Thesis (DLitt)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002 / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ondersoek in hierdie studie sentreer random die diskoers in Antjie Krog se sewende digbundel, Lady Anne (1989). Die ondersoekprableem is die vraag na die wyse waarop die diskoers van hierdie teks georden en' geproduseer word. Foucault se teorie oor diskoersanalise word as kritiese werktuig gebruik by die beantwoording van hierdie vraag. Foucault (1981) omskryf diskoers onder meer as die sosiale gebruik van taal gesitueer binne bepaalde kontekste en verbonde aan spesifieke instansies. Volgens Foucault vertoon diskoers 'n innerlike orde of formasie wat argeologies opgediep kan word; dit het 'n regulerende funksie wat nie net betekenis afbaken nie, maar betekenis praduseer in die positiewe sin van die woord (Foucault, 1981). Wanneer hierdie regulerende funksie genealogies ontleed word, blyk dit dat diskoers mag uitoefen deur die meganismes van kennis, waarheid en self (Foucault, 1980), Diskoers artikuleer kennis wat die self die waarheid oor die self toe-eien. Dit roep op sy beurt weer die prableem van vryheid en politieke verset op. Die ondersoek fokus op die volgende vraagstukke random die diskoers in Lady Anne: die diskursiewe patrone in die teks; die beperkinge wat op die diskoers geplaas word (Foucault, 1981); die outeursfunksie soos beskryf deur Foucault (1979); die fiksionalisering van die lady Anne Barnard-geskiedenis aan die hand van die genealogiese benadering (Foucault, 1970; 1972). Daar sal ook ingegaan word op die verestetisering van die politieke diskoers in Suid-Afrika, asook op die kwessie in watter mate daar sprake is van stemgewing aan die Ander. Die sentrale vraagstuk wat ondersoek word, is: wat is die posisie van die wit skeppende vrau in Suid-Afrika en hoe word hierdie posisie ingeskryf in die diskoers van die Afrikaanse letterkunde? In samehang hiermee word gelet op kwessies soos subjektiwiteit, beskrywing van die objek, asook die subjek se posisie met betrekking tot die tradisie waarin sy die teks inskryf. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation centers on the discourse in Antjie Krog's seventh volume of poetry, Lady Anne (1989). The central thesis of the dissertation is to analyse the way in which the discourse of the text under discussion is being ordered and produced. The theoretical approach is based on Foucault's discourse analysis. Foucault (1981) defines discourse as, among others, the social usage of language within specific contexts and as part of specific institutions. According to Foucault, discourse has an internal order or formation which one can reveal by way of an archaeological approach; it also has a regulatory function which not only delineates meaning, but produces meaning in the more positive sense of the word (Foucault, 1981). If one analyses this regulatory function by way of a genealogical approach, it appears as if discourse exercises power over mechanisms such as knowledge, truth and self (Foucault, 1980). Discourse articulates knowledge that the self claims as a particular truth. This calls to mind issues such as the problem of freedom and political resistance. This dissertation focuses on the following issues pertaining to the discourse in Lady Anne: the discursive patterns in the text, the limitations placed on the production of discourse (Foucault, 1981), the author function as used by Foucault (1979), the fictionalization of the history of Lady Anne Barnard by means of a genealogical approach (Foucault, 1970; 1972). Another pertinent issue that will be analysed is the aestheticisation of the political discourse in South Africa, as well as the manner in which a voice is given to the so-called Other. The central issue of this investigation is the following: What is the position of white creative women in South Africa and how is this position being inscribed into the discourse of Afrikaans literature? Concomitantly, issues such as subjectivity, the description of the object, as well as the subject's position within the literary tradition will be analysed.

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))—University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The aim of this study is to investigate the position that has been allocated to women authors by literary theorists. Some literary theorists are of the opinion that the action of writing can be compared to fatherhood, ownership and being a creator, all of which are male dominated images. Women writers have historically been marginalized by literary theorists, since there is a perception that women cannot write because they are not male. Harold Bloom has postulated that a male writer looks to a precursor in order to write and find his own voice. Before the writer can claim his own, original voice, he must enter into an Oedipal battle with the precusor, and, figuratively speaking, ‘kill’ him in his writing. According to Gilbert & Gubar, who serve here as representatives of the feminist literary theorists, women writers make use of monsterlike figures which serve as metaphors for the inner battle they have to endure to put pen to paper. The problem, however, is that women writers have no (female) precursors to look to. Elaine Showalter postulates 4 models that women writers may use in search of a female precursor or female body of writing, but she does not offer a clear solution. I am of the opinion that women writers can identity with a female figure or role model. The figure that I propose is Scheherazade, a storytelling character from the Thousand and One Nights, who told stories for a thousand and one nights in order for escape death. I identify a few texts from international literature that make use of this figure, whether as a character in the text, a metaphor for the female character who tells stories or as a metaphor for the author herself. This study focuses on texts from 3 genres in Afrikaans literature, namely children’s stories, short stories and a novel. It appears from the analysis of the texts that women writers have successfully made use of the Scheherazade character, to address issues concerning the social role and position allocated to women by a patriarchial society. Along with this women writers’ search and longing for a voice of their own and their own identity gets highlighted with the use of a Scheherazade-like female character who tells stories. Lastly it became clear that this figure is also being used by women writers to contemplate the dynamics of writing and to contextualise the role that self-doubt and self-actualisation play in telling and writing stories. Scheherazade thus becomes a vehicle for finding a voice as well as agency.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / No abstract available.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis contains the results of an investigation into constructions of cultural identity in recent works of short fiction written in Afrikaans. The investigation was conducted within the framework of postcolonial literary theory, with specific reference to the work ofHomi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge. The conceptual apparatus concerning postcolonial reconstruction of cultural identities in reaction to the discourse of colonialism were applied to certain Afrikaans short stories to establish to what extent these texts could be considered a '<writing back" to the colonial discourse of Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid. The research focused on texts that had been published after 1994, being the date of the first democratic elections in South Africa, but also investigated their relation to certain literary traditions that preceded this date. From the Afrikaans short stories that were read within a postcolonial framework, it could be concluded that Afrikaans literature after 1994 could still be read in terms of what Mishra and Hodge (1994) called a fused postcolonial, a typification that according to Viljoen (1996) was applicable to the Afrikaans literature of before 1994. The cultural identity that was constructed in these texts showed similarities with the two moments of cultural reconstruction that Hall (1992) mentioned, namely either a strategic essentialism of the colonized subject or a hybridized cultural identity as the result of an ongoing, dynamic process of negotiation in a Third Space as Bhabha (1994) pointed out. A discourse of resistance against new forms of cultural imperialism, arising from a broader disillusion with the perceived dystopia of post-colonial South Africa, could also be inferred from certain Afrikaans short stories that have appeared since 1994. As far as a renewed undermining of imperialising tendencies is concerned, these texts can therefore be considered a continuation of the dissidence that has been characteristic of Afrikaans literature for several decades. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif bevat die resultate van 'n ondersoek na konstruksies van kulturele identiteit in onlangse kortverhale in Afrikaans. Die ondersoek is gedoen binne die raamwerk van die postkoloniale literêre teorie, met spesifieke verwysing na die werk van Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Vijay Mishra en Bob Hodge. Konseptuele apparatuur rakende postkoloniale herkonstruksie van kulturele identiteit in reaksie op diskoerse van kolonialisme, is toegepas op bepaalde Afrikaanse kortverhale om vas te stel in watter mate hierdie tekste beskou kon word as 'n terugskrywing teen die koloniale diskoers van Afrikanernasionalisme en apartheid. Die navorsing het gefokus op tekste wat gepubliseer is na 1994, die datum van die eerste demokratiese verkiesings in Suid- Afrika, maar het ook hul verhouding ondersoek tot sekere literêre tradisies wat hierdie datum voorafgegaan het. Uit die Afrikaanse kortverhale wat gelees is binne 'n postkoloniale raamwerk, is daar tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die Afrikaanse letterkunde na 1994 steeds gelees kan word in terme van wat Mishra en Hodge (1994) 'n "saamgestelde postkolonialisme" genoem het, 'n tipering wat volgens Viljoen (1996) toepasbaar was op die Afrikaanse letterkunde van voor 1994. Die kulturele identiteit wat gekonstrueer is in hierdie tekste toon ooreenkomste met die twee momente van kulturele herkonstruksie waarna Hall (1992) verwys, naamlik enersyds 'n strategiese essensialisme van die gekoloniseerde subjek en andersyds 'n gehibridiseerde kulturele identiteit as die gevolg van 'n voortgaande, dinamiese proses van onderhandeling in wat Bhabha (1994) 'n Derde Ruimte genoem het. 'n Diskoers van weerstand teen wat ervaar word as nuwe vorme van kulturele imperialisme, voortspruitend uit 'n breër ontnugtering met wat beskou word as 'n distopiese post-koloniale Suid-Afrika, kon ook afgelei word uit sekere Afrikaanse kortverhale wat sedert 1994 verskyn het. Wat betref 'n hernieude ondermyning van imperialiserende tendense kan hierdie tekste daarom gesien word as 'n voortsetting van die tradisie van weerstand wat die Afrikaanse literatuur dekades lank reeds kenmerk.

Vol. 1 issued also as the author's thesis, Amsterdam.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-341). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

M.A. (Afrikaans) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Bibliography: pages 335-343. / Betekenis kom tot stand deurdat die leser aan 'n teken of tekens betekenis toeken. Elke leser word daartoe gelei deur sy kennis van die taal, deur sy kennis van die wereld, deur sy persoonlike ervaringe en vooroordele en bowendien deur sy verwagtinge ten aansien van literere tekste en genres (Van Luxemburg e.a., 1983:113). Hieruit blyk noodwendig dat daar per leser en lesergroepe interpretasieverskille sal wees soos trouens die geval is me die twee lesersgroepe in hierdie studie: enersyds die ervare, ingewyde leser (literator) met sy kennis van die taal en die wereld, teenoor die oningewyde leser (Matriekleerling) wie se kulturele en akademiese agtergrond, ervaringe en taalkennis nie op dieselfde vlak is as die ingewydes nie.

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / During an interview, the author Rudolf Herter in Harry Mulisch’s novel Siegfried states that Hitler would only be comprehended if an imaginative experiment is conducted by capturing him in a net of fiction. This is indeed what Mulisch does in this novel. The combination of historical and fictional data resulting from this strategy is typical of the conventional historical novel, while Siegfried also manifests modernist characteristics. In this study, however, special attention is paid to aspects such as metafictionality, selfreflexivity, subjectivity and an emphasis on ideology which Siegfried shares with other postmodern historical novels, with specific reference to Linda Hutcheon’s view on historiographic metafiction and Lies Wesseling’s definition of uchronian fiction. The focus in this study lies, inter alia, on the ways in which Mulisch utilizes open spaces in history and fits the fictitious data like pieces into the puzzle of the history of the Second World War in general and specific events surrounding Hitler in particular. Mulisch’s play with autobiographical data in the novel further diminishes the boundaries between fact and fiction. Of particular importance is the metafictional statements about the nature of history which Mulisch delivers in the process. Not only the political side of history, but also its subjective and one-sided nature is emphasised. Finally a question is posed about Mulisch’s intentions and aspirations in writing another novel about Hitler, who as a character in this novel awakens sympathy on the one hand and on the other is demonized as inhuman with superhuman qualities. This demonstrates the problems involved in gaining insight into the real Hitler. My opinion is that, in the final instance, Mulisch intentionally magnifies the enigma surrounding Hitler in his characterization of the man who can be regarded as one of the most destructive people of the 20th century.

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The primary objective of this thesis is to explore and analyse the structure of the crime novel / thriller in a practical manner – and subsequently develop an equally pragmatic, broad and useful guide which would potentially be of value to both reader and author of the genres. This tight and reductive focus has one important consequence: It will more or less ignore traditional literary theory, but the one obviously excludes the other.