. It also helped me interpret the different opinions uttered by the characters in the narrative. In order to analyze thoroughly and successfully the different themes of the literary work under study and get the message conveyed by the author in the narrative “Neria”, I shaped the work that I was doing as the instrument for collecting and analyzing data through the reflexivity process. The latter can be described as the documenting close reflections of potential findings and implications of the research study. Reflexivity journals are often referred to as analytic memos or memo writing, which can be useful for reflecting on emergent pittances, themes or concepts.

Through the coding process, I detailed records of the development of rich of my codes and potential themes. Changes made to themes and connections between themes were

incorporated into the final report to assist the reader in understanding the decision that was taken throughout the coding process. Once the field work, that is, watching the movie, was complete, I began taking notes by writing down any words that would be useful during data analysis in a journal. The logging of ideal for future analysis in getting thoughts and reflection could be written down and would serve as reference for potential coding of ideas as I progressed from one stage to the next in the thematic study process.

0.8.      Subdivision of the work.

The present research paper is made up of three chapters apart from the general introduction and the general conclusion. The first chapter deals with the review of relevant literature on characterization and thematic study. This part of the work explains what characterization and thematic study are, as well as other expressions in connection with characterization and thematic study. The second Chapter, on characterization and thematic study in Neria, a Zimbabwean movie, analyses all the characters that act, react and interact in the movie. The last chapter on thematic study deals with an analysis of the different themes developed in the narrative. The study ends by a general conclusion