Pierrotâs snowy garments with their touch of black, the tragic, frozen mien of the mask above the baggy, over-large habit became a prevailing symbol of artistic expression during the fin de siècle. The silent white-masked figure became the disguise for the artist in assailing and exposing the hypocrisy, complacency and posturing that the artist saw as the masquerade of society. Beneath the clownâs guise the artist could imaginatively act out all the forbidden and darker secrets concealed beneath the inscribed societal conventions of humankind. Pierrot could murder, commit incest, get riotously drunk, rape, be a bigamist, commit suicide, be morbidly depressed, steal, be gluttonous, rage, hate, be excessively carnal or ascetic, a hermaphrodite or androgyne or entirely genderless in his transgression, flouting all and every taboo. Using the mask of the clown as a distancing technique, the artist was vicariously experiencing all that was contrary to the societal mores and laws against which he or she was in rebellion. In this the blending of gender became of paramount importance. The androgyne and the hermaphrodite were, like Pierrot, leading images in the arts of the fin de siècle. They blurred the reality of the division of gender and called into question all the attributes that were apportioned to what was male and what female. Pierrot was seen as partaking of this gender indecision because the sexuality that lay behind the loose white garments was entirely uncertain, as were the lurking carnal appetites of the silvery, moonlit clown. Gender was as ghostly and as paradoxical as the clownâs own nature. Pierrotâs origins in the Commedia dellâarte and his original role as a buffoon had altered by the late-nineteenth century. He had come to represent a silent malevolence and shadowy evil which was subtly contained within the lineaments of his lunar-coloured garments. The pantomime role had involved the challenging and transgressing of boundaries and the world of the demonic was invariably present, though it never triumphed; rather, laughter and love prevailed with repeated beatings and roistering. With the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle the demonic became the prevailing tone, filled with a sardonic bitterness and searing, although hidden pain. Pierrotâs silence and pallor were seen as the ultimate attributes with which to convey the trangressive and mordant nature of the liminal artistic life. The clownâs achromatic colour and his muteness were aspects that resembled the unsullied emptiness of page and canvas, and his mutable, quicksilver nature was as indeterminate and fluid as any interpretation or subjective artistic representation. The artist could thus mould the figure to represent what was wished and in so doing reveal how slippery and subjective any representation is. In the chapters on Giraud, Ensor, Dowson and Beardsley this thesis explores the carnivalesque and transgressive attributes of the wan clown as a central concern in the work of these artists. Kristevan and Bakhtinian theory on the carnivalesque and the relation of language to transgression will structure and guide the tenets and arguments of the thesis. The mutability and fluid metamorphosis from one state to another, disregarding boundaries, is what Pierrot will be seen to do in the works of the chosen artists. Indeterminate gender and lunatic emotions will be shown as essential to the shadowy and insubstantial nature that allows the clown to ignore the extant social morals, laws and boundaries. Giraud, Ensor, Dowson and Beardsley could perhaps be regarded as marginal artists of the late nineteenth century, but considerations of marginality and greatness are based on subjective choice. These artists were a part of the fabric of their time and are strands that braid together the thematic concerns and representations of the fin de siècle, and this gives to their work and importance, however liminal that might be.

Summary South Africa is a country of beauty and violence. Understanding the essence of the country requires a journey into its past to dig up its variety of stories in order to present them in alliance with all the beauty and hardship and cruelty of the surroundings in which they play off. Henk van Woerden undertakes such a journey. Van Woerden�s books Moenie kyk nie (1993), Tikoes (1996) and Een mond vol glas (1998) are based on his own past as Dutch immigrant in South Africa and his personal experience of the country�s history of apartheid. The reception of these books � and of Een mond vol glas in particular - is characterized by misinterpretation and fierce judgement. This misinterpretation and consequent, unjustified negative evaluation result from two things: failure to read the three books as a trilogy (which would add an extra dimension of meaning) and not taking into account the specific genre to which they belong. The hypothesis proposed and validated in this study is that Van Woerden�s three books, in which his youth in the Cape and later important periods in his life are described, form an autobiographical unit: they are cyclically linked. This necessitates interpretation and evaluation based not only on an individual text, but taking into account the relationship with other texts in the cycle. H.P. van Coller�s definition of prose cycles is used to proof that the books do form a literary unit. The most important indication of a cycle in Van Woerden�s texts is the great amount of motives and themes, characters and events, which repeatedly occur and develop. A further hypothesis states that the genre in which the cycle as a whole is described, is a form of historiography where the combined meaning has a function that rises above factual controllability. It is suggested that these books can be defined as a hybrid form of confessional literature, in which the author depicts the history of the country, recalling his personal experience of it. He does this by using fictional tools to give these autobiographically founded stories an artistic dimension. Readers who interpret Van Woerden�s trilogy in this way, will recognize the function of the past being processed by way of giving artistic form to it. Finally, the texts are in line with the prevailing tendencies in history writing in both Dutch and South African literature, where the subjective rewriting of history in order to tell of personal experience of events is acceptable. In other respects Van Woerden�s work is ground braking. The texts converse interestingly with numerous other texts and contribute mainly to colonial and post-colonial discourses in Dutch and Afrikaans literature.

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Theoretical part The medieval Icelandic saga can be divided into various categories, but the most widely known category is the Ãslendingasögur and it is on this that the focus of this study has fallen. It was committed to writing in mainly the thirteenth century and some scholars (for example Sigurðsson, 2004) allege that these writings are based on an oral tradition. Actions described in the Ãslendingasögur take place in the tenth- and early eleventh centuries and are based on the history of the Scandinavian world and Iceland, and more specifically they are based on those people who established a name for themselves in this period. The narrative style is simple and objective: the narrator tells the saga as it would be perceived by an outsider and therefore depicts characters without detailed character sketches or by relating their thoughts. Rather are the characters revealed by their actions and dialogue. The sagas are not moralizing in character and therefore they differ considerably from other medieval literatures. It was argued in this study that the majority of characteristics exhibited by the sagas are determined by the focus on character and the attempt at creating a realistic narration. This focus on character determines for example that detailed descriptions of scenery and moralizations are omitted: the narrator strives to depict his characters rather than embedding his text with lessons in morality. The attempt at creating a realistic narration is established by incorporating scenes from their everyday lives and by not omitting the peasants or even slaves. The Icelandic sagas also belong to the Germanic heroic literature and its characters are heroes of this heroic milieu. A further characteristic of the Ãslendingasögur is that poetry is also found which belongs mainly to the skaldic branch, and for this reason Old Norse poetical genres are briefly discussed in the theoretical discussion and its characteristics indicated. Skaldic poetry is the most complex of these and terms such as kenning are therefore explained and illustrated through suitable examples. Lastly the sagas offer a glimpse into the medieval world and especially the Viking Age and incorporate pre-Christian traditions and religious perceptions as well as everyday realities which aid the interpretation of archaeological finds, for example the descriptions of burials or ships. It is a genre which distinguishes itself within the context of medieval European literature for it exhibits little continental influence and thereby attains uniqueness. Creative part The theoretical part is followed by a creative application in the genre of the Ãslendingasögur. Valgarðr Gunnvaldsson is a member of the Norwegian nobility by ancestral right. The saga begins with his grandfather, Aldúlfr, and his involvement in tenth century politics. Valgarðr's family fight in most of the important battles in tenth century Scandinavia and goes on raiding expeditions in Europe, and the saga tells of three generations involved in such activities. A second family which features is the family of Ãorvaldr, who are mainly merchants not wanting to involve themselves in politics, but even they are offered no choice and eventually fight alongside Valgarðr and his companions. Valgarðr marries Ãorvaldr's daughter, Guðríðr, and she later bears him a daughter called Ãshildr. Gradually everyone around Valgarðr dies and he emigrates to Greenland along with the two Scottish widows (Kaðlin en Mýrún), from where they conduct a series of expeditions to America (Vínland). On these expeditions contact is established with the indigenous population, but eventually Valgarðr becomes ill and returns to Norway to be buried with his family. Throughout the saga a character named Ãagall is present, but no-one ever understands his true identity, involvement and motivation.

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This article researches the attitude of learners to the oral activities in the Afrikaans Second Language classroom. The apparent discrepancy between learners' communicative competence and the oral year mark awarded by school-based educators is looked at. It seems as though neither educators nor learners participate very enthusiastically in oral activities in the classroom. Educators on the one hand appear to be preoccupied with assessment and the completion of a syllabus rather than with developing the communicative competence of learners. Learners on the other hand fear being censured and mocked by their peers and the assessment process most commonly used in the classroom compounds this anxiety. In Section 4 suggestions are made for reducing assessment anxiety so as to encourage learners to communicate spontaneously in Afrikaans. Learners of an additional language need to be provided with the opportunity to engage in oral activities that elicit the use of the target language in such a way that the learner's enthusiasm to participate neutralises the fear of using linguistic structures that they feel they have not yet mastered. OPSOMMING In hierdie artikel word leerders se houding !eenoor die mondelinge akliwiteite in die Afrikaans Tweede Taal klaskamer ondersoek. Die klaarblyklike wanverhouding lussen die leerders se kommunikaliewe vaardigheid en die mondeiinge jaarpunt wat deur onderwysers toegeken word, word ondersoek. Uit die studie blyk dit dat nog die leerders nog die onderwysers baie entoesiasties deelneem aan mondelinge aktiwiteite in die klaskamer. Die onderwysers blyk behep te wees met die insamel van punte en die voltooiing van leerplan items sonder om aandag te skenk aan die ontwikkeling van leerders se kommunikatiewe vaardighede. Die vrees wat leerders het vir die sensuur deur hulle portuurgroep, word versterk deur die evalueringsangs wat die assesseringsmetodes skep. Voorstelle word gemaak om leerders se kommunikasievrees en toelsangs te verminder om sodoende leerders aan te moedig om sponlaan in Afrikaans te kommunikeer. Leerders van 'n Tweede Taal moet die geleentheid gegun word vir mondelinge aktiwiteite wat taal-in-gebruik sal ontlok, waar die entoesiasme vir die taak die leerder sal laat vergeet van die taalkennis wat nog nie bemeester is nie en wat deur deelname aan die aktiwiteit ontdek word. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 2001.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

Advertising communication has a unique character and different techniques are used to draw the consumer's attention. The way in which the message is communicated in the advertisement often contributes to the impact of the advertising message. In this study the focus was specifically on the ways in which advertising language communicates creatively. Furthermore, the manner in which visual signs echo the linguistic signs and contributes to the construction of the marketing message is also observed. Figurative language and semiotic signs are some of the mechanisms copywriters use to draw the consumer's attention. Literature that focuses on the linguistic and visual analysis of advertising communication is limited. A variety of definitions for figurative language exist in the literature, since different authors have different perspectives given a particular data set and time frame. In this study creative signs used in advertising (e.g. language play, rhetorical figures and semiotic signs) in order to increase the impact of the advertisement, are studied from a Cognitive Semantic and linguistic perspective A qualitative investigation was launched in order to describe the character of the manifestation of concepts in advertising communication. Based on the primary objective of the study, to give an overview of the manifestation of creative concepts in South African print advertising communication, the secondary objectives were identified. These objectives were to explain the definition and nature of terms such as language play (idiomatic expressions, personification, and wordplay), rhetorical figures of speech (comparisons, analogies and metaphor) and semiotic signs (indexes, icons and symbols). South African print advertisements were used as data set. A further objective was to obtain an overview of the gains and risks in the use of these attention drawing mechanisms in the interest of training linguistics and copywriting students. In this study two main categories were identified, namely figurative language and semiotic signs. Figurative language were divided into two categories, namely language play and rhetorical figures. The category, language play, focuses specifically on the artistic nature or rather âcreative decorationâ of advertisements. Idiomatic expressions (when the catâs away, the mice will play), personification (âYour pepper will be so jealousâ) and wordplay (the Afrikaans word âleerâ can refer to the ladder you climb, as well as the leather a shoe is made of) are identified as three forms in language play. Rhetorical figures were identified as second category within figurative language. Rhetorical figures of speech include: similes (he is as slow as a tortoise), analogies (an analogy between the organ, a kidney, and a coffee filter) and metaphors (metaphor between coffee and perfume's durability and aroma). The second main category distinguished in this study is semiotic signs. Semiotic signs were divided into indexes (smoke indicating a fire), icons (a passport full of stamps, indicating a real passport) and symbols (an apple as a symbol of seduction). Based on the literature study and the data set, it is clear that creative signs used in advertising communication contribute to keeping the reader's attention longer. Creative signs are often an intellectual game to be unravelled by the reader, in order to identify the intended marketing message. Furthermore, more than one message is often communicated through the use of creative language and visual signs, thus giving the copywriter the ability to say more with less (words and images). From this study, it is clear that the use of figurative language and semiotic signs should ideally focus on the brand name, marketing message or characteristic of the product to actually be relevant to the marketing message; otherwise it remains just a useless decoration in the advertisement.

This interdisciplinary study investigates how alienation manifests in American literature on the Vietnam War and Afrikaans literature on the war in Namibia/Angola (the so-called Border War). After an historical contextualisation, the sociological branch of alienation theory, which is based on the writings of Melvin Seeman, is discussed, and it is illustrated how the six aspects of alienation, as identified by Seeman, manifest in several texts on these wars. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the thesis, insights from alienation theory are integrated with theories of historiography, trauma, masculinity, and counterinsurgencies, all in an attempt to come to a better understanding of the texts under consideration. Despite literary theoryâs insistence that alienation is a feature of modernist and postmodernist literature, and literature on these counterinsurgencies in particular, little has been written on what alienation actually is. Seemanâs variant was chosen because it is the most detailed and comprehensive treatment of alienation available, and although published in 1959, Seemanâs notion of alienation continues to be relevant within sociology. Seemanâs six aspects of alienation include powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, cultural estrangement, social isolation, and self-estrangement, and these are used to discuss the literature on these two counterinsurgencies, highlighting how these aspects of alienation manifest in a variety of literary texts. The line between history and fiction is of course also an important boundary challenged by literature on these wars, and therefore a section is included under meaninglessness that deals with the writing of history and the role historical fiction plays in representing the past. Under cultural estrangement, a section is also included on masculinity, because since the army was often seen as offering a rite of passage, alienation manifests in this sense as well by rejecting the cultural values of masculinity. A section is also included on the alienating effects of trauma, because trauma is of course an important facet of literature on these wars, and it is shown how alienation ties in with trauma through two texts in particular: Larry Heinemannâs Pacoâs Story and Anthony Feinsteinâs Kopwond (released in English as Battle Scarred). Lastly, the study discusses all six aspects of alienation in reference to two of the seminal texts on these wars: Tim OâBrienâs If I die in a combat zone and Alexander Strachanâs ân Wêreld sonder grense. In general, the thesis tries to come to terms with the complexities of these wars: history, alienation, and identity are complex issues in these conflicts, and the interpretation of literary texts can be done from an extensive variety of perspectives. It is shown how alienation theory provides a useful prism for looking at these texts that stem from two watershed conflicts that changed their societies irrevocably.

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