Browsing by Author "Anderson, Peter"
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- ItemOpen AccessAlexander the Great and the English novel(2012) Howell, Patrick; Anderson, PeterThis work focuses on the manner in which Alexander the Great is received and reconfigured within the confines of the contemporary English-language novel. The Macedonian king has held the attention of writers and artists throughout the centuries; this dissertation seeks to investigate how modern authors, working at a remove of centuries, with limited evidence, have contrived to fashion coherent literary narratives from his life, and how this process is influenced by the authors and the society for which they write. The theoretical backbone of this approach is provided by reception theory, which provides a useful technical vocabulary and outlook by which to approach the phenomena which affect the comprehension of, and subsequent re-appropriation, of cultural artifacts.
- ItemOpen AccessBecoming “so terribly altered”: Reading transformations of the self in “The Fall of the House of Usher”(2021) Rawoot, Bilqis; Anderson, Peter; Moji, PoloIn this thesis, I try to situate the effects of the text, specifically on the reader, by looking at ideas of transformation. My primary investigation is to determine the extent of the effect on the reader and the reader's reality, and if it is possible to alter the reader by inducing a transformation. I argue that transformation is possible as a “becoming”. Transformation depends on the text's reflection and verisimilitude to reality, which aids introspection and the consequent transitioning toward a new identity. I confront these concerns via close analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Whereas critics have read Poe while considering authorial intent and biography, and while limiting effect to emotion, I argue that the reader determines meaning and effect which can impose on identity. This inquiry deals directly with the interaction between the text and the reader, while acknowledging language as the common ground and means of communicating meaning and effect between them. Arnold van Gennep's theory of liminality provides a framework for transition, which I apply to character and reader becoming. And, it explains the interstitial space between the textual realm and the reader's reality. My close analysis of Poe's characters elucidates these tasks as I engage the text as a reflection of the reader's development, and as the narrator's interactions with the Usher siblings mimics the reader's relation to the text. Mikhail Bakhtin's polyphonic theory depicts the text as life-like and appropriate for this exchange. I consider metafiction for its ability to dissemble illusory distinctions between the text and reality, and as it induces consciousness in the reader. I have also placed Poe in conversation with Julia Kristeva for her insights into the psychoanalytic process of abjection, and as she illustrates the revision of identity. Much of this project deals with finding unity and reconciling the inherently contradictory elements of human existence. Ultimately, I consider how the process of textual interaction contributes to potential reader “becoming”. And, I argue that becoming and identity are intimately dependent on selfconsciousness of the vastness of human potential, as well as the dissolution of the very borders designed to limit and make sense of that vastness.
- ItemOpen AccessCerebral Arterial Asymmetries in the Neonate: Insight into the Pathogenesis of Stroke(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2022-02-24) van Vuuren, Anica Jansen; Saling, Michael; Rogerson, Sheryle; Anderson, Peter; Cheong, Jeanie; Solms, MarkNeonatal and adult strokes are more common in the left than in the right cerebral hemisphere in the middle cerebral arterial territory, and adult extracranial and intracranial vessels are systematically left-dominant. The aim of the research reported here was to determine whether the asymmetric vascular ground plan found in adults was present in healthy term neonates (n = 97). A new transcranial Doppler ultrasonography dual-view scanning protocol, with concurrent B-flow and pulsed wave imaging, acquired multivariate data on the neonatal middle cerebral arterial structure and function. This study documents for the first-time systematic asymmetries in the middle cerebral artery origin and distal trunk of healthy term neonates and identifies commensurately asymmetric hemodynamic vulnerabilities. A systematic leftward arterial dominance was found in the arterial caliber and cortically directed blood flow. The endothelial wall shear stress was also asymmetric across the midline and varied according to vessels’ geometry. We conclude that the arterial structure and blood supply in the brain are laterally asymmetric in newborns. Unfavorable shearing forces, which are a by-product of the arterial asymmetries described here, might contribute to a greater risk of cerebrovascular pathology in the left hemisphere.
- ItemOpen AccessDisplaced romanticism: searching for the self in J.M.Coetzee's autobiographical fiction(2014) Smuts, Eckard; Clarkson, Carrol; Anderson, PeterThis thesis is a literary critical investigation into the strategies of self-definition at work in the autobiographical fiction of J.M. Coetzee. My focus falls on those of his novels that have a more-or less explicit autobiographical resonance (Boyhood, Youth, Elizabeth Costello, Diary of a Bad Year, Summertime), with supplementary forays into two additional books (Age of Iron and The Childhood of Jesus). My argument centres on the observation that Coetzee's work derives its affective force from the conflict he stages, time and again, between the desire for a transcendent sense of being, Romantic in origin, and the realization that being derives its co-ordinates from the discursive formations - ideological, socio-historical, philosophical, linguistic - that provide the structure of meaning for self-expression in writing. I introduce my argument by situating Coetzee's work according to a post-structuralist critical framework that emphasizes his strategies of subjective displacement. Our reading of his work, I then suggest, might benefit from a more considered evaluation of the persistent influence of a Romantic ideal concerning the primacy of subjective experience. In the first chapter I explore the conceptual tension that derives from these contrasting points of view by considering Coetzee's engagement with the tradition of confessional writing, arguing that he foregrounds the textual subject as the locus in which the truth of the self is to be sought. The second chapter examines the central role of the Karoo farm in the formation of the autobiographical subject in Coetzee's writing, and links it to a Romantic model of identification between the self and nature. In the third chapter I argue that Coetzee's awareness of socio-political realities inhibits the Romantic yearning for an authentic sense of self, even while he reformulates the idea of authentic voice as the expression of a politically and historically compromised subjectivity. Finally, in the last chapter I turn my attention to the authorial imprint that derives from the consistency of Coetzee's depiction of conflict between transcendent and contextual realities, and conclude by tracing the afterlife of this dynamic in his most recent novel, The Childhood of Jesus.
- ItemOpen AccessIt was raining(2013) Ramano, Kambani; Anderson, Peter; Twidle, Hedley
- ItemOpen AccessA 'long defence against the non-existent' : Englishness in the poetry of Phillip Larkin(2008) Malec, Jennifer; Anderson, PeterLarkin's place in the genealogy of English poetry is significant since, unlike many of his predecessors, his work lacks the hope or possibility of redemption offered by faith. Larkin countered the void created by his agnosticism by appealing to the power both of ritual and of the English landscape, and yet ultimately these attempts - although not wholly unsuccessful poetically - appear fruitless philosophically. Larkin's awareness of English society is not explicit, and yet his preoccupation with death and nothingness is inexorably linked to the political despair and religious questioning of post-war England. Through the use of the many' Englishes' of his time Larkin manages to construct a passable means by which to fill the lacuna left by godlessness. A thorough review of the critical opinion of Larkin is undertaken here, in order to sketch out the landscape of English letters and Larkin's place within, or in relation to, English poetry. His interrogation of the dominant societal structures is rigorous, and while his habit of constantly contradicting himself and his insistent ambiguity may seem to undermine his efforts, on closer inspection this lack of clarity complements his aims precisely. This dissertation will demonstrate how Larkin's use of cliche epitomises this struggle, and that in his poetry the often-assumed emptiness of such language is turned on its head. Larkin, it will be argued, deploys common English expressions as a modem substitute for the social links provided to earlier poets by means of reference to classical mythology.
- ItemOpen AccessMedicine and the Arts Week 1 - In dialogue about the heart(2015-01-21) Reid, Steve; Brink, Johan; Anderson, Peter; Henkeman, StanleyIn this video, Professor Steve Reid poses additional questions to Professor Johan Brink, poet Peter Anderson, and heart transplant recipient Stanley Henkeman to try to tease out the different disciplinary perspectives on the heart and heart transplantation. This is the seventh video in Week 1 of the Medicine and the Arts Massive Open Online Course.
- ItemOpen AccessMedicine and the Arts Week 1 - The heart of art and literature(2015-01-21) Anderson, PeterIn this video, the poet Peter Anderson discusses the heart from a literary perspective, in terms of metaphor and symbolism. He argues that the heart has been used as a metaphor for life in literature and art for centuries but that heart transplants challenge our traditional understanding of the heart as a symbol of the self. This is the fifth video in Week 1 of the Medicine and the Arts Massive Open Online Course.
- ItemOpen AccessShaping Spirits, or, Imagination and "Abstruse Research": the perils of metaphysics and Coleridge's loss of form in the years of his philosophical accomplishment(2010) Nicol, Timothy Keith; Anderson, PeterThe mystical nature of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poems, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 'Christabel' and 'Kubla Khan' has intrigued readers for over two centuries. Of these full poems only the "Rime" is complete and yet they all still enjoy the scrutiny of a wide audience. This thesis examines the circumstances surrounding Coleridge's inability to continue writing such poems of imaginative force.
- ItemOpen AccessThe stories we tell ourselves: Joan Didion on the romantic fantasies of reality(2021) Nicholson, Sabrina Sky; Anderson, PeterThis dissertation attempts to showcase the ways in which Joan Didion employs metaphoric prose to expose the “romantic fantasies” in the creative nonfiction works of Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) and The Year of Magical Thinking (2005). I propose that a reading of these romantic fantasies is dependent on the distinction between “romantic” (lower case) and “Romantic” (capitalized). While Didion explores “romantic” fantasies of contemporary American existence that consist of society's idealized notions of reality, happiness and morality, I simultaneously argue the extent to which she borrows sentiments from the Romantic period in her writing, further strengthening her thematic content that deals with the notion of disorder. I showcase her use of literary techniques as well as popular ideologies essential to Romanticism, such as the emphasis on introspection and the imagination. This dissertation departs from J.R.R. Tolkien's (1947) theories on fantasy which portrays the imagination of an individual as a reflection of one's desires. This serves to offer some justification underlying the basis of romantic fantasies, illustrated by Didion's own personal account of her subjection to magical thinking — a type of thinking rooted in James George Frazer's theoretical framework of Sympathetic Magic (1911). The significance of this is to demonstrate what Sara Ahmed (2010) rationalizes as society's estrangement from happiness in the pursuit of an idealized version of happiness that is only accessible through one's imaginative capacities. Through a literary analysis of Didion's metaphoric prose, I employ Mark Muggli's (1987) analysis of Didion's use of emblem as extreme in its power to transcend the confines of her narratives in a process that demands a cognitive interpretation from her reader. I argue that her metaphoric prose, embedded in emblematic imagery, affords the reader a sense of agency in contributing their own perspectives in the decoding of her language that she leaves, at times, quite ambiguous, allowing for the reader to form their own deductions. Through this, I offer an alternative perspective to reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The Year of Magical Thinking, arguing that Didion's writing is inherently “Romantic” in its quest to make sense of the world and of the human condition. I suggest that readers of Didion should dissect her sentences, question her meanings and contribute towards her narrative with their own opinions, while using her emblems as a reference to relate, contrast and compare their own life experiences.
- ItemOpen AccessTranslation x Poetry x Gender: A Queer-Feminist Analysis of Afrikaans Poems with English Translations (2018)(2022) van Der Hoven, Shane; Anderson, Peter; Busuku, SindiswaThis study examines the treatment of gender-related elements and the presence/ absence of practices associated with Queer-Feminist translations in Afrikaans Poems with English Translations (2018) – an anthology edited by H.P. van Coller, Helize van Vuuren, and Louise Viljoen. After presenting structural and critical motivations for the studying of anthologies of Afrikaans-English poetry translations and mapping a conceptualization of Queer-Feminist translations and gender-sensitive translational analyses, descriptive and comparative analyses and critical discussions of the relevant translations in Afrikaans Poems with English Translations (2018) are offered. Significant translational patterns noted during our readings include: the minor presence of collaborative and plural translations, limited efforts at contextualization, the unbalanced privileging of ‘masculine' linguistic elements, the erasure and/ or reduction of ‘feminine' and ‘queer' signifiers, the utilization of gender-inclusive pronouns, but also the countering of gender-sensitive and gender-inclusive discourse components and opportunities. It is acknowledged that the individual translational choices might seem trivial when parochially separated from the other choices discernible in the text; however, when read together, especially as motivated by the anthologized and parallel nature of the text and its claims regarding ‘representativeness', the text's disproportionate presentation of heteropatriarchal ideologies and traditions (articulated via the exhibited translation choices and practices) call for a greater inclusion of Queer-Feminist translation practices. Additionally, on par with a Queer-Feminist tradition of answering to lexical gaps, this project contains a subsection that motivates for the inclusion of the term ‘kweer' in the Afrikaans lexicon. Finally, in an attached appendix, an exercise in performing a QueerFeminist translation process is also posed.
- ItemOpen AccessUNCAGING CICADAS: Lover, Beloved, and Reader in Contemporary Love Poetry(2022) Murie, Alexander; Anderson, PeterIn this thesis, I read a selection of North American contemporary poets – namely John Ashbery, Anne Carson, Robert Duncan, Craig Dworkin, Robert Kendall, Jackson Mac Low, Romy Achituv and Camille Utterback – in the context of the tradition of love poetry and the overarching critical discourses offered by Erik Gray's. The Art of Love Poetry, Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet, and Roland Barthes's A Lover's Discourse. I argue that the lover-poets, in these poems, attempt to overcome what Anne Carson calls the “inevitable […] boundary of flesh and self between [the beloved] and [the lover]” by placing the lover – ontologically and at times physically – in the beloved, then in turn placing the beloved in the lover, each internalizing their other. Additionally, I argue that the lover-poet integrates the reader into the circuit of desire, as subtly as the variable pronoun ‘you' and as brazenly as overt gestures that construe her as an actor in the text and in the affair between the lover and the beloved of the text. The lover-poet draws the reader into his amorous geometry – a triangle of lover, beloved and reader – and into a “dance in which everyone moves” (as Carson writes).
- ItemOpen AccessWoolf's philosophy of literary subjectivity : Virginia Woolf's 'To the lighthouse' and Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist theory(2011) Bonner, Sarah K; Anderson, PeterSartre's theory of existentialism is used as a lens to interpret Woolf's approach to literature as the philosophy of "literary subjectivity." The notion of subjectivity is explored within theoretical existentialism and then applied to Woolf's life and her moment of awakening to subjectivity. To the Lighthouse is examined theoretically and textually to demonstrate Woolf's philosophy of literary subjectivity.