Pyn en patos : 'n ondersoek na die kreatiewe krag van pyn vir die skep van patos in en deur literêre tekste
Doctoral Thesis
2006
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
The title of the study explicates the hypotheses for the research. Through five focuses interactionis revealed. Firstly: By the use of three different "texts", perspectives are opened on the processes of elemental pain as viewed through four lenses, namely the literary, psychoanalytical, theological and anthropological-philosophical lenses. Secondly the Prometheus figure and "Diep Rivier" (Eugene Marais) are used to focus on the creative energy of pain in meaning seeking and primordial pain in the writer. Pathos, thirdly, is portrayed through two literary works, "Vaslav in die Sneeu: 'n Col/age" (Hennie Aucamp) and Die Dood in Venesie (Thomas Mann). Aschenbach, as Romantic Writer and as Romantic Image (Frank Kermode), or as metafictional (Patricia Waugh and Linda Hutcheon) thinker on the roots of the creative process demonstrates tension, suffering, the interaction between fiction and reality, irony, parody, and also distance and involvement to facilitate pathos. Concluding from the texts, a theoretical perspective on pathos is given. The creative force of pain for the reader is fourthlypresented through the diverging use of the Aristotelian catharsis concept demonstrated by the contrasting interaction between two European texts Jacob the Liar (Jurek Becker) and Kreettegang (Gunter Grass) as well as two South African texts, Kanna Hv KG Hvstoe (Adam Small) and A Change of Tongue (Antjie Krog). Fifthly, the interactive process of the creative force of pain from the writer presented in the text and encountered by the reader, is discussed by using an Aristotelian statement. The process is finally demonstrated by a discussion of Die Seemeeu (Chekov). The word striving to create beauty from elemental pain closes the circle to present and substantiate meaning. Through the word the "closed room" of beauty is opened in the text for writer and reader alike to "redeem them from this earthly load o.f certitude and pain". Literary and theoretical texts stretching over centuries are used to explicate how pain is working to create meaning, to read the text of life creatively and to approach life with pathos by which this way of reading literary texts is enhanced.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 293-309).
Reference:
Woest, N. 2006. Pyn en patos : 'n ondersoek na die kreatiewe krag van pyn vir die skep van patos in en deur literêre tekste. University of Cape Town.