Experiments in inhumanity

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorPretorius, Werneren_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-12-31T19:32:28Z
dc.date.available2014-12-31T19:32:28Z
dc.date.issued2008en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes abstract.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractExperiments in Inhumanity utilises for its setting the recognisable suburban backdrop of a mid to late nineties and early 21st century Cape Town and Pretoria. It focuses its attention around a specific white, middle class experience within pop-culture, making many references to music, television and film. In so doing it enters the debate as to how influential pop culture may be on teen behaviour, such as violence within relationships and peer groups. It throws elements like morose suburban existence, family dynamics and dysfunctional behaviour (specifically of a sexual nature) into the melting pot and attempts thereby to illustrate a fictional situation, which illuminates how youth culture might produce juvenile delinquency. It follows the lives of siblings Michael and Alison and gives a window into the formative years of these characters as they struggle to find and sustain meaningful relationships. The characters' problems stem from a sexually traumatic incident in childhood. The novel investigates how, faced with the same starting point, the two characters achieve vastly different outcomes. The novel uses German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of Eternal Recurrence as a motif, suggesting a repetitive, cyclical experience in the lives of the characters. It supposes a finite set of events recurring over an infinite time span. It also experiments with narrative structure, breaking up a predictable - or expected - chronology while still attempting to retain a well-structured, suspenseful plot. The seemingly out-of-sync chronology has the purpose of reflecting the confusion inherent in the lives of the characters, as they attempt to reconstruct or extract meaning from a tortured existence.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationPretorius, W. (2008). <i>Experiments in inhumanity</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10702en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationPretorius, Werner. <i>"Experiments in inhumanity."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10702en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationPretorius, W. 2008. Experiments in inhumanity. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Pretorius, Werner AB - Experiments in Inhumanity utilises for its setting the recognisable suburban backdrop of a mid to late nineties and early 21st century Cape Town and Pretoria. It focuses its attention around a specific white, middle class experience within pop-culture, making many references to music, television and film. In so doing it enters the debate as to how influential pop culture may be on teen behaviour, such as violence within relationships and peer groups. It throws elements like morose suburban existence, family dynamics and dysfunctional behaviour (specifically of a sexual nature) into the melting pot and attempts thereby to illustrate a fictional situation, which illuminates how youth culture might produce juvenile delinquency. It follows the lives of siblings Michael and Alison and gives a window into the formative years of these characters as they struggle to find and sustain meaningful relationships. The characters' problems stem from a sexually traumatic incident in childhood. The novel investigates how, faced with the same starting point, the two characters achieve vastly different outcomes. The novel uses German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of Eternal Recurrence as a motif, suggesting a repetitive, cyclical experience in the lives of the characters. It supposes a finite set of events recurring over an infinite time span. It also experiments with narrative structure, breaking up a predictable - or expected - chronology while still attempting to retain a well-structured, suspenseful plot. The seemingly out-of-sync chronology has the purpose of reflecting the confusion inherent in the lives of the characters, as they attempt to reconstruct or extract meaning from a tortured existence. DA - 2008 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2008 T1 - Experiments in inhumanity TI - Experiments in inhumanity UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10702 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/10702
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationPretorius W. Experiments in inhumanity. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2008 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10702en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherCreative Writingen_ZA
dc.titleExperiments in inhumanityen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
thesis_hum_2008_pretorius_w (1).pdf
Size:
8.73 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
Masters