South Africa has embarked on a journey of transformation since 1994. The ruling ANC has introduced many policies aimed at achieving equality, known as "black empowerment". The `empowerment' of black women professionals is especially critical in the transformation era. Empowerment is defined as a process, which "involves individuals gaining control of their lives and fulfilling their needs, …as a result of developing the competencies, skills, and abilities necessary to effectively participate in their social and political worlds" (Kreisberg, 1992:19). From this perspective, empowerment is the essential expression of individualism and self-determination since it embodies the belief that the individual has the ability to effect changes and improve their lives. This individually oriented definition presupposes the importance of constructing one's `self' as unitary and independent. The `unitary self' is a support of the logic of the `Same', which entails the exclusion of otherness and difference. In contrast to this approach, the postmodern theory of Julia Kristeva, with its inherent suspicion of doctrines of pure origins and essences, is corrosive of discourses such as `empowerment' that are developed according to the logic of the Same. Kristeva proposes a subject which is always already `in process'. Identity is a constructed process, rather than a fundamental essence. The Oedipal model, extracted from the Kristevan theory of subjectivity, shows how the nine professional women who partook in this study constructed their selves by placing equality and difference in an antithetical relationship. However, a deconstruction of the Oedipal model opens the construct up to its blind spots and, these subjects are shown to base their identities on the splitting off of their feminine capabilities. Instead of being `unitary self', the subjects are subjects-in-process, and they operate both across and within the competing discourses of traditional femininity and masculinity. As a possible alternative to the positivist paradigm of `empowerment', a Kristevan `herethics' is considered. In South Africa, this is exemplified by the `ubuntu' principle, which entails the recognition of our interdependence. Finally, in order to assist these professional women to embrace the alterity within, whilst competing in a constantly changing and intellectually challenging world, life skills coaching which focuses on the often repressed, emotional aspects, is recommended. / Psychology / D.Litt et Phil. (Psychology)

This study will argue that visual art and the making of images share much With other languages. If writing can be deoonstructed, visual Imagery can be deconfigured, for figuring an image is much like structuring a sentence. The process of deconfiguration however relies on repetition. DeconflguratiOn therefore denies any claim of a primary creator. It will be argued though that deconfiguratlon remains creative as it engages the imagination in a process of transference and through association. Moreover, deconfiguration shows how binary opposites are essential In the making of artworks. The repetitive process takes place when the artwork Is made and continues during the appreciation and/or interpretation of the artwork. For the interpretation to really deconfigure, it would mean that the image constituted by the artist has metaphorical, allegorical and even symbolical implications. The interpreter will thus always remain a partidpant in the creative process suggested by the artwork. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Women in the Theological Anthropology of the Afrikaans Reformed Tradition This dissertation examines women in the theological anthropology of the Afrikaans Reformed Churches. The study is set out as follows: In Chapter 1, a survey of methodology is presented. The exposition of the question about the theological anthropology is done against a poststructural background. Both structuralism and poststructuralism largely put aside existentialism as an inadequate methodology. Chapter 2 aims to give an overview of the contribution of Michel Foucault. The chapter begins with a discussion of structuralism. This brief overview is then followed by a classification and investigation of the basic aspects of Foucault's approach. The chapter highlights Foucault's rootedness in poststructuralism. Chapter 3 attempts to explain silence of women in the theological anthropology of Dutch Reformed Church. The central aim of Chapter 3 is to demonstrate, against the development of the women ministries and the discourse about the ordination of women, that the Dutch Reformed Church theological anthropology is deeply influenced by the discursive practices developed during 1928-1932. Chapter 4 gives an overview of the developments in the theological anthropology of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, Dutch Reformed Church of Africa and the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa that took place from 1924 until 2002. Different approaches to the women question developed in the course of time. At the heart of the discourse is the shift in the reading process. The developments in the feminist standpoint theory as such led to this displacement. In Chapter 5 the deconstruction of the theological anthropology are being discussed. Preference is given in this chapter to the concept partnership or transformative relations. In the concluding chapter [Chapter 6], a poststructural feminist discourse is presented. Selected guidelines that the church may wish to take into account in the deconstructing of the theological anthropology are suggested. In the future, the frame of reference to the women question would likely be poststructural. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This project forms part of a growing engagement with biology by critical psychology and, more broadly, body studies. The specific focus is on the neurological body whose dogmatic exclusion from critical endeavours is challenged by arguing that neuroscience offers a vital resource for emancipatory agendas. Rather than conversely treating biology as a site for the factual supplementation of social theory the aim is to engage (negotiate) with neuroscience more directly and critically. In this process a discursive reductionism and attempted escape from complicity associated with critical psychology are addressed. Similarly a naïve and apolitical empiricism claimed by neuroscience is disrupted. The primary objective is however to demonstrate the utility of neuroscience in developing critical theory. These objectives are pursued through the ‘method’ of deconstruction, (mis)reading several highly regarded neuroscience texts written by prominent neuroscientists, working within the convolutions of these texts so as develop openings for critical conceptualisations of (neural) corporeality. In this manner the various spectres associated with neurology, including essentialism, determinism, individualism, reductionism and dualism, are displaced. This includes, amongst others, the omnipresent mind/body and body/society binaries. The (mis)readings address a number of prominent themes associated with contemporary neuroscience: Attempts at specifying an identity for (part of) the brain are shown to rely on a necessary relationship with the excluded other (such as the body, the socio-cultural, and the environment). Similarly, attempts at articulating a centre, a point from which agency can proceed, which finds existing identity in the functions of the prefrontal cortices, are also undone by the (multiple, affective, and unconscious) other which decentres the centre by being the essential supplement for any such claims. The causal metaphysic must likewise proceed within the play of différance, a logic of difference and deferral that undermines causal routes, innate origins and autocratic centres. Finally, reductionism must advance as a necessary strategy through which to engage with complexity, its ambitions always impossible as the aneconomic is forever in excess of any economy. The emancipatory viability of such (mis)readings is discussed within a context where the open and malleable body has been co-opted by contemporary neo-liberal geoculture. / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This study attempts to offer a reading of Msimang's poetry from the perspective of deconstruction. In this course it is necessary to introduce and elaborate on certain deconstruction strategies. This is mainly effected in the second chapter, where consideration is given to diachronic and synchronic perspectives on deconstruction. However, not all the ramifications of the various radical insights offered by deconstructive approaches into the various fields are explored, only the significant texts by mainly French theorists and their American disciples are investigated. Secondly, this study seeks to show that the Zulu poems under consideration are highly amenable to a deconstruction reading. This thesis examines the various practices to absorb, transform, and integrate deconstruction and to make the theory applicable as a critical method within the African languages critical environment. In the third chapter, I am chiefly concerned with the claim that a text never has a single meaning, but is a crossroads of multiple ambiguous meanings. Explaining the historical context, the interdisciplinary scope, and the philosophical significance of Derrida' s project are explored in the fourth chapter. Language has no determinate centre nor any retrievable origin or truth. Belief in such is no more than nostalgia, says Derrida. What actually exists is a complex network of differences between signifiers, each in some sense carrying the traces of all others. With psychoanalysis in the fourth chapter, the focus is not on the differences between the deconstructive and psychoanalytic critics, but on their shared assumption that works ofliterature are in some sense indeterminate. These properties lead to the sixth chapter, which deals with intertextuality according to Derrida, Barthes and Bloom. The seventh and last chapter is the general conclusion in which main observations are summarized and important aspects highlighted. Finally, this thesis attempts to illustrate why the deconstructive procedure of analysing texts in such a way as to explicate their partial complicity with the theory, makes this deconstructive reading of Msimang' s poetry possible. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2003 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The problem discussed in this thesis is how to resist and subvert the complicity of biblical studies with neo-colonialism as a white male biblical scholar. Traditionally the interpretation of the bible by white male biblical scholars has not been recognised as an interested and situated practice, unlike the interpretations by readers from marginalised backgrounds. The thesis put forward here is that it is the other - understood as infinite and irreducible - that opens up the habitual vicious circle of identity formation and identifiable practices. This interruption is a moment of true decision, i.e. a moment where the self cannot follow any preestablished ethico-political programme but has to respond in a truly innovative way. This innovation is understood to be brought about in a double strategy, which juxtaposes a hegemonic practice with its binary opposition in a nondialectical way. The space in which such an interruption occurs is the interstitial borderline, the liminal space and interface between the self and its other. In the first part, the thesis critically engages with the work of three white male biblical scholars - Daniel Patte, Jeffrey Staley, and Gerald West - who try to overcome the traditional academic discourse of biblical studies by problematising the relationship between their own identities and their academic practices. In the second part, deconstruction, as shorthand for the work of Jacques Derrida, is subsequently presented as a thoroughly postcolonial critique of western ontological concepts and as a viable manner in which to theorise the critical contributions of Patte, Staley, and West. In the third and final part, three approaches within biblical studies - historicism, the bible as popular text, and literary approaches - are singled out and discussed as possible liminal spaces within which the identity of the white male biblical scholar can be reinvented in responsibility to the other. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vraagstuk onder bespreking in hierdie verhandeling is hoe om, as blanke manlike bybelgeleerde die onderlinge medepligtigheid tussen die studie van die bybel en neo-kolonialisme te weerstaan en te ondermyn. Volgens tradisie word die vertolking van die bybel deur blanke manlike bybelgeleerdes nie erken as 'n ge·interesseerde en gelee praktyk nie, in teenstelling met die vertolkings van geleerdes afkomstig uit minderheidsgroepe. Die stelling wat hier gemaak word is dat dit die 'ander' is - begryp as oneindig en onverminderbaar - wat die gebruiklike bose kring van identiteitsvorming en identifiseerbare praktyke oopmaak. Hierdie onderbreking is 'n oomblik van ware besluitneming, i.e. 'n oomblik waarbinne die self nie enige voorafbepaalde eties-politiese program kan volg nie, maar waarbinne die self werklik op 'n oorspronklike en nuwe wyse moet reageer. Dit word verstaan dat hierdie nuwigheid tot stand gebring word in a dubbele strategie wat die heersende praktyk op 'n nie-dialektiese wyse langs sy binere opposisie plaas. Die ruimte waarbinne hierdie onderbreking plaasvind is die tussengrenslyn, die oorgangsruimte en skakel tussen die self en die 'ander'. Die eerste gedeelte van die verhandeling is 'n kritiese bespreking van die werke van drie blanke manlike bybelgeleerdes, naamlik Daniel Patte, Jeffrey Staley en Gerald West, wat poog om die tradisionele akademiese diskoers oor die studie van die bybel te bemeester deur die verhouding tussen hulle eie identiteite en hul akademiese gebruike te problematiseer. Die tweede gedeelte bied dekonstruksie, as snelskrif vir die werk van Jaques Derrida aan as 'n deurdagte post-koloniale kritiek van westerse ontologiese konsepte en as 'n lewensvatbare wyse waarop die kritiese bydraes van Patte, Staley en West teoretiseer kan word. In die derde en laaste gedeelte word drie benaderings tot die studie van die bybel, naamlik 'n historiese benadering, die bybel as populere teks en litirere benaderings uitgesonder en bespreek as moontlike oorgangsruimtes waarbinne die identiteit van die blanke manlike bybelgeleerde herversin en bedink kan word met verantwoordelikheid teenoor die 'ander'.

This thesis examines the use of irony in Joyce’s Portrait, claiming that it has the effect of deconstructing common notions of maturity that are engrained within the Bildungsroman tradition, and that this was Joyce’s intention. In Portrait, irony plays the role of psychological reality, undercutting Stephen’s unrealistic expectation to see his life follow a traditional path of teleological progression. This essay proceeds by looking at the novel’s symbolic, thematic and literary cues, as well as through an analysis of its structure, and Stephen’s psychological and behavioral tendencies throughout the novel. This interpretation of the irony as bearing deconstructive meaning comes from the essay adopting a static, as opposed to a kinetic, apprehension of Stephen in Portrait.

Thesis (MA (VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the manner in which the function of jewellery (in both the wearing and owning of it) is complementary to the value, meaning and definition of jewellery. The function of jewellery can be regarded as two-fold, consisting of both a physical and social function. The physical function of a jewellery piece entails the way in which it is worn and the manner in which the piece is utilised. The social function of jewellery is not only the status or identity that the jewellery represents, but also how jewellery can symbolise and stimulate relationships. An investigation of the physical function of jewellery is undertaken by deconstructing archetypical jewellery pieces. This illustrates what characteristics define an object as a jewellery piece and show how some archetypical jewellery pieces may appear to be seemingly universal, timeless and natural. The social function of jewellery is investigated by considering the relational aesthetics of jewellery and thus showing how jewellery can testify and give rise to relationships. This study also sheds light on the way in which contemporary jewellery can question value systems. The research includes the designing, making and discussing of contemporary jewellery. The primary research for the thesis is formed by a discussion of my art pieces and is supported by theoretical research. In the conclusion of this study it is clear that jewellery can assume multiple definitions and meanings. These definitions and meanings are not only determined by the designer and maker of the jewellery piece, but also by the wearer/ owner and the viewer as well as the context within which the jewellery piece is worn or displayed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In dié tesis word daar ondersoek ingestel oor hoe die funksie van juweliersware (in beide die dra en besit daarvan) die waarde, betekenis en definisie van juweliersware aanvul. Die funksie van juweliersware kan beskou word as tweevoudig en bestaan uit beide ’n fisiese- en ’n sosiale funksie. Die fisiese funksie van ʼn juweelstuk behels hoe dit gedra word en hoe die juweelstuk funksioneer. Die sosiale funksie van juweliersware word nie net beskou as die status of identiteit wat juweliersware voorstel nie, maar ook hoe juweliersware verhoudings simboliseer en stimuleer. ‘n Ondersoek na die fisiese funksie is uitgevoer deur argetipiese juweliersware te dekonstrueer. Só word daar gewys watter soort eienskappe ʼn voorwerp as ʼn juweelstuk definieer en hoe sekere argetipiese juwele as skynbaar universeel, tydloos en natuurlik voorkom. Die sosiale funksie van juweliersware is ondersoek deur te kyk na die estetiese verwantskappe van juweliersware, en só te wys hoe juweliersware kan getuig en aanleiding gee tot verhoudings. In die studie word daar ook uitgelig op watter wyse kontemporêre juweliersware waardesisteme kan bevraagteken. Die navorsing behels die ontwerp, maak en bespreking van kontemporêre juweliersware. Die bespreking van my kunswerke vorm die primêre navorsing van die tesis en word ondersteun deur teoretiese navorsing. Na afloop van die studie is dit duidelik dat juweliersware veelvoudige definisies en betekenisse kan aanneem. Dié betekenisse en definisies word nie net bepaal deur die ontwerper en maker nie, maar ook deur die draer/ eienaar en toeskouer asook die konteks waarin die juweelstuk gedra of vertoon word.

The present thesis seeks to problematize the UN discourse within transitional justice. Many scholars have pointed out that the discourse has been normalised and that is why it is in need for deconstruction. The study aims to critically analyse how justice and reconciliation are understood in the field. For the purpose of the study Derrida’s concepts on justice and forgiveness have been chosen as theoretical frameworks. The method of study is a deconstructive analysis, based on Derrida’s notion of deconstruction. The method implies analysis of language of the research material, i.e. four UN reports regarding transitional justice from 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2011. The study has shown, firstly, that the rule of law concept is closely connected with the idea of justice and, secondly, justice is often reduced to accountability. That in turn explains the dominance of the juridical instruments in transitional justice processes. Apart from this, based on Derrida’s concept of forgiveness, reconciliation and mechanisms applied represent a conditional forgiveness, seeking to re-establish normality. Another problem is that reconciliation is not sufficiently approached in the reports. Nevertheless, the history of the transitional justice development has shown that there is a potential for further changes and that is why it necessary to continue question the established norms.   Finally, deconstruction analysis has proved to be an adequate method for analysing transitional justice discourses and contributed to a nuanced analysis. The use of two languages, English and Russian versions of the reports allowed to identify and visualise some conceptual constructions that could otherwise have been missing.

Thesis (MDram)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The productions of Breyten Breytenbach's dramas created unprecedented (negative) reaction amongst the audience members. The themes and the representation of these themes through the use of language and images caused the alienation of many audience members. One of the main causes of alienation was the problem the audience had in understanding the text. The two Afrikaans dramas, Boklied and Die Toneelstuk will be placed in the postmodern theatrical tradition to give a methodology for the reading of the texts. The study also examines the nature of intertextuality to show how the use of intertextuality helps to create meaning. The theatrical productions bring the texts to life and therefore the study will also refer to the productions of these texts. The experience of a postmodern theatre piece does not imply that no meaning can be attributed to language and action. The attribution of meaning in production and texts like Boklied and Die Toneelstuk is not always based on the use oflanguage. The audience/reader of these texts becomes the cocreators of meaning. This study tries to show a range of interpretations and possible meanings of these texts. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die dramas van Breyten Breytenbach het met die produksie daarvan ongekende en negatiewe reaksie onder die Afrikaanse gehore ontlok. Die temas en die uitbeelding van hierdie temas in produksie en in die taal wat Breytenbach gebruik het, het tot vervreemding by die gehoor gelei. Een van die hoofredes vir die vervreemding by die gehoor was dat hulle probleme gehad het om die teks te verstaan. Die twee Afrikaanse dramas, Boklied en Die Toneelstuk word in hierdie tesis binne die postmoderne teaterstroom geplaas om aan te toon hoe dié tipe teatertekste gelees kan word. Die studie ondersoek ook die aard van intertekstuele verwysings in die dramas- om aan te toon hoe hierdie verwysings help met die skepping van betekenis by die kyker/leser van hierdie tekste. Die geskrewe dramateks kan eers ten volle in die lewe geroep word in die produksie van die teks en daarom word daar in die bespreking van die tekste ook na die opvoerings verwys. Die belewing van 'n postmoderne teaterstuk beteken nie dat daar nie betekenis aan aksie en taal toegeskryf kan word nie. Die toeskrywing van betekenis is, in gevalle soos die produksies van Boklied en Die Toneelstuk, nie altyd tekstueel gebaseer nie. Die toeskouer/leser van hierdie tekste is medeskepper van betekenis. Die studie poog om die vele moontlikhede van interpretasie en die betekenis van hierdie tekste uit te lig.