Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / 214 Leaves printed on single pages, preliminary pages i- xvi and numbered pages 1-191. Includes bibliography and illustrations. / Digitized at 600 dpi grayscale to pdf format (OCR), using a Bizhub 250 Konica Minolta Scanner. Digitized by Ivan Jacobs on request of Niel Hendrickz, 15 April 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This investigation is informed by the assumption that language, as representation and as image, is positioned in a metaphorical relationship to reality. Language, as a structure of representation, is the way in which we represent reality to ourselves and to others and recreate the past, as well as the way in which we invest our lives with meaning, significance and experience. Language includes visual and verbal representation, and this investigation shows how image and text create a variety of multiple meanings through playful and interactive reciprocation. Following from the assumption that language comprises temporal and spatial qualities, it is also the terrain that enables us to know and understand reality, ourselves, and others. This emphasizes the material nature of language, which is also connected with social and cultural practices and, as such, involves reciprocation and interaction between divergences. Language is therefore a mode of action that makes the bridging of divisions possible. Language is proposed as a medium through which the monolithic hegemony of the apartheid past may be confronted within a multicultural South Africa. The aim of representing this past in my work is not to recall it as it was or to discover etemal, inheritable qualities, but rather to bring about re-demption (healing) through re-presentation. Re-demption and re-presentation is a textual practice that involves a re-script of the past. With the understanding that history and culture are regarded as text, re-writing the past does not involve representation as mimesis, but as production. This investigation recognizes the role of the subconscious as the other or the alterity in all language constructs that makes it possible to circumvent the logic of binary oppositions; entertain alternatives simultaneously; erase boundaries; share spaces, and discover the other in the self. This unconscious language of the other, as a strange doubling and interplay between near and far, gives rise to poies/s. The creation of multi-dimensional spaces that draw the poetical and the everyday into an imaginative and directed conceptual interplay as well as provoke dialogue between differences and diversities, engenders a desire for the complexity of the other. The interplay and recurrent movement across divisions and between paradoxes create a new and changed interspace, characterized by difference, plurality, and contradiction. Intertextual spaces allow relationships between differences and exist precisely as a result of dialogicity between diversities. In this way it is possible to establish, by virtue of difference, a mutual, interdependent relationship with the other. Metaphorical language requires an allegorical reading that places divergences in relation to one another, thereby causing a mythic animation of signification that moves from one level to another. Mytho-poeisis, as an allegorical structure, is proposed as a model by means of which symbolic transformation and redemption of the personal and collective psyche may occur. Poetic re-imagining as re-presentation impels change and transformation and points to other possible forms of social and ethical experiences. This impulse, to reconcile the social and the aesthetic, or the cultural with symbolic form, is based on the principle of reconciliation between art and life. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie ondersoek handhaaf die veronderstelling dat taal in 'n metaforiese verhouding tot die werklikheid staan as voorstelling en as beeld. Taal, as 'n struktuur van voorstelling, is die wyse waarop ons die werklikheid aan onsself en ander voorstel en die verlede herskep, asook die wyse waarop ons sin, betekenis en ervaring aan ons lewens verskaf. Taal sluit visuele en verbale voorstellings in en hierdie ondersoek toon op watter wyse beeld en teks in speelse en interaktiewe wisselwerking 'n verskeidenheid meersinnige betekenisse skep. Uitgaande van die veronderstelling dat taal temporele en ruimtelike kwaliteite betrek, is dit ook die terrein wat ons in staat stel om die werklikheid, onsself en ander te ken en verstaan. Dit beklemtoon die materiele aard van taal, wat ook met sosiale en kulturele praktyke verbind is en sodanig wisselwerking en interaksie tussen uiteenlopendhede betrek. Taal is dus 'n modus van doen, wat oorbrugging van skeidings moontlik maak. Taal word as 'n medium voorgestel waardeur die monolitiese hegemonie van die apartheidsverlede binne 'n multikulturele Suid-Afrika gekonfronteer word. Voorstelling van hierdie verlede in my werk is nie met die doel om dit te herroep soos dit was, of ewige, erfbare eienskappe te ontdek nie, maar eerder om herstel deur her-voorstelling te bewerkstellig. Her-stel en her-voorstelling is 'n tekstuele praktyk wat 'n re-skripsie van die verlede behels. Met begrip dat geskiedenis en kultuur as teks beskou word, behels die her-skryf van die verlede nie voorstelling as mimesis nie, maar as produksie. Hierdie ondersoek erken die rol van die onderbewussyn as die ander of die alteriteit (alterity) in alle taalvoorstellings wat dit moontlik maak om die logika van binere oposisies te omseil; alternatiewe gelyktydig in ag te neem; grense uit te wis, ruimtes te deel en die ander in die self te ontdek. Hierdie onbewuste taal van die ander, as 'n vreemde verdubbeling en spel tussen naby en ver, gee aanleiding tot poesis (poiesis). Die skep van multidimensionele ruimtes wat die poetiese en die alledaagse in 'n verbeeldingryke en gerigte konseptuele wisselspel betrek, asook dialoog tussen verskille en diversiteite bewerkstellig, skep 'n aandrang vir die kompleksiteit van die ander. Die interspel en ewigdurende beweging oor skeidings en tussen paradokse skep 'n nuwe en veranderde interruimte, wat gekenmerk word deur verskil, pluraliteit en kontradiksie. Intertekstuele ruimtes laat verskilsverhoudings toe en bestaan juis as gevolg van dialogisiteit tussen diversiteite. Op hierdie wyse is dit moontlik om op grond van verskil 'n wedersydse en interafhanklike verhouding met die ander aan te knoop. Metaforiese taalgebruik verg 'n allegoriese lees wat uiteenlopendhede in verhouding tot mekaar plaas sodat dit 'n mitiese animasie van betekening bewerkstellig wat vanaf een vlak na 'n ander vlak beweeg. Mito-poesis, as 'n allegoriese struktuur, word voorgestel as model waarvolgens simboliese transformasie en herstel van die persoonlike en kollektiewe psige kan geskied. Poetiese her-verbeelding as her-voorstelling motiveer verandering en transformasie en dui op ander moontlike vorms van sosiale en etiese ervarings. Hierdie impuls, om die sosiale en die estetiese, of om die kulturele met simboliese vorm te vereenselwig, berus op die beginsel van versoening tussen kuns en lewe.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / In this study I explore the perceptions and experiences that matriculants have of the culture in their particular school. I argue that in order for the principals of these four schools to improve the relationship between staff and learners and to improve pass rates, it is important that they know how the culture in their school affects learners and that they learn how to connect with the learners through the culture in their school. I highlight the importance of the school culture through an explorative and descriptive research design. I look at the elements that make up the characteristics of an organisation’s culture and how a school could cultivate a healthy learning environment for learners. I refer to emotional intelligence as an important aspect of this transformation for which both learners and staff have to take responsibility. I also stress the fact that each school has its own personality and therefore it should be noted that the findings, conclusions and the recommendations cannot be generalised. Each school needs to be considered in the light of its own personality and therefore its own organisational culture will determine what the learners and staff need to do to improve education in their school. In the study, I refer to teachers as change agents in their school because they know the learners well and have a huge influence on them. The principal as curriculum leader should however take the lead in the process and through his or her leadership style should model the behaviour they want to see in their schools. The principal is seen to be the one to take responsibility for this process of change and manage expectations both inside the school and outside of the school. In order to be more effective and create a healthy learning environment, the teachers need to be more acutely aware of the learners around them, how they learn and take in information. In addition to that they need to have knowledge of their own teaching style. The four schools involved in the study were chosen because they represent both formerly advantaged and formerly disadvantaged areas. This has since changed, but it has not influenced the culture of the school that much. It has helped the schools to be more open to diversity and multiculturalism, but it has not really changed the operating system of the school that much. The learners are proud to be associated with their respective schools and do not feel that they are in any way treated unequally in their school. Problems such as learners dropping out from school, using substances and falling pregnant while still at school are a reality in these schools. Learners feel their peers need to concentrate on their education and should ask for help if need be, however each person is different and the way they deal with situations in life is different. A lot depends on the support a learner has. My argument is that if these learners are supported and cared for they will do much better in school and they will be less likely to drop out of school. The thesis is concluded with a few recommendations to the principals of these schools as well as suggestions for future studies.

This study is a cultural investigation into rape, with specific focus on the role of African men. With more than 70 000 cases of rape and sexual violence reported in a year in South Africa, and estimations that this may reflect one ninth of the actual number only, South Africa has been labelled the “rape capital” of the world. The study seeks to explain the root causes of rape, its ontological make-up and possibilities for resolving the issue by identifying cultural aspects, factors and manifestations that either justify or sanction rape. Four concepts, namely, rape, masculinity, culture and rage, serve as the thematic lens for identifying and interrogating cultural conditions through multidisciplinary and Africancentred perspectives. The analyses contained in the study are based on a mapping process involving comparing the data from a wide range of literature and also focus group interviews. Highlighting the multi-layered complexities of rape as phenomena, the study then outlines recommendations for transformative work in research, cultural institutions, communities, families and men / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

South Africa and Russia achieved two of the most remarkable political transformations in modern history, yet significant numbers of their citizens feel a longing for aspects of the old regimes. While there have been some studies of nostalgia among older Russians and South Africans, the following is the first comparative qualitative examination of the phenomenon among young members of the countries’ inaugural “born free” generations: those who came into the world just before or after the fall of Apartheid and Communism, and have had little or no experience of life prior to regime change. Its purpose is to examine how and why young people growing up in post-authoritarian transition societies experience, and long for, the past. I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven South African and five Russian youths, recruited through purposive sampling, who reflected on the ways in which the recent past impacts their lives, self-perceptions and socio-political identities. While they differed in some areas, respondents from both countries identified several broadly shared areas of nostalgia, clustering around a perceived loss of community, moral values, personal safety and social trust; and a concomitant rise in individualism, materialism and anomie. Employing a Marxian engagement with symbolic interactionism and interpretative phenomenological analysis, I analyse their transcribed testimonies in light of the relevant scholarship on nostalgia, social memory and transition studies, alongside theories of post-modernity and critical sociology. I conclude that their nostalgia may be the product of Russia and South Africa’s belated and compressed transition from “modern” to “post-modern” societies; a rebellion against the harsh transition to a Baumanian “liquid” life characterised by economic precariousness and the fraying of social bonds; and/or an expression of profound ambivalence that struggles to reconcile nostalgic regrets about the risks and human costs of globalised capitalist polyarchy, with a hunger to exploit the freedom and opportunities it offers. / Theses (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

In this Thesis, from the disciplinary vantage point of English Studies, I explore some of the complex meanings that may be attributed to several forms and practices of South African consumer culture: magazines, malls and themed leisure. While these contemporary cultural 'texts' are often ephemeral, and people's attachments to them fractured, transient or at least ambivalent rather than unproblematic, my argument takes issue with the pessimism that informs much local and international criticism of consumer culture. My Thesis turns to concepts of affect, image, sign and discourse which have become features of current English Studies in order to generate readings of commercial culture more nuanced than the 'hard analyses' favoured by dominant practitioners of 'radical' South African cultural studies. At the same time, though, my analyses have learnt through disparate forms of local cultural study the necessity of grounding textuality in the structures of political economy. By means of manageable yet conceptually-suggestive South African instances, I consider how commodities and commodified experiences - generated in the first instance by the vested interests of Capital and related ideologies - may nevertheless be experienced by people in a plethora of ways not directly tied to the commercially-expedient construct of the 'target audience'. This experiential process entails a rampant volatility typical of a mass-mediated lexicon which challenges boundaries between high and low, formal and unofficial, propriety and the improper. While advertising and promotion, for instance, function as corporate attempts to contain proliferating signifiers and to secure a preferred, 'authorised' meaning for cultural goods or services, it is also the case that consumers themselves, perhaps creatively and certainly in clandestine ways that escape the supposed authorities of either market researcher or academic intelligence, author meanings that rework the limitations of what still tends to be construed within the university as a culture industry at once banal and insidious. The meanings of the contemporary cultures with which I deal, then, are highly mediated and many-layered, rather than constituting the mere surface announcement often imagined by scholars of both literary culture and of media- and cultural studies. The contexts of my Thesis are particular: it was completed in 1998, and has been produced from a university in KwaZulu-Natal by an academic formally trained in English Studies. In some respects, then, the interpretations I offer are narrow: geographically, historically and disciplinarily focussed. Yet in working on South African examples of commoditised forms and practices that derive from metropolitan vectors and have convoluted international genealogies, I have also sought to theorise the shifting interrelations of regional and national, local and global, discipline-specific and interdisciplinary knowledge. Drawing widely on studies into consumer relations - and at apposite points identifying conceptual connections and differences between 'foreign' figures like Michel de Certeau and influential South African thinkers such as Njabulo S. Ndebele - I suggest that for all its shortcomings consumerism needs to be understood as active process rather than as passive effect. My argument implies that such a rethinking of the conventional binaries of production and consumption is appropriate in a South Africa which is gradually giving substance to a democratic social order. Even within a politics premised on the individual, forms of consumption such as magazine reading and shopping need not necessarily be scorned as the selfish, even hedonistic pursuits caricatured by ideological purists: the Thesis seeks to demonstrate that people are at once citizens and consumers, individuals searching after distinctive identity and style as well as desirous of achieving a variety of community inflected bonds. Overall, the commercial culture examined in the Thesis is represented not as inevitably marred by cultural deficiency and degraded value - despite the dissatisfactions, irritations and deferred pleasures which for many of us form at least one facet of consumption - but as an everyday spectacle which is available for symbolic interpretation and aesthetic investment. This investment may be emotional as well as cognitive, sensuous as well as critical, mundane as well as exceptional, since individuals come to commodity culture with a range of longings, dreams, fears and sedimented allegiances. As my readings demonstrate, it is such diversity of response - provisional and elusive rather than predictable and guaranteed - which gives the lie to theories which are 'always-already' premised on the prior inscription and encoding of consumerism as manipulation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.

The research interest is the field of Christianity and culture with specific focus on the interface between the indigenous practice of ilobolo and the Christian faith in South Africa. Comparison and contrasts with other African peoples, especially in the subcontinent, is made. The research is located in Edendale, an urban township of Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. Common wisdom distinguishes between urban and rural Africans whereas under the veneer of urbanisation, the religio-cultural beliefs of Africans on ilobolo remain ingrained almost defying the influence of Westernisation. In the post-apartheid era, ilobolo has become a highly contested issue, strong arguments for and against its retention have been advanced. It is in the light of those complexities that the continued practice of ukulobola and the rituals associated with it are examined. The thesis is partly descriptive but mainly analytical. Consequently, a brief historical background and current practice of ilobolo in an urban setting is offered. The social and religious role played by ilobolo cattle, collectively known as amabheka, is analysed. The central thesis of this work is that ukulobola has continued to be practised among adherents of traditional religions and African Christians. To both it is regarded as a means of establishing and maintaining family ties and, among the former, it is also the accepted means of uniting the respective ancestors From the study it will be apparent that the misuse of ilobolo by those people who make impossible demands on the groom with the consequent commodification of women is due to the fact that such people have a jaundiced understanding of the original purpose and intent of the practice. The study consists of six chapters and a conclusion. Chapter one serves as an introduction to the study. It focuses on technical aspects such as the problem statement, motivation, hypotheses to be tested, theoretical tools used, methodology and a description of the primary site of the research. This leads to a historical chapter based on oral as well as written sources on the origins, purpose and changes that have happened in the practice of ukulobola among AmaZulu. The survey leads to a theological reflection on factors yielded by the historical survey of the evolution of ilobolo. A third chapter is a social and theological critique of the various positions advanced for its continuation or suggestions on why it should be abolished. Chapter four is an assessment of contemporary people's views on ilobolo. The fifth chapter demonstrates how anthropological and theological underpinnings of ilobolo, especially the pivotal role played by cattle, have sustained the practice from pre-colonial times to the present time. Chapter six is the major theological treatise of this study. It looks at issues that emerge when the gospel encounters culture, with ilobolo chosen as a case study. The concluding chapter makes recommendations and gives pointers to future research. I also suggest a liturgy for marriage taking into account ilobolo negotiations. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

This dissertation aims to interpret holiday imagery in the media, as a site of South African cultural production, on the basis of newspaper images of local white and black people published in the Natal Mercury from 1966 to 1996. A strong historical approach (the history of the Western holiday) has been taken in order to analyze existing social structures relating to the holiday in South Africa, specifically gender, race and class. These social structures have been examined in depth, with the result of numerous interpretations being made about behaviour and the depiction of behaviour in the context of Durban beaches and leisure. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Abstract not available / Thesis (M.A.-Music)-University of Natal, 2000

Thesis (Msc Food Sc (Food Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / An 84-day study was conducted to find a suitable diet and feeding level for the culture of South African abalone (Haliotis midae) in Namibia. Two experimental diets, namely, a seaweed diet (SWD) Laminaria pallida (macrophytic algae) and a formulated diet (FD) (macro-algae), for use in abalone (Haliotis midae) feed development, were evaluated. The animals used in this study were juveniles (24.33 ± 3.14 mm shell length; 2.72 ± 0.83 g live weight, mean ± SE) and sub-adults (58.07 ± 10.33 mm shell length and 41.96 ± 20.61 g live weight, mean ± SE). The nutrient profile of the SWD and FD displayed no differences in the protein and carbohydrate levels. Crude protein levels ranged from 4.91 to 17.68% (dry matter (DM) basis). The lipid levels in the FD (0.25%) were almost 0.56% lower than that in the SWD (0.76%). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) for the sub-adult abalone ranged from 2.80 to 10.90 and 0.10 to 0.40, respectively. The juvenile abalone fed on the FD yielded significantly lower (P < 0.05) FCRs (0.8) and higher PERs (1.20) than their counterparts fed on the SWD. A similar trend was observed for the sub-adult abalone although the differences were not significant (P > 0.05). The relative growth rate (RGR) of juvenile fed on the FD was 25% lower compared to those fed on the SWD, while that of the sub-adult abalone fed on the FD was 29% lower compared to the abalone fed on the SWD. From the daily growth rate (DGR) in terms of daily body weight (DGRBW) calculated after the 84-day period, repeated-measures ANOVA (RANOVA) indicated no interaction between time period and diet. Although slightly lower, the DGRBW for the juvenile abalone fed on the SWD diet (0.033 g/day) did not differ significantly from the DGRBW of abalone fed on the FD (0.079 g/day). In contrast, sub-adult abalone fed on the SWD exhibited significantly higher DGRBW compared to those fed on the FD. Although the abalone fed on the FD was slightly higher in nutritional content, there was no significantly difference (P > 0.05) in the nutritional profile of the abalone soft body tissue fed on either the SWD or FD. There was no significant (P > 0.05) difference in preference when comparing the aroma of the abalone meat samples fed on either the SWD or FD. However, there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the consumers’ preference in terms of flavour for the abalone sample fed on the FD. The trained taste panel results indicated that there was no difference in the aroma and flavour of the abalone fed on the different diets (P > 0.05). This study showed that cultured juvenile H. midae, readily accepted a FD, producing high consumption and survival rates. The FD still warrants further refinement and testing for it to become a more effective mariculture feed with commercial potential.