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.

Thesis (doctoral)--Zürich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-182).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1951. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 361-385).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

This research stems from an interest in the role of the flâneur and his interaction with the city. The flâneur has been theorised as one of the most prominent figures in understanding modernity. This study draws upon two well-known modernist writers, Baudelaire and Woolf, using their literary flânerie to understand modernity from a twenty-first-century vantage point. The purpose of this thesis is to interrogate and reinterpret the notion of modernity: experience of modernity is that of spatiotemporal dislocation, a sense of in-betweenness that can be likened to the gap between a train and the platform. From the gap imagery, this thesis explores the paradoxical nature of modernity demonstrated in the writing of Baudelaire and Woolf. While existing studies have discussed the theme of flânerie extensively, the discourse is dominated by Benjaminian assumptions, which results in a visuo-centric bias. With recourse to Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, this thesis provides a more holistic understanding of the intertwining relationship between the flâneur, the city, the writer, and the text. Comparing the flâneur to a writerly device, this study explains how the flâneur offers the writer a novel perspective on the city. The aim of the writer's manipulation of the flâneur is to approach what I call line-scape. This notion designates an ideal literary horizon which the writer constantly endeavours to reach, to no avail. Various implications of line-scape are investigated, most notably through landscape painting tradition, to highlight the way in which the writer deploys the flâneur figure as an implied observer of line-scape. Translation theories and phenomenology-inspired studies are also incorporated into the research. Ultimately, flânerie as a clue to line-scape takes part in the current literary landscape, allowing for a revaluation of modernist writing, engendering novel interpretations of the act of walking, and renewing interest in modernity and the city.

「自由」在本論文中，可以理解為實體、抽象、比喻意義上的「通道」。我認為那些最初大概源於城市經驗的關於通道的想像，既是西西致力書寫的對象，也是她小說美學的理想。以本雅明的《拱廊街計劃》（Das Passagen-Werk），以及狄雪圖的步行者美學作為理解「通道」的起點。人群、商品、貨幣、資訊等的流動變易可說是它最重要的特質，從維希留速度學的角度看來，它的極致則是「消失」的空間。 / 我使用通道一詞，不僅指向西西小說中現實的城市空間和它的實踐者（通過對庶民生活細緻而富有詩意的描寫，在理論家們看來，日漸抽象無法把握的城市文化，在西西小說裡卻呈現出它最具質感而活潑的部分），同時也是西西多年來在寫作這門技藝漸漸透現的美學特徵，以及價值理想。這意味著西西以多重視點、對話、拼貼、互文，混合媒介等等技法來創造文本的開放視野，以及流動狀態，但這些明顯具有「後現代」特徵的形式並不指向意義消解的世界，它們的遊戲性充滿了對世界的深情關注。因此，西西的「通道」既有著資本主義城市開放流動的特徵，但同時也是對它那種無情個性的抵抗。流動意味著的不是消失，而是溝通與對話，以致於透現出一種生命意識：宇宙萬物可以彼此轉化流動。 / In this dissertation, “freedom can be understood as “passages in their literal, abstract and figurative senses. I consider the concept of “passages as inspired initially by urban experience, and as the theme and aesthetic ideal of Xi Xi’s fiction. Using Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project (Das Passagen-Werk) and Michel de Certeau’s notion of “street walkers as a starting point, the most important characteristic of “passages can be seen as their fluid, transient nature in terms of people, commercial goods, currency, information, etc.; and from the perspective of Paul Virilio’s dromology, they can be spaces of “disappearance in their most extreme form. / I use the term “passages, not only to refer to urban space and its practitioners in Xi Xi’s novels (through the poetic and meticulous descriptions of ordinary people’s daily lives, which demonstrates how Xi Xi’s work represents the most concrete and liveliest parts of urban culture--in spite of theorists’ notion of the city as an increasingly abstract space), but also to reflect the aesthetic features, ideals, and values developed over the years in Xi Xi’s writing. Using the techniques of different points of view, dialogue, collage, intertextuality, mixed media, etc., Xi Xi’s fiction enables formal fluidity and openness. But the obvious “postmodern characteristics of these formal experiments do not aim at the elimination of meaning. Rather, the playful gestures in these works are full of affectionate attention toward the world. Xi Xi’s work, therefore, adapts the fluidity of “passages in a capitalist city, but at the same time, resists its ruthless nature. “Passages in her work do not imply disappearance, but communication and dialogue. They also exhibit a vision of life: all things in the fluid universe can transform into each other. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 謝曉虹. / "2013年7月". / "2013 nian 7 yue". / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-75). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Xie Xiaohong. / Chapter 引言 --- 關於通道的美學 --- p.（頁1） / Chapter 第一章 --- 穿牆人 / Chapter 第一節 --- 牆 --- p.（頁9） / Chapter 第二節 --- 名字 --- p.（頁11） / Chapter 第三節 --- 離地 --- p.（頁14） / Chapter 第四節 --- 故事的形狀 --- p.（頁17） / Chapter 第二章 --- 通道 / Chapter 第一節 --- 通道 --- p.（頁22） / Chapter 第二節 --- 陌生人 --- p.（頁28） / Chapter 第三節 --- 公共人 --- p.（頁32） / Chapter 第三章 --- 眼睛 / Chapter 第一節 --- 眼睛 --- p.（頁35） / Chapter 第二節 --- 沉思者 --- p.（頁38） / Chapter 第三節 --- 店玻璃 --- p.（頁42） / Chapter 第四章 --- 軟世界 / Chapter 第一節 --- 五十七個電視 --- p.（頁47） / Chapter 第二節 --- 縫接 --- p.（頁49） / Chapter 第三節 --- 肉體與石頭 --- p.（頁52） / Chapter 第四節 --- 軟世界 --- p.（頁55） / Chapter 第五章 --- 造房子 / Chapter 第一節 --- 立體房子 --- p.(頁59) / Chapter 第二節 --- 無數度 --- p.(頁62) / Chapter 第三節 --- 房子的自由 --- p.(頁67) / 引用書目 --- p.(頁73)

Lau Kin-wai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-109). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / 論文摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Introduction: Reading Joyce and Eliot with Baudelaire in View --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter One： --- The City in Literary Representation / Chapter 1. --- The City and its Streets in a Literary and Cultural Context --- p.8 / Chapter 2. --- "Writing (about) the Modern City: ""Joycity"" and Eliot's Cities" --- p.15 / Chapter Chapter Two： --- The City and the Flaneur / Chapter 1. --- Origins and Characteristics of the Baudelairean Flaneur --- p.21 / Chapter 2. --- From Baudelaire to Joyce and Eliot --- p.25 / Chapter Chapter Three： --- In Search of the Joycean/ Eliotian Flaneur / Chapter 1. --- Voices in the City: Personae and Their Perspectives --- p.31 / Chapter 2. --- Literary Reincarnation and the Tradition of Flanerie --- p.33 / Chapter a. --- Stephen and Daedalus --- p.35 / Chapter b. --- Prufrock and Dante --- p.39 / Chapter c. --- Bloom and Odysseus --- p.43 / Chapter d. --- Tiresias as Ancient and Modern --- p.46 / Chapter Chapter Four： --- Flanerie and Two Faces of Unreality of the City / Chapter 1. --- Cities as States of Mind --- p.49 / Chapter a. --- Eliot's Unreal City 1 --- p.50 / Chapter b. --- Joyce's Unreal Dublin 1 --- p.56 / Chapter 2. --- Wandering in the City with the Dead --- p.61 / Chapter a. --- Eliot's Unreal City II --- p.63 / Chapter b. --- Joyce's Unreal Dublin II --- p.68 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Flanerie in a Wider Context of the Society / Chapter 1. --- Flanerie as an Asocial Act --- p.72 / Chapter 2. --- The Flaneur and the Familiar Stranger --- p.82 / Chapter 3. --- The Erotic as Sociality --- p.85 / Conclusion： Flanerie and the Emergence of a Critical Vision --- p.95 / Works Cited --- p.101

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral--Freiburg i. Br., 1989) under the title: Fragmented images. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-357) and index.