Submitted in the partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of African Literature University of the Witwatersrand, March 2017 / This research reads the popular literature genre, chick lit, as a site for the elaboration of new forms of womanhood in post-Apartheid South Africa and through an analysis of the novel Happiness is a Four-Letter Word seeks to discover how new constructs of black female identity in the genre of chick lit disrupt as well as extend earlier representations of female experience in South Africa. The literary aspect of this research is essentially a genre study that attempts to identify how we recognize genre. Chick lit was initially read as a homogenously white normative genre, it was imagined, theorized and researched through the western gaze to the exclusion of other races and classes. This research rejects this essentialism of gender and as such recognizes that when addressing gender in Africa not only race and class need to be contextualized but further historical and cultural contexts are fundamental when constructing the black woman’s subjectivity. Postfeminism is understood as a modern social sensibility declaring that women are ‘now empowered,’ and celebrating and encouraging their consequent ‘freedom’ to return to normatively feminine pursuits. There is a growing field of research around postfeminism and chick lit pertaining to black African women and this is where this research locates itself. By positioning existing western literature, on chick lit, in dialogue with scholarship around chick lit in Africa, a transnational analytic and methodological approach to the critical study of chick lit and postfeminism can be made. Chick lit signals a transition for black women living in post-Apartheid South Africa, one of upward social mobility. This research looks at the contradictory space that black middleclass women occupy in this transition. There is a spectral ‘other’ that restricts black women in fully expressing their agency in the private sphere despite the progress made for women on a national scale. This I have called ‘the Ghost of the Township.’ I explore the extent to which the narrative opens up alternative avenues for writers to represent women’s interests. The author, Cynthia Jele, like other authors writing chick lit about black African women, illustrates how women writers can rethink and reposition the roles of women as they continue to live in patriarchal societies that marginalize and oppress them. In this research, I endeavor to explore if and how these new roles for women create contradictory zones for women by at once empowering and oppressing them. I also ask to what extent things have changed for black women and examine the effects of these changes. / XL2018

O objetivo desta dissertação de Mestrado é analisar a representação da violência por J.M. Coetzee nos romances Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) e Disgrace (1999), o primeiro escrito numa época de grandes convulsões sociais na África do Sul devido, especialmente, à implantação do grande apartheid; e o segundo, logo após o fim do regime e a eleição do primeiro presidente negro sul-africano. Nossa pesquisa visa analisar a forma de representar o mal em épocas distintas da história do país, buscando apreender o determinismo histórico presente na construção de ambos os romances, bem como a posição do autor frente aos movimentos ocorridos na sociedade sul-africana, cujas transformações profundas ocorridas no período que vai da publicação de um romance à do outro afetaram diretamente o poder da antiga classe dominante, à qual pertence o escritor. Concluímos que a violência representada em Waiting for the Barbarians prenuncia os eventos de Disgrace, em que, segundo o narrador deste último, a história completa seu círculo. Waiting for the Barbarians apresenta a história de um Império que está se construindo ao mesmo tempo em que pavimenta o caminho de sua própria queda. Em Disgrace, de forma bastante pessimista, o autor traz ao leitor os elementos geradores da violência na atual sociedade sul-africana, propondo a negociação como a única saída para seus conterrâneos brancos que optaram por lá ficar. / The objective of this M.A. dissertation is to analyze J. M. Coetzees representation of violence in the novels Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) e Disgrace (1999); the former was written at a time of great social upheaval in South Africa, mostly due to the institution of the Great Apartheid, and the latter, immediately after the end of the regime and the election of the first Black South-African president. This research aims at analyzing the manner in which evil is represented at different times in the history of the country, attempting to capture the historical determinism present in both novels, as well as the authors position on the movements which occurred within South-African society, whose profound transformations, in the period between the publications of both novels, directly affected the power of the former ruling class, of which the author is a member. The conclusion is that the violence depicted in Waiting for the Barbarians foreshadows the events in Disgrace, in which, according to its narrator, history completes its cycle. Waiting for the Barbarians presents the story of an empire which is building itself at the same time it paves the way to its own fall. In Disgrace, in a severely pessimistic manner, the author brings to the reader the elements which have generated the violence in the current South-African society, proposing negotiation as the only answer for his White peers who decided to remain in the country.

Thesis advisor: Régine Jean-Charles / Practice whereby a host (the one who receives) open his/her door to a guest (the one who is either invited or simply received), hospitality is nowadays under fire as the migrant crisis unfolds the plight of countless strangers who, at the end of their perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, come and knock at the doors of Europe, in particular France—birthplace of the Rights of Man. Taking the stand of Louis de Jaucourt on the socio-political challenges of hospitality outlined in his 18th century French article, Hospitalité, as the point of departure of our study, we focus on how hospitality intersects with social criticism through the person of the stranger in the following corpus of literary texts, which spans from the 18th to the 20th century: 1. Lettres persanes (Montesquieu), Lettres philosophiques (Voltaire), and L’Ile des Esclaves (Marivaux); 2. L’Ingénu (Voltaire), Lettres d’une Péruvienne (Françoise de Graffigny), and Ourika (Claire de Duras) ; 3. La Noire de… (Sembène Ousmane), and Xavier, le drame d’un émigré Antillais (Tony Delsham). Here, we enter in dialogue with Julia Kristeva’s essay, Etrangers à nous-mêmes, namely the chapter she writes about philosophers of the Enlightenment: L’Etranger : alter ego du philosophe. She argues that, as a satirical modus operandi, these philosophers withdraw behind the figure of the stranger, who then becomes their “double”, their “mask” (196). We show that Kristeva’s argument is not only limited to the works of 18th century French philosophers, but also to those of their literary heirs, who ascribe rather to the “mask” of the stranger of color, and moreover the hospitality he/she receives in France, as a satirical tool to lay bare the flaws of their own society. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures.

Explorar outros caminhos, até agora pouco seguidos, no intuito de participar de forma pertinente do debate acerca da inteligibilidade de Macunaíma de Mário de Andrade, isto, pode ser considerado o eixo que norteia este estudo comparado. Para levar adiante esta pesquisa comparativa apelamos para Kaydara, não apenas por ser uma obra prima da literatura africana de expressão francesa, mas também porque traz o olhar de dentro para fora de uma sociedade tradicional africana, capaz de dialogar com a literatura brasileira a ponto de lançar luz sobre alguns elementos culturais de origem afro-brasileira presentes nela. Por isso, fomos mergulhar naquilo que a maioria das sociedades africanas considera sua referência na Antiguidade: o Egito Antigo. Agora, quando se põem duas obras de grande valor estético frente a frente, o que sói acontecer é uma ajudar a ler a outra, por isso, nossa abordagem deixa de ser unilateral para privilegiar uma relação de leitura mútua, dando destaque às mais variadas consequências disso. / Explore other ways, until now little followed in order to participate in a meaningful way to the debate about the intelligibility of Macunaíma, this can be taken as the shaft that drives this comparative study. To carry out this comparative research we appeal to Kaydara, not only because it is a masterpiece of african french literature, but also because it brings - the look of the inside of a traditional african society, capable to converse with the brazilian literature, point to shed light on some cultural elements of afro-brazilian origin present in it. So we have been diving in what the vast majority of african societies consider his reference in antiquity: Ancient Egypt. Now, when you put two works of great aesthetic value face to face, which is usually happen is one help to read other, so our approach is no longer unilateral and privilege a relationship of mutual reading, highlighting various consequences.

Na moderna literatura africana, poucos autores se destacam tanto quanto o dramaturgo, poeta, ensaísta, memorialista e ficcionista nigeriano, de origem iorubá, Wole Soyinka, internacionalmente célebre e ganhador do Prêmio Nobel de Literatura em 1986. Soyinka é conhecido sobretudo como dramaturgo, e seu teatro se caracteriza pelo uso de uma variedade de gêneros literários, formas, linguagens extraliterárias, como a dança e a música, e outros recursos relacionados à cultura iorubá. A obra de Soyinka, escrita em inglês, incorpora tanto elementos das literaturas ocidentais quanto das africanas, e seu inglês é marcado pela constante visitação da oralidade iorubá em provérbios, metáforas e fragmentos de poemas tradicionais assim como sua dramaturgia incorpora elementos do teatro tradicional de seu povo. Acima de tudo, seus enredos, que incluem temas atuais como corrupção, lutas por poder e conflitos entre o indivíduo e seu grupo, estão alicerçados na visão de mundo e cosmogonia iorubá, contendo ainda diversas referências mitológicas e rituais. Em outras palavras, Wole Soyinka se caracteriza, antes de tudo, como um escritor iorubá, cuja obra, cosmopolita em seus temas e conflitos, encontra suas raízes e enquadramento filosófico na visão de mundo de seu povo. É nessa forte presença de elementos iorubás que se encontra um dos maiores interesses das obras de Wole Soyinka para o Brasil. Sabemos que, nos últimos tempos, está havendo uma considerável valorização de elementos de origem africana presentes na cultura nacional, dentre eles, os encontrados nas religiões de matriz africana, que se mostram verdadeiros repositórios de mitos e símbolos de grande riqueza semântica. Tais mitos e símbolos presentes nessas religiões são majoritariamente de origem iorubá. Ler a obra de Soyinka no Brasil, portanto, é buscar uma nova forma de se relacionar com esses elementos e de valorizá-los em sua dimensão literária. Entre as peças de Wole Soyinka, a mais conhecida é provavelmente Death and the King’s Horseman, publicada em 1975 e com diversas realizações teatrais na Nigéria, Estados Unidos e Reino Unido. Baseada em uma situação real na Nigéria colonial, em que um costume do povo iorubá entrou em conflito com a ordem britânica, tal peça é aquela em que visão de mundo e mitologia iorubá estão mais bem articuladas com uma linguagem rica em gêneros e fragmentos da literatura oral iorubá, sendo particularmente proveitosa para uma aproximação cultural. Esta tese oferece uma análise da peça baseada em noções da cultura, da mitologia e da visão de mundo iorubá e nas teorias estéticas e metafísicas do próprio Wole Soyinka. Destacam-se nesta análise os aspectos simbólicos, míticos e metafísicos, assim como os estéticos. Essa análise é precedida de um estudo sobre dimensões da cultura iorubá importantes para o entendimento da peça, tais como história, religião, mitologia, filosofia e artes. Em seguida, as teorias estéticas de Wole Soyinka são estudadas sobre o pano de fundo das discussões literárias vigentes na África no período em que Soyinka engendrava tais teorias. É a partir desses elementos que a peça é analisada. Acima de tudo, esta tese oferece uma tradução de Death and the King’s Horseman que busca valorizar seu conteúdo lírico, suas várias linguagens e suas perspectivas filosóficas, com base nos estudos que foram feitos nos capítulos precedentes, concluindo a tese com observações sobre o processo de tradução. / In modern African literature, few authors stand out as much as the Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, memorialist, and novelist, of Yoruba origin, Wole Soyinka, internationally acknowledged as the winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. Soyinka is known above all as a playwright, and his theatre is characterized by the use of a variety of literary genres, forms, extra-literary languages, such as dance and music, and other resources related to Yoruba culture. Soyinka’s work, written in English, includes elements from both Western and African literatures, and his English is marked by the constant presence of Yoruba orality in proverbs, metaphors and fragments of traditional poems as much as his dramaturgy embodies elements of the traditional theatre of his people. Above all, his plots, in such current themes as corruption, struggle for power and conflicts between individual and the community, are stippled on Yoruba worldview and cosmogony, containing as well many mythological and ritual references. In other words, Wole Soyinka characterizes himself, above all, as a Yoruba writer, whose work finds its roots and philosophical framework in the worldview of his people. It is in the strong presence of Yoruba elements in virtually all the ambits that we find one of the greatest interests of Soyinka’s works for Brazil. It is well-known that, in later years, there has been an increasing valuation and interest for elements of African origin in national culture, including those found in African-Brazilian religions, which are actually pools of myths and symbols of great semantic wealth. These myths and symbols found in those religions are, in their majority, of Yoruba origin. Reading Soyinka’s works in Brazil, therefore, is a way of relating to these elements and valuing them in their literary dimension. Among Soyinka’s works, the best-known is probably Death and the King’s Horseman, published in 1975 and with many productions in Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom. Based on an actual event that took place in colonial Nigeria, in which a Yoruba native habit conflicted with the British rule, this play is the one in which Yoruba mythology and worldview are best articulated with language that is rich in genres and fragments of Yoruba oral literature, being particularly fruitful for a cultural encounter. This dissertation offers an analysis of the play base on notions of Yoruba culture, mythology, and worldview and on Soyinka’s own aesthetic and metaphysical theories. This analysis highlights the symbolical, mythical and metaphysical, as well as aesthetic aspects. It is preceded by a study on important dimensions of Yoruba culture for the understanding of the play, such as history, religion, mythology, philosophy and arts. After that, Wole Soyinka’s aesthetic theories are studied against the background of the current literary discussions in Africa at the time. It is from these elements that the play is studied. Above all, this dissertation offers a translation of Death and the King’s Horseman that values its lyrical content, its many artistic languages and its philosophical perspectives based on the studies conducted in previous chapters and concluding with observations about the translation process.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this research explores Zimbabwean literary and other cultural texts within the broader context of the construction of identities and the politics of inclusion and exclusion in nationalist and oppositional discourses. It also analyzes two texts by major non-Zimbabwean African writers to examine the thematic links between Zimbabwean and other African writing. Through combining historical, anthropological and political approaches with postcolonial, postmodern and feminist critical theories, the thesis explores the ways in which African writing and performance represent alternative histories to official versions of the nation. It further investigates questions of gender and their significance in nationalist discourses and shows how writing on war, trauma and healing informs and develops readers’ understanding of the relationship of the past to the present. Considered together as a coherent body of work, the published items submitted in this thesis explore how Zimbabwean and other African writers, through re-visioning history and writing from oppositional or marginal positions, intervene in political debates and suggest new transformative ways of constructing and negotiating identities in postcolonial societies.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages )) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / Refer to the document

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / The main aim of this study is to evaluate protest poetry in Mihloti (1981) and Xikolokolo nguvu ya Pitori (1987) by J.M. Magaisa with special references to theme, subject matter and the use of figures of speech.. Chapter 1 indicates the aim of the study, motivation, statement of the problem, research methodology, literature review and the key concepts which are used in this research. Chapter 2 explains the themes of the protest poetry in Magaisa’s poetry. In some explanation of the themes, some of the figures of speech have been used with the aim of making readers to understand his poetry. Chapter 3 indicates the modes of expression in Magaisa’ protest poetry. Some of the figures of speech and difficult terms have been explained in this chapter make people to understand them. Chapter 4 is the general conclusion which indicates the findings of the research and recommendations for further researches. / The University of Limpopo and C.S.D.

In my dissertation project, I engage in a discursive analysis of whiteness to examine how it influences postcolonial modes of self-styling. Critical whiteness studies often focuses on representations of whiteness in the West as well as on whiteness as physical—as white bodies and white people. I focus on representations and functions of whiteness outside of the West, particularly in relation to issues of belonging and modes of postcolonial identification. I examine Anglophone African literary representations of whiteness from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to query how whiteness both enables and undermines anticolonial consciousness. A central question I examine is, How does whiteness as a symbolic manifestation function to constitute postcolonial African identification? Scholarship on the topic of subjectivity and liberation needs to explicitly examine how whiteness intersects with key notions of modernity, such as race, class, progress, and self-determination. Through an examination of postcolonial African literary representations of whiteness, I aim to examine the aspirations, unpacked stereotypes, and fears that move us as readers and hail us as human subjects. Ultimately, through this work, I grapple with the question of identification, understood as the system of desires, judgments, images, and performances that constitute our experiences of being human. I begin by looking backward at the satirical play, “The Blinkards,” written in 1915 in the context of British colonization of the Gold Coast in West Africa (present-day Ghana), to develop an understanding of postcolonial identification that includes an examination of the artistic expression of a writer conceptualizing liberation through notions of cultural nationalism. I go on to examine a selection postcolonial African literatures to develop an understanding of how racialized socio-cultural realities constitute forms of self-hood in post-independence contexts. I hope to use my argument about representations of whiteness in African literatures to open up questions fundamental to contemporary theories of identification in postcolonial contexts, as well as to make a philosophical argument about the ethics of whiteness as it undergirds transnational modes of modernity. One main point I make in relation to postcolonial theories of subjectivity is that notions of identification are tied up in local, regional, and global circuits of capital and cultural production. In chapter 2, I look at an early (Grain of Wheat 1967) and recent novel (Wizard of the Crow 2006) by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Kenya), who locates African postcolonial subjectivity as deeply embedded in local traditions, myths, and storytelling circuits. By fluidly mixing the contexts of the local, the national, and the global, Ngũgĩ astutely challenges naturalized conventions that position black identities and blackness as always inferior to whiteness. Ngũgĩ represents postcolonial consciousness as a space whose local relationships are deeply informed by global structures of race, economics, and politics. Situating African postcolonial identification within global circuits of migration, capitalism, and colonialism, Ngũgĩ engages the pervasive significance of whiteness through representations of sickness and desire, suggesting that postcolonial identification is performed through beliefs and practices that are situated within a global racial hierarchy. From there I go on to analyze a contemporary short story cycle by post-apartheid generation South African writer Siphiwo Mahala. Through his work, I continue to explore the issue of performative identification constituted through desire and aspirational notions in which whiteness works as a moving signifier of cultural and social capital. The main question I address in this chapter is, What is the meaning of whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa? Through this examination, I use my analysis of representations of whiteness to reflect on the politics of entanglement as a way to move beyond racialized and geographic modes of identification, to challenge conceptual boundaries that undergird modernity, and theoretical possibilities of a politics of entanglement in relation to broader issues of identification and belonging in postcolonial contexts.

<p>&nbsp / </p> <p>&nbsp / </p> <p align="left">In my thesis entitled &lsquo / African Tradition and Modernity in Zakes Mda&rsquo / s <i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The Heart of Redness&rsquo / </font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">, I analyze the way Western modernity and African traditions interact in Mda&rsquo / s novel. I suggest that both modernity and tradition interact to produce a hybrid culture. This will become apparent in my analysis of the way Mda depicts the cattlekilling episode and the effects of Nongqawuse&rsquo / s prophecy, and also in the novel&rsquo / s contemporary characters. Mda shows the development of an African modernity through the semi-autobiographical figure of Camagu who is not slavishly indebted to Western ideas of progress, but is a hybrid of African values and a modern identity.</font></font></i></p> <p align="left">&nbsp / </p>