Browsing by Subject "Language and Literature"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Abjection in the novels of Marlene Van Niekerk
    (2013) Crous, Matthys Lourens; Higgins, John
    In this thesis, three of Marlene van Niekerk's novels, translated from Afrikaans into English, are examined, with the focus on the representation of abjection in the texts under discussion.The theoretical point of departure of this study is Julia Kristeva's essay Powers of horror (1982), which addresses, in particular, the notion of abjection and how certain abject elements play a pivotal role in people's everyday lives. From a psychoanalytic perspective, abjection is viewed as a revolt against the mother and foregrounds particularly the influence of the maternal body over the subject. In this instance, the subject desires liberation from the hold of the maternal and seeks to subject the mother to abjection. Bodily fluids seeping out of the body, diseases, viruses, dirt and death (and in particular the corpse) are all elements that are encompassed in the concept of abjection. Manifestations of abjection in the form of the abject mother, abject spaces, abject bodies and the link between abjection and filth are comparatively analysed in the three texts. The thesis concludes by showing that Van Niekerk deliberately inscribes elements of the abject into her texts so as to transgress and deconstruct the norms associated with a patriarchal and racist society in South Africa. Van Niekerk also undermines the norms that underpin such a society: religious indoctrination, gender oppression and Othering. By writing her novel Triomf (1999) in a demotic register, Van Niekerk furthermore questions the prevalent assumptions about what is deemed proper language for writing a novel. Writing, for her, thus serves the purposes of abjecting, of rejecting the impositions of the symbolic order. Following the publication of her first collection of short stories, Die Vrou wat haar verkyker vergeet het [The woman who forgot her binoculars] in 1992, there was general consensus that the baroque nature of the language resulted in reader resistance to the text. This explains why she decided to write her first novel in the crude and obscene language of a low-class family, the Benades of Triomf.
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    An analysis of the causes and consequences of conflict and violence in A.C. Jordan's The Wrath of the Ancestors and R.L. Peteni's Hill of Fools
    (2017) Yola, Ziyanda; Possa-Mosothoane, Rethabile
    South Africa is one of the countries with high rates of violence in the world. The beginning of high rates of conflict and violence in South Africa can be traced as far back as the 17th century. During this era seven wars were fought in this country. The apartheid that was later experienced in South Africa also contributed to South Africa's high rates of violence. Violence is still a prominent issue in this country. In 2012 violence occurred in Lonmin Platinum mine in Marikana and in 2015 foreign nationals also experienced violence in South Africa. Morovere, the rates of violence against women and children remain high even after all the awareness and efforts to reduce it. This thesis deals with the causes of conflict and violence in South Africa particularly and in Africa in general. This is done by analyzing The wrath of the ancestors by A.C Jordan and Hill of fools by R.L Peteni as a case study. The two selected novels are going to be analysed using quantitative research methodology. The study maintains that literature is a reflection of reality and therefore the conflict and violence in the two novels is treated as a true reflection of conflict and violence in South Africa.
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    Bantu and Nilotic children' s singing games : a comparative study of their value communication
    (2009) Weche, Michael Oyoo; Nyamende, Abner
    This study is based on the premise that Luo and Luhya children's singing games are creative works that subtly reflect the aesthetics of the two communities. The aim is to critically examine how the performance of the singing games and their texts reflect the aspirations, norms and values of the macro cultures of the two Nilotic and Bantu communities respectively. The sampled singing games include those done in the traditional setting, sung in vernacular and those that are taken from the urban or cosmopolitan settings.
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    L'idéologie d'Ousmane Sembène : de l'œuvre écrite À l'œuvre filmée
    (2008) Vrancken, Maria do Céu Oliveira; Wynchank, Anny
    Of the eighteen films produced by the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène, five are adaptations of his novels and novellas. In the case of Guelwaar, his sixth and last adaptation, it is the novel which he adapted to the film of the same name. Sembène, who considered himself to be a "modem griot", felt that cinema was a more effective medium to reach his people and deliver his message. Once copies of all six films had been obtained, two with great difficulty as they were never commercially released, the cinematic techniques which Sembène used to convey his ideology were carefully studied and then compared to the literary techniques utilised in his writings.
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    Oral literature and the communication of change and innovations in Kenya
    (2003) Waita, Zachary Njogu; Satyo, Sizwe
    The major object of pursing this study was to understand how oral literature has been used in the communication of change and innovations in Kenya. The study focuses attention on Central Province of Kenya. In the work, oral literature has been studied as a literary media delineating the genre's communicative role in relationship to messages in social-cultural, political and health fields. In this study, we begin from understanding the traditional context and the literary content of the study sample and proceed to analyze and discuss the new and innovative messages communicated by the genre. In the course of the work, oral literature emerges as continually changing and adapting to the social, historical and health challenges that confront the people of the Central Province of Kenya. The primary sources of data used for analysis in this study have been from the Kikuyu people of Central Kenya. Oral texts were recorded and sourced from oral artists, composers and storytellers during fieldwork in this region. Oral narratives, oral poetry in the form of songs, proverbs and oral dramas constitute the main data used for analysis in this study. We have also used in the analysis a few texts from secondary sources. The texts are analyzed as literary genres that are culture-bound. Interviews provided useful collaborative and augmentative data for the study. We have four broad categories of classifying content in our analysis. These include: (i) courtship, marriage and family, (ii) social construction of gender, and (iii) politics and governance and (iv) HIV/AIDS communication. Oral literature among the Kikuyu emerges in this study as a genre that continues to communicate normative values while at the same time exploring new contradictions that have affected the various institutions of courtship, marriage and family. The study also indicates that oral literature continues to play a visible role in gender socialization validating disparate roles for men and women. The genre contributes to the gender debate by extracting a multiplicity of standpoints on gender relations. At the same time, it emerges a medium of contesting not only traditional gender values but also the emerging modernist positions. Over the last century, oral literature also emerges as having played a key role in communicating change and innovations in the politics and governance of Kenya. The resilient nature of the genre is further demonstrated in this study by the way oral literature has responded to HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. In confronting this relatively new phenomenon, oral literature becomes a tool that helps the people in conceptualizing and protecting themselves against the disease. The conclusions that we draw from this study is that oral literature continues to play a significant role in social communication in spite of various technological and literacy changes that have taken place in Kenya. The genre is constantly being created and recreated to serve specific needs and to respond to the crises of the moment.
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    The role of prayer in Shakespeare's plays
    (2017) Bates, Lauren Catherine; Higginbotham, Derrick; Chidester, David
    There has been a turn to religion in Shakespeare Studies by scholars like Kastan, Swift and Shugar in recent years, and this turn has uncovered a wealth of insight that had previously been obscured. I contribute to this recovery of the spiritual dimension of Shakespeare's work by tackling the question of what prayer does in his plays. I place these performed prayers in their historical and theological contexts, as well as analyse their roles dramatically and thematically within the plays. Prayer as a dramatic form is unique in that it falls between a dialogue and a monologue, pointing to something different in terms of rhetoric and content. Characters evoke an invisible being to whom they bare their souls, and the audience is privy to this conversation but not addressed by it. Awareness is created of something other, something beyond, filling the space of the stage with the suggestion of an alternate reality, another terrain beyond the earthly realm. Prayer is a conduit between characters and this alternate reality, a conduit through which multiple human impulses are conducted. I focus specifically on how filial attachment, erotic desire, violence, and visions of citizenship are conducted via prayer, and what happens when any of these impulses and visions is misdirected. Through the ability of prayer to conduct this array of human impulses, I demonstrate Shakespeare's complex engagement with the metaphysical realm, especially as his plays dramatize characters' move to embrace the divine.
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    Uses and Gratifications of Computers in South African Elderly People
    (2015) Bosch, Tanja; Currin, Bronwyn
    Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted with residents at an old-aged home in Cape Town, South Africa, this study examines the main uses and gratifications elderly people get from computers. While the research focus in Africa has been on the health of elderly people, particularly with respect to HIV/AIDS, there is little research into their adoption of new technologies, as the research focus with respect to that topic has been primarily on youth. This study found that the participants use email and social media to maintain contact with family and friends outside of, and sometimes even within the neighborhood. Furthermore, keeping in contact involved not only communication, but also observation of activities - like news, photographs and discussions. Using a uses and gratifications framework, this study found that participants felt connected with society both through their communication with and observation of people, and through keeping themselves informed about news and current interest topics. By using the Internet the elderly people communicated with more people than they had before. Some of the participants felt less isolated and lonely because of their computer use. Nevertheless, use of computers did not weaken their interpersonal contact outside of computer use. A partir de entrevistas en profundidad, realizadas en un hogar de la tercera edad en Ciudad del Cabo (Sudáfrica), este estudio analiza los principales usos y gratificaciones que reciben las personas mayores en interacción con los ordenadores. En África, mientras el énfasis investigador se ha puesto en los últimos años en la salud de los mayores, especialmente en cuanto al SIDA, existe muy poca investigación sobre el uso de los mayores en cuanto a nuevas tecnologías, ya que la investigación en relación con las mismas se ha centrado principalmente en la juventud. En este estudio se halló que los participantes utilizan el correo electrónico y las redes sociales para mantener el contacto con familiares y amigos y a veces incluso con su vecindario. Además, mantener el contacto suponía no solo comunicación, sino también observación de actividades, como noticias, fotografías y conversaciones. En el contexto de los usos y gratificaciones, el trabajo ha evidenciado que los participantes se sentían conectados con la sociedad, tanto por su comunicación como por la observación de las personas, y por mantenerse informados de las noticias y los temas de interés actuales. Mediante el uso de Internet, las personas de edad avanzada se comunicaban mucho más de lo que antes se habían comunicado con otras personas. Algunos de los participantes se sentían menos aislados y solos, debido a su uso del ordenador. Sin embargo, se demostró también que el uso de los ordenadores no obstaculizó los contactos interpersonales tradicionales.