Fictional Constructions of Grey Street by Selected South African Indian Writers. This thesis explores the fictional constructions of Grey Street by selected South African Indian writers to establish a deeper understanding of the connection between writers, place and identity in the South African Indian context. The concepts of 'place' and 'space' are of particular importance to this thesis. Michel Foucault's (1980) theories on space and power, Frantz Fanon's (1952) work on the connection between race and spatial politics, and Pierre Bourdieu's (1990) concept of 'habitus' are drawn on in this thesis in order to understand the ramifications of the spatial segregation of different race groups in colonial and apartheid South Africa. The specific kind of place focused on in this thesis is the city. Foucault's (1977, 1980) theorisation of the Panopticon is used to explain the apartheid government's panoptic planning of the South African city. As a counterpoint to this notion of panoptic urban ordering, Jonathan Raban's Soft City (1974), Michel de Certeau's "Walking in the city" (1984) and Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project (2002) are analysed to explore an alternative way of engaging with city space. These theorists privilege the perspective of the walker in the city, suggesting that the city cannot be governed by top-down urban planning as it is constantly being re-made by the city's pedestrians on the ground. The South African city is an interesting site for a study of this kind as it has, since the colonial era, been an intensely contested space. This dissertation looks primarily at the South African Indian experience of the city of Durban which is a characteristically diasporic one. The theories of diasporic culture by Vijay Mishra (1996) and Avtar Brah (1996) form the foundation for a discussion of the Indian diasporas in the South African colonial and apartheid urban context. Two major Indian diasporic groups are identified: the old Indian diasporas and the new Indian diasporas. Each group experiences the city in different ways which is important in this study which looks at how different Indian diasporic experiences of the city shape the construction of Grey Street in fiction. One of the arenas in which diasporic histories are played out, and thus colonial, nationalist histories are challenged, is the space of fiction, Fiction provides diasporic groups with a textual space in which to record, and thus freeze, their collective memories; memories that are vital in challenging the hegemonic 'nationalist' collective memories often imposed on them. Christopher Shaw and Malcolm Chase's (1989) work on nostalgia is useful in this thesis which proposes that the collective memories of diasporic groups are quintessentially nostalgic. This is significant as the fictional constructions of place in the primary texts selected are remembered and re-membered through a nostalgic lens. The fictional works selected for this thesis include Imraan Coovadia's The Wedding (2001) and Aziz Hassim's The Lotus People (2002). Although other Indian writers have represented Grey Street in their works, including Kesevaloo Goonam in Coolie Doctor (1991), Phyllis Naidoo in Footprints in Grey Street (2002), Mariam Akabor in Flat 9 (2006) and Ravi Govender in Down Memory Lane (2006), the two novels selected respond most fully to the theories raised in this thesis. However, the other texts are referred to in relation to the selected texts in order to get a fuller picture of the Indian South African perspective of Grey Street. The selected primary texts are analysed in this dissertation in their historical context and therefore a brief history of Indians in South Africa is provided. The time period covered ranges from 1886 with the arrival of the first Indian indentured labourers to Natal to present day. Although this thesis focuses largely on the past and present experiences of Indian South Africans in Grey Street, questions are raised regarding future directions in Indian writing in the area. Thus, attention is also given to forthcoming novels by Hassim, Coovadia and Akabor. Research such as I am proposing can contribute to the debate on the cultural representation of urban space in South Africa and hopefully stimulate further studies of Indian literary production centered on writers, place and identity in the country. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

Space can be read through text. Space is also constructed through text. Literary and critical theory has, however, emphasised time over space. However, space, place and location are crucial determining factors in any literary study. Through reference to theories of construction of place as well as writings on spatial history and the city I will discuss how place is created through text and how the urban environment affects literary production. Using the work of Michel Foucault (1986, 2002) on space and power, Michel de Certeau's approach to cities (2002) and WaIter Benjamin's (2002) theories on space, time and the city, as well as South African theoretical approaches to space and the city, I will attempt an analysis of place in chosen pieces of literature set in the postapartheid city by selected writers. I have chosen to focus on the cities of Durban and Johannesburg, and in particular the innercities, because it is here that major transformation in the use and representation of space has occurred. By looking at selected apartheid and postapartheid texts I will be able to analyse how the representation of literary space has altered with political and socio-economic changes. The time period I will look at primarily will be the postapartheid period. The interdisciplinary nature of this project means I will draw from literary criticism, critical theory, geography, sociology and economic history as well as elements of postcolonial and postmodem theory. The South African city today is a post-city; postcolonial and postapartheid. So too, the texts I have selected are post-texts, postmodem and post-struggle and I will conduct my analysis with this in mind. The concept of 'city' in literature is much more than just buildings and streets. It exists also in social relationships and links between people, both in the city and places outside of the city. The city is a set of social, political and cultural conditions that manifests itself in space and it is this aspect of 'city' which is represented in these texts that I will investigate. Through focusing on the autobiography Man Bitch (2001) by Johan van Wyk together with Never Been At Home (2001) by Zazah P. Khuzwayo and No Way Out (2001) by Zinhle Carol Mdakane all set in Durban, and Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) by Phaswane Mpe and the short story "Autopsy" (1996) by Ivan Vladislavic set in Johannesburg, I will investigate the representation of urban space in these texts of postapartheid literature. By way of introduction, I will examine relevant selected apartheid texts that deal with the cities of Durban (Lewis Nkosi's novel Mating Birds (1987)) and Johannesburg (selected poems of Mongane Wally Serote) and I will attempt to construct a literary image of the space of these cities under apartheid. A close reading of the texts selected will construct a clear picture of the current (and past) urban space through the medium of literature. It will be seen that major issues affecting South Africa's city inhabitants emerge as themes: AIDS, crime, migration and architectural degradation drive these narratives as does access to once restricted space. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This dissertation–half of the MA in English Studies by coursework and dissertation–examines selected works of the playwright, poet and novelist, Kendrew Lascelles, who spent his youth and young adulthood in South Africa, and who since the mid-1960s has resided in the United States. The study – the first extended evaluation of Lascelles's work – focuses on those of his plays that feature an African dimension and on his 'post apocalyptic' novel, Tamara Hunney. The argument is that Africa, as a real and symbolic location, persists alongside the US influence in Lascelles's work, whether explicitly, as in his play about living in apartheid South Africa, or by suggestive parallel in his recognition of intercultural potential: for example, his contrast in Tamara Hunney of Los Angeles urban realism and native American ('Red Indian') spiritual redemption; that masculinist worlds (e.g. colonial or apartheid Africa; the US 'wild west', whether past or present) are tempered (educated) through gender sensitivity, or a feminine principle; and that an apparent paradox might but be a paradox in a writer who subscribes to foundational (romantic-conservative) values rather than to the trendy-liberal expositions of a media-saturated American society. The moral vision is captured not only thematically, but is embodied in 'form' as meaning: in surprising shifts of generic convention and style. The study suggests that Kendrew Lascelles's literary work is deserving of serious consideration. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Critical analysis of the theme “Colonisation” in the literary works of Africa: case of Ngemena by Lomami Tchibamba and La Malédiction by Ngandu Nkashama is the title of this thesis. I intend to do a critical analysis of the “colonialism” in African literature with specific reference to Congo. Some African writers, such as Mongo Beti in Pauvre Christ de Bomba, Benjamin Matip in Afrique! Nous t’ignorons, Ferdinand Oyono in Une Vie de boy and so forth made interesting criticisms of colonisation in the continent. But for their part, in spite of the similarity with the other novels, Ngemena and La Malédiction are directly focused on central Africa especially on the country of Congo. The authors mentioned above describe in their novels the effects of colonisation on religious, political and social aspects; meanwhile, in Ngemena, Lomami Tchibamba speaks about the critical periods of his country, Congo: the occupation as well as its effects. This book covers almost the period from 1908 to 1960, which was a very troubled time. But in La Malédiction, Ngandu Nkashama speaks about the deep exploitation of indigenous population in the hard labour in mines. Normally, the two novels Ngemena and La Malédiction complete each other by their relation of facts. Nevertheless, we can say that colonization and negritude are themes well exploited by researchers and authors alike in the second part of the 20th century. In fact, many authors wrote about colonization and their criticisms were rich as well as strong. But sometimes, some of them expressed their opinion in an emotional way so that the content became far from the truth. It is why, Wilberforce Umezinwa in La religion dans la littérature africaine says, in order to render the history most interesting, the narrators are prone to exaggeration: The prose and poetry do not speak generally kindly about the relationship between Africans and Europeans; but these works are filled with a bad mood against Europe, the continent of the missionaries, slave drivers, and colonialists. The relationship Between Europe and Africa is a song of Blues, a song on human distresses (Umezinwa, 1975: 13) (Own translation). Then, the African writer has an essential role in the society: to tell the history with neither bad mood nor exaggeration but with humour, as indicated by Lilyan Kesteloot. In Négritude et situation coloniale, she underlines that African authors write very emotionally when they explain the notion of Colonisation and Négritude. Sartre quoted by the same Lilyan Kesteloot mentioned that this fact is “racism anti-racism” (Kesteloot, 1968: 35, 43). Especially in Ngemena, from time to time, the author goes over the top and makes an exaggeration. In its introduction, Ngemena takes the form of an admonitory part and is written with burning eloquence. It is likely that Lomami Tchibamba had serious hopes of persuading the readers, the Congolese people, of the multiple and hard realities during the colonization period, then implicitly he pushes people to a form of vengeance. But instead of this, the main goal remains: Lomami Tshibamba always keeps his principal theme and responds to many preoccupations such as : -Who is the colonizer? -Why did he come to the country? -How did he convince the indigenous people so that he got in? -What were the circumstances of his entering? By its part in La Malédiction, Ngandu Nkashama tells the atrocity committed by the colonisation in the remote province of Kasai (Bakwanga), particularly, in the diamond mines. The novels such as Citadelle d’espoir by Ngandu Nkashama, Bel Immonde by Valentin Yves Mudimbe, Cité 15 by Charles Djungu Simba, and some articles like “L’affaire Lumumba ou la palabre sur l’indépendance au Congo” of Jean Omasombo Tshonda in Congo Meuse are steeped in the colonial and postcolonial history of Congo and this study, of course, will emphasize many aspects of the colonisation: political, sociological, religious and psychological. To analyse the correlation between the two periods of crucial time in Congo will be the most interesting aspect of this work. Therefore, the novels: Le Vieux nègre et la médaille and Une Vie de Boy of Ferdinand Oyono, La Vie et demie of Sony Labou Tansi, La Ville cruelle of Mongo Beti will be helpful to this framework in illuminating the way of social and religious aspects. Thus, an analysis and interpretation of theses novels constitute a support of large dimension to my study. Furthermore, Ngemena is a book published in 1981 and La Malédiction in 1981 (the same year); the stories seem ancient but keep their originality because of the exploited theme. It is a true historical legacy. In this way, Ngemena and La Malédiction could be considered as “vademecum” and must be read by whoever wants to know and understand the entire topic of colonization in Congo. Their contents confer to them the value of “true teaching books” of the ancient colonial structures. In short, their stories enlighten the long past colonial history; they have a profound didactic value. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994 which irrefutably imposed itself as a reference in history, many books (researches and fiction) were published exposing varied opinions and views. It is an important source which is studied by different fields of knowledge, such as linguistics, literary studies, sociology, psychology and politics. Our study aimed to analyse ties between post-genocide fictional novels on Rwanda and the history of Rwanda. The main objectives of this dissertation (La réécriture de l’histoire du Rwanda à travers la littérature post-génocide. Etude de cas de trois romans africains d’expression française) are to study how knowledge of the history can help to understand these narratives and how these narratives can shed new light on history. In order to analyse this, we did a case study of three representative novels from Francophone Africa which we analysed confronting them to some historical sources. The novels are: - Ndwaniye, Joseph, (2007), La Promesse faite à ma soeur. Bruxelles: Les impressions nouvelles; - Monénembo,Tierno, (2000), L'Aîné des orphelins. Paris: Seuil, and - Diop, Boubacar Boris, (2000), Murambi, le livre des ossements. Paris: Stock. This study is a literary analysis and used a qualitative research method though an interpretive paradigm. As a main output and an answer to one of our research questions about common points between the post-genocide literature on Rwandan and the History of Rwanda, we discovered that in fact by the treatment of time and other writing processes used by the writers, they actually rewrote six important periods in the history of Rwanda: Pre-colonial absolute monarchy, the colonialism, the first and second Republics, the genocide and the post-genocide. These periods are clearly represented in the three novels, even if this may not be the intension of the writer and may be independent to his point of view on history. Matching the present with the past helps to revisit history. It shows how the historical context plays an important role in understanding post-genocide literature on Rwanda, and seen that this literature is discussing the genocide, it ends up delivering some points of view which are important for historians. This may assist in using literature for historical purposes and vice-versa. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

The Central African Republic is a small country located in the center of Africa. It is a very young nation in terms of political independence, but as the CAR emerges as a nation, it has begun to produce valuable authors who write for the French speaking world. This thesis is an attempt to bring part of the CAR's literature to the United States.Le Silence de la Foret was written by Etienne Goyemide and not only describes the culture of the mainstream population of the CAR, but also that of Pygmies. Although the book is a novel, the cultural aspects are not fictitious. This thesis is a translation of Goyemide's novel into English so that it can be made accessible to the English speaking world.The process of translating such a literary work required and increased knowledge and understanding of both French and English. In attempting to capture the style and tone of the author, careful attention was given to such aspects as tense, syntactic structures, register and vocabulary. A chapter of the thesis is devoted to describing the problems encountered during translation and the reasoning for the translations chosen. / Department of English

The condition of women in African societies has always been object of intense discussion The present research takes its move from an analysis of four main literary works in Zulu, and a number of supporting texts, to monitor, as it were, the development of attitudes towards women during the second half of the 20th century. Literature is considered, in fact, a mirror of society. Traditional Southern African society is strongly patriarchal and conservative. A woman's role is generally viewed as the life-giver and the nurturer of the new generation of her husband's offspring. She is in charge of the gardens, where she grows the family food, while her husband is busy with his wars, cattle raiding ventures and politics. Patriarchy may reach severe forms of women oppression through the systems of ilobolo (bride-wealth) and of polygamy, but is also expressed by the exclusion of women from the economic, artistic and legal fields. Forms of freedom - of movement, or sexual or economic - allotted to men are never considered for women. Each of the four chosen texts emphasises one or more aspect of women oppression by the male dominated society, as reflected in popular life at the time of writing. So Uvalo Lwezinhlonzi, written in 1956, is a manifesto for freedom in the choice of a life partner, which is generally obstructed by the father's greed for ilobolo cattle and his ambition to be recognized among the notables of the district. Inkinsela YaseMgungundlovu (1961) fights for women's equal rights in the financial field. NguMbuthuma-ke Lowo (1982) is a desperate cry in the face of abuses in polygamous families. And Ikhiwane Elihle (1985) fights aspects of the new morality that accepts sexual freedom for women, since men also claim such freedom. The thesis is topical, and, to render it even more so, it often avails itself of ideas of feminist writers and critics, although such theories have not touched the nerve of the Zulu public as yet. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of Durban-Westville, 2002

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Murdoch University, 2006. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [137]-146).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-253).