Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

M.A. / The post-apartheid period has seen growing literary interest in issues of gender and sexuality. This dissertation reads literature as a type of cultural history and engages critically with the discursive and epistemological role of fiction within a broader palimpsest of discourses, theories and nomenclatures relating to sexuality. It maps the limitations of existing epistemological hierarchies and argues for the recognition of fiction as an ephemeral and complementary archive of same-sex subjectivities. While fiction can construct and shift signifying regimes, it also engages with the complexities and nuances of individual subjectivities as well as the affective elements of narratives in interesting and important ways. Focussing particularly on K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001), Gerald Kraak’s Ice in the Lungs (2006), and Mark Behr’s Kings of the Water (2009), this dissertation examines the ways in which representations of non-heteronormative sexualities impact on post-transitional literary culture in South Africa. Transition-era texts and discourses tend to serve particular political imperatives that demand the politicisation of identities. This dissertation destabilises the existing taxonomies of sexual identities and foregrounds the fluidity of both sexual desire and individual subjectivities. Furthermore, this dissertation interrogates the signifying regimes and discursive practices with which same-sex intimacies between men are represented. In addition, it interrogates the prevailing frameworks for the study of masculinities and shows how the novels under consideration illustrate alternative ways of conceptualising gender performativity. While there are of course a multiplicity of masculinities, through a close reading of the novels I argue that the performativity of masculinities is produced by the indeterminate, though undeniable, intersections between cultural gender norms and individual agency. This dissertation’s analysis of gender representations identifies masculinities as the site for the interrogation of myriad historical and cultural discourses including those relating to the South African Defence Force, the anti-apartheid movement and post-apartheid Cape Town. Accordingly, I argue that the three post-transitional novels under consideration resist the politics of collective mobilisation and undermine ideologically-sanctioned ‘official’ histories. As both a literary and a cultural history, this dissertation engages not only with the literariness of the novels but also with how they contribute to a broader cultural history of same-sex male subjectivities in South Africa.

This study explores the crisis of representation in black South African protest and ‘post’-apartheid literature. Conversant with the debates on the crisis of representation in black South African protest literature from the 1960s to the late 1980s, the dissertation proposes a re-reading of the ‘crisis’ by locating it in the black writer’s struggle for an aesthetic with which to express the existential crisis of blackness. I contend that not only protest but also contemporary or ‘post’-protest black South African literature exhibits a split or fractured mode of writing which is characterised by the displacement/unheimlichheid produced by colonialism and apartheid, as well as by the contentious nature of that which this literature endeavours to capture – the fraught identity of blackness. In my exploration of the split or double narratives of Mongane Serote’s To Every Birth Its Blood, K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, and Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut, I examine the representation of blackness through the themes of violence, trauma, powerlessness, failure, and unhomeliness/unbelongingness – all of which suggest the lack of a solid foundation upon which to construct a stable black identity. This instability, I ultimately argue, suggests a move beyond an Afrocentric perspective on identity and traditional tropes of blackness towards a more processual, fluid, and permeable post-black politics.

Thesis (MA (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As a society that is only in its adolescence as a democracy, South Africa faces massive inequalities, both politically and socially. Within this context, Fanie du Toit of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation urges us to remember that “nation-building in our young democracy requires opportunities for South African voices to be heard, particularly those from the margins of society, so often excluded, ignored or forgotten” (1). This thesis thus focuses on story-telling and representational acts of the marginalized in post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) texts. The term “post-TRC” is an indication of the framework I use to explore the poetics and politics of representation, as well as the past‟s impact on contemporary South Africa. In my overview of the TRC, I focus not on actual testimonies, but on the space provided for the marginalized to speak, as well as methodologies and techniques of representation that stem from the TRC process. Antjie Krog's Country of My Skull (1998), which mimics and expands on the TRC's work, sets the platform for my discussion as Krog incorporates many of the victims' testimonies into her narrative. In my second chapter, I explore the tension between advocacy and appropriation as various factors influence Krog's act of representation. In Chapters Three and Four, the complexities of representation are investigated in four post-TRC texts which feature a protagonist who is either represented as marginalized, or who engages with marginalized individuals. In Chapter 3, I turn to the homeless and the foreigner in Jonathan Morgan and the Great African Spider Writers' Finding Mr Madini (1999), and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001). In Finding Mr Madini, Jonathan Morgan consciously employs a framework for interacting with the homeless that draws on processes of the TRC, and turns away from representing others towards providing a space for self-representation. Welcome to Our Hillbrow highlights the power of narrative in effecting marginalization or belonging, while demonstrating the fluidity of the identities of the self and the stranger. In Chapter Four, I look at novels featuring youth protagonists to investigate how genre and literary form shape representation. Using Patricia Schonstein Pinnock's Skyline (2000) and K. Sello Duiker's Thirteen Cents (2000), texts which evoke and deviate from the Bildungsroman form, I explore the ways in which these protagonists navigate their fragmented urban spaces. I also end with these novels to see what kind of future awaits these young people in which the marginalized have (not) been given a space to speak. All these protagonists grapple with the complexities of representation in various ways, as they create stories of self and others to restore a sense of home or belonging in contemporary South Africa. Furthermore, the past is shown to be implicated in the present as colonial and apartheid structures of domination and marginalization are shown to still play a significant role in shaping people's interaction with each other. At the same time, the collective indeterminacy of these texts' endings signals openness to the future, as well as the unfinished nature of the past. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: As demokrasie staan Suid-Afrika nog in sy kinderskoene. Die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing staar daarom omvangryke ongelykhede, beide polities en sosiaal, in die gesig. Met hierdie konteks in gedagte noop Fanie du Toit van die Instituut vir Justisie en Versoening ons om in ag te neem dat “nasie-bou in ons jong demokrasie geleenthede vir Suid-Afrikaanse stemme, veral dié wat deur die samelewing gemarginaliseer, en sodoende dikwels uitgesluit, geïgnoreer en vergeet is, vereis” (1). Hierdie verhandeling fokus dus op vertelling en die voorstellingshandelinge van die gemarginaliseerdes in post-Waarheid en Versoeningskommissie-tekste. Die term “post-WVK” vorm die basis vanwaar ek die poëtiese en politieke aspekte van voorstelling, maar terselfdertyd ook die verlede se impak op die hedendaagse Suid-Afrika, ondersoek. In my oorsig van die WVK fokus ek nie op getuienisse nie, maar eerder op die ruimte vir seggenskap wat vir die gemarginaliseerdes daargestel is. Ek neem ook metodieke en tegnieke van voorstelling wat vanuit die WVK-verwikkelinge spruit in oënskou. Antjie Krog's Country of My Skull (1998) wat die WVK se werk weergee en bepeins, maar ook daarop voortbou, verskaf die basis vir hierdie bespreking aangesien Krog menigte slagoffers se getuienisse in haar boek vervat. Ek ondersoek verder die spanning tussen voorspraak en toe-eiening aangesien verskeie faktore haar voorstellingshandeling beïnvloed. Die daaropvolgende twee hoofstukke ondersoek die ingewikkeldhede van voorstelling in vier post-WVK-tekste. Hierdie tekste word telkens gekenmerk deur 'n protagonis wat óf self gemarginaliseer is, óf met gemarginaliseerde individue omgaan. In Hoofstuk Drie ondersoek ek die daklose en die buitelander in Jonathan Morgan en The Great African Spider Writers se Finding Mr Madini (1999), en Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001). In Finding Mr Madini maak Jonathan Morgan doelbewus van 'n benadering, in pas met en beïnvloed deur WVK-werkinge, gebruik om met die daklose om te gaan. Hiermee beweeg hy dan weg van die voorstelling van ander na die skepping van 'n ruimte vir self-voorstelling. Welcome to Our Hillbrow plaas weer klem op die mag van vertelling om marginalisering, maar ook samehorigheid te bewerkstellig, terwyl dit ook die onstabiele aard van die identiteite van die self en die vreemdeling illustreer. In Hoofstuk Vier ondersoek ek romans met jong protagoniste om te toon hoe genre en literêre vorm voorstelling beïnvloed. Deur van Patricia Schonstein Pinnock's Skyline (2000) en K. Sello Duiker's Thirteen Cents (2000), tekste wat aan die Bildungsroman-genre herinner, maar ook daarvan afwyk, gebruik te maak, verken ek die maniere waarop hierdie protagoniste hul stedelike ruimtes reël en betree. Verder sluit ek met hierdie romans af ten einde te sien wat die toekoms, waarin die gemarginaliseerde seggenskap gegun is, al dan nie, vir hierdie jongmense inhou. Al hierdie protagoniste worstel op uiteenlopende maniere met die ingewikkeldhede van voorstelling. Dit is duidelik aangesien hulle stories van self en ander skep om 'n sin van tuiste en samehorigheid in hedendaagse Suid-Afrika te bewerkstellig. Die verlede blyk verder in die hede verwikkel te wees aangesien koloniale- en apartheidstrukture van onderdrukking en marginalisering steeds 'n betekenisvolle rol in die aard van mense se interaksie met mekaar speel. Terselfdertyd dui die kollektiewe onbepaaldheid van hierdie tekste se aflope op 'n oopheid vir die toekoms en die onafgehandelde aard van die verlede.

Thesis (MA (English Literature))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / In this thesis I examine the presentations of masculinity in several novels published in the post-apartheid period in South Africa, that is, the period after 1994. The novels under discussion are all male-authored texts and include novels by J M Coetzee (1999), André Brink (2000), Phaswane Mpe (2001), K Sello Duiker (2001), Zakes Mda (2002) and Damon Galgut (2003). In the introduction theoretical issues regarding masculinity are discussed on the basis of Morrell (2001) and a broad framework for the thesis is outlined. Subsequently the presentation of masculinity is analysed in each of the respective novels under discussion. Issues such as a definition of masculinity (or rather, masculinities), the interaction between men as friends, as colleagues; as well as issues such as heterosexuality and homosexuality are discussed. What perspectives does the author provide on masculinity? How do the male characters experience the new South Africa? What is the nature of their interaction with the female characters in the novels? Another aspect dealt with is the repression of homosexual desire for another man and the way in which it is suppressed beneath a macho façade. In the conclusion the different perspectives are compared and similarities and differences are briefly pointed out. In the end, an important question that comes to mind is: Do these men present a different type of masculinity emerging in the period after liberation, or do they merely (as depicted by their authors) perpetuate the patriarchal masculinities associated with the period before 1994?

The study provides a theoretical account for the representation of apartheid in South African fiction. Narrative strategies employed in the post-apartheid novels The innocence of roast chicken (Richards, 1996), The smell of apples (Behr, 1996), All we have left unsaid (Case, 2006) and Thirteen cents (Duiker, 2011) reveal that depictions of the past contribute to narrative structure and the production of meaning. Genettean temporal relations, namely narrative order, duration and frequency are a systematic method to analyse the selected novels, since it enables a contrast between the narrative past as the histoire, and the narrative present as the récit. Retrospective events are constructed as memories, thereby are complemented by Bergson’s psychological and philosophical theory in the analysis and interpretation of the dualistic interaction between the apartheid and post-apartheid temporal centres adopted within the novels. The representation of apartheid may be seen as sub-themes and time as configurations of temporal zones. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Theory of Literature)

The study provides a theoretical account for the representation of apartheid in South African fiction. Narrative strategies employed in the post-apartheid novels The innocence of roast chicken (Richards, 1996), The smell of apples (Behr, 1996), All we have left unsaid (Case, 2006) and Thirteen cents (Duiker, 2011) reveal that depictions of the past contribute to narrative structure and the production of meaning. Genettean temporal relations, namely narrative order, duration and frequency are a systematic method to analyse the selected novels, since it enables a contrast between the narrative past as the histoire, and the narrative present as the récit. Retrospective events are constructed as memories, thereby are complemented by Bergson’s psychological and philosophical theory in the analysis and interpretation of the dualistic interaction between the apartheid and post-apartheid temporal centres adopted within the novels. The representation of apartheid may be seen as sub-themes and time as configurations of temporal zones. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M. A. (Theory of Literature)