In this Master’s Report, I examine Samuel R. Delany’s use of language in his pornographic novel, Hogg. Through a postcolonial lens, I investigate the ways Delany employs white colonizers’ language to subvert white dominant patriarchal and heteronormative ideologies. As theorists Frantz Fanon and Hortense J. Spillers posit, language is essential to black identity. The arrival of Europeans on the African continent and the subsequent enslavement of blacks resulted in the loss of an indigenous African name. For blacks, the loss of this name serves as a larger metaphor by which one can uncover various wrongdoings committed by white colonizers, such as forcing Africans to learn a foreign language, refusing to acknowledge and respect an established African culture, and the physical violence enacted upon black bodies during slavery. In Hogg, the eleven-year-old black narrator negotiates his existence as a voiceless object and sex slave. I argue that through this narrator, one can see the devastating effects of colonization. Further, by creating a fictional world--the Pornotopia--Delany temporarily creates a space in which patriarchal boundaries no longer exist. Thus, the narrator challenges patriarchal, heteronormative discourse by taking advantage of the assumption that the narrator lacks the ability to master language. / text

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the ways in which the censors during the apartheid era responded to the works of three black liberation theorists; namely Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral and Steve Biko. Although other studies of apartheid‐era censorship have been published, this is the first to examine the censors’ reactions to the work of key African liberation writers. Apartheid in South Africa brought with it a stringent system of governance, which included a board of censors who would decide, according their interpretation of the laws of the time, whether a publication was considered to be “desirable” or “not undesirable.” One of the major themes examined in the thesis is the interface and tension between the specific and the transnational. As we shall see, all three liberation theorists put forward Pan‐African ideas of liberation, but often explicated upon the specificities of their particular liberation struggles. In a strange act of mirroring, while upholding the idea of South Africa as “a special case” (exempt from the norms of international human rights law), the apartheid‐era censors were concerned about the spread of Pan‐African theories of liberation. Beginning with Fanon, I speculate on the reason why Black Skin White Masks was not banned in South Africa, though Fanon’s later works to enter the country were banned. I also examine Gillo Pontecorvo’s film The Battle of Algiers, which was influenced by Fanon’s theories, and censorship, arguing that the “likely readers” or “likely viewers” of revolutionary material included not only possible revolutionaries, but also paranoid networks of counterinsurgency. I then move on to examine the apartheid censors’ responses to the works of Amilcar Cabral, outlining the interface and tension between local and continental as described above. The final chapter, which deals with the censors’ responses to Steve “Bantu” Biko’s I Write What I Like as well as Donald Wood’s Biko, the film Cry Freedom and other Biko related texts and memorabilia, has some surprises about the supposedly “liberal” censors’ responses to what they deemed to be “undesirable” and “not undesirable” literature. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis verken die manier waarop die sensuurraad tydens die apartheidera gereageer het op die werk van drie swart bevrydingsteoretici, by name Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral en Steve Biko. Hoewel daar wel ander studies oor apartheidera‐sensuur die gepubliseer is, is hierdie die eerste studie wat die sensuurraad se reaksie op die werk van sleutel‐Afrikabevrydingskrywers verken. Apartheid het ‘n streng beheerstelsel in Suid‐Afrika tot gevolg gehad wat ‘n sensuurraad ingesluit het wat volgens sy interpretasie van die toenmalige wette kon besluit of ‘n publikasie “wenslik” of “nie‐wenslik” was. Een van die hooftemas wat in hierdie tesis ondersoek word is die interaksie en spanning tussen die spesifieke en die transnasionale. Soos sal blyk, het al drie bevrydingsteoretici Pan‐Afrikanistiese idees van bevryding ondersteun, maar dikwels die besondere van hul spesifieke bevrydingstryd uiteengesit. Die apartheidera‐sensors se kommer oor die verspreiding van die Pan‐ Afrikanistiese bevrydingsteorië, terwyl hulle die idee van Suid‐Afrika as “’n spesiale geval” (vrygestel van die norme van internasionale menseregtewetgewing) voorgehou het, was ‘n ironiese spieëlbeeld hiervan. Ek begin by Fanon en bespiegel oor die redes waarom Black Skin White Masks nooit in Suid‐Afrika verbied was nie hoewel Fanon se latere werk wat die land binnegekom het, wel verbied was. Ek ondersoek ook Gillo Pontecorvo se film The Battle of Algiers wat deur Fanon se teorië beïnvloed is, en argumenteer dat die “waarskynlike lesers” en “waarskynlike kykers” van revolusionêre materiaal nie slegs moontlike revolusionêre ingesluit het nie, maar ook paranoïede netwerke van teeninsurgensie. Ek gaan voort deur die reaksie van die apartheidera‐sensors op die werke van Amilcar Cabral te ondersoek en die interaksie en spanning tussen die plaaslike en die kontinentale, soos hierbo beskryf, uit te lig. Die slothoofstuk, wat handel oor die sensuurraad se reaksie op Steve “Bantu” Biko se I Write What I Like, asook Donald Woods se Biko, die film Cry Freedom en ander Biko‐verwante tekste en memorabilia, bevat verrassings omtrent die sogenaamde “liberale” sensors se reaksies op wat hulle as “wenslike” en “nie‐wenslike” literatuur beskou het.

ix, 161 p. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT BD175.5.M84 B74 2001 / Charles Taylor, in his essay “The Politics of Recognition,” frames the issue of multiculturalism in terms of the relationship between recognition and identity. Upon what basis and to what degree can different identities be recognized in a democratic society committed to equality? He subsequently argues that the ongoing dispute over the issue of multiculturalism can be understood as resulting from the disparate emphasis disputants respectively place upon the notions of dignity and the modern conception of an inwardly derived identity, the former defending a “politics of equality” and the latter a “politics of difference.” Upon this analysis, however, the two opposing sides manifest in this dispute are not sufficiently clarified in order to convincingly support a resolution. In addition, Taylor dismisses all notions of cultural incommensurability, some form of which is required to adequately distinguish the “politics of difference” from the “politics of equality.” In order to sufficiently clarify the bases of the oppositional stands taken on the issue, it is necessary that the dispute over multiculturalism be understood as a conflict between adherents of two opposing traditions within political theory, formed in the colonial past, in their respective attempts to adapt those theories for use in the post-colonial present. Both liberal and dialectical political theories were initially formulated upon the presupposition of cultural homogeneity. Opposing efforts to adapt each of them for use in a context of cultural heterogeneity have led to the present impasse. The key to the successful adaptation of these theories to the present, and thus to a resolution of the impasse, lies in the removal of each of its respective metaphysical doctrines of a priori universalism. Such metaphysically cleansed constructions of dialectical theory and of liberal theory are found in the work of Frantz Fanon and John Dewey respectively. Most readily, one may derive the basis for a resolution to disputes over multiculturalism in Dewey’s conception of the democratic reconstruction of culture, which can be described as a dialectical liberalism and which aims merely to harmonize rather than to eliminate differences in the pursuit of equality. / Adviser: Dr. Cheyney Ryan

South African history is rooted in racial identities, inequalities and injustices, which the post-apartheid government has sought to address for twenty years since 1994. The transition to a post-apartheid society though has been a difficult one with the social structure and everyday life still marked by the racial past. Though racial classifications on an official basis no longer exist, racial identities continue to pervade the country. Of particular significance to this thesis are black identities including the possibility of black inferiority, which I examine in relation to black post-graduate university students in contemporary South Africa, specifically at Rhodes University. In examining this topic, I draw extensively on the work of Frantz Fanon, who wrote about both colonial society and the emerging post-colonial experience. Fanon was a young black intellectual whose work was in part based on his own experiences of being a once-colonised black person in a world which he perceived as being dominated by whiteness. In his work he expresses his own perceptions of whiteness and how the black identity has come to be shaped by and around this dominant white foundation. Fanon extensively discussed the lives of black intellectuals and elites, and demonstrated how the black identity becomes shaped by and around the world of whiteness. In doing so, he raised a range of themes, such as black inferiority, mimicry and double consciousness. I draw upon the work of Fanon in a critically sympathetic manner to delve into the experiences of black postgraduate students as they negotiate their way through a university setting dominated by a white institutional culture. I bring to the fore the argument that the racial identities of these students is not fixed and sutured but, rather, is marked by considerable fluidity and ambiguity such that black identity must be understood not just as a state of being but also as a process of becoming.

Through a close reading of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, this essay shows the key links between the novel and Frantz Fanon’s major works. In addition to providing a deeper understanding of Dangarembga’s narrative as a whole, it takes into particular consideration the em­bedded criticism of colonialism in the text. The psychological conditions implied by the title play a central role: the essay shows how these conditions relate to the colonial situation and how refusing to consent to subjugation can be understood as radical criticism of colonial, Christian, as well as patriarchal superstructures as well as forming clear opposition to the colonial institution. The analysis is primarily based on Fanon and his comprehension of other theorists. It also draws on the ideas of Homi K. Bhabha, which will provide an additional level of understanding regarding questions about colonial identities in general, and Dangarembga’s characters Tambu, Nyasha, and Babamukuru in particular.

No description available.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine the relationship between mothers and sons in Mustafa Can’s Tätt intill dagarna: Berättelsen om min mor (Close to the days: The story of my mother) from 2006, Theodor Kallifatides’ Mödrar och söner (Mothers and sons) from 2007 and Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous from 2019. These novels examine themes of migration and motherhood through the perspective of the sons, who all write semi-autobiographically about their mothers.   This thesis uses a broad theoretical framework, with postcolonial theories of hybridity and double consciousness alongside motherhood studies as the primary sources. Works by Frantz Fanon, Homi K. Bhabha, Sara Ahmed, and Marianne Hirsch, are, alongside others, used in purpose of creating a nuanced understanding of the relationships between mother, son and place, as these relations are portrayed in the novels.   The analysis is divided into three chapters, where the novels are represented by one chapter each. The final part of the thesis is a comparative discussion, in which the novels are read alongside each other, in order to draw conclusions on the ways in which these authors represent the relations between mother and place, and how this affects the sons’ feelings of identity. In summary, this thesis shows that the mothers play an important role in their sons’ subject formations, and that the sons’ relationships with their home countries are affected by, or correlated to, their relationships with their mothers. This is done using imagery of nature, portrayals of language barriers, and other descriptions of fragmented identities.

The research on xenophobia in South Africa is underpinned by the relationship described by Frantz Fanon between violence and oppression present within the structures of domination. This research addresses the colonial structures that manifested themselves within the oppressive modes in societies. It employs a Fanon analysis of the xenophobic violence of May 2008 and serves to provide an understanding of the experiences of a particular condition and of how a broader invisible context plays an important role in what society sees and assimilates. The question can be asked: Is it safe to say that the xenophobic attacks were racist, or was it mere bigotry? An analysis based on the writings of Franz Fanon coupled with a psychological account of the participants, affirms that the xenophobic attacks revealed that the previously colonised or oppressed black people in South Africa reacted with regard to the assimilation of the master and its slave narrative and dialect. Theories of oppression and slavery posit that patterns of colonialism reoccur and manifest themselves both internally and externally within society. A serious debate is necessary to question whether the incidents came at a time that South Africa should have reflected on society’s interaction with foreign immigrants. / Political Sciences / M.A. (Politics)

Neste corpascrever, meu argumento é o de que levar a sério o problema da naturalização da violência estrutural confere uma (re)nova(da) perspectiva sobre processos de politização de diferenças. Ao inquirir acerca das precondições para a geração de enquadramentos não hegemônicos em contextos marcados por violências estruturais, proponho a reconceitualização dos projetos de politização de diferenças enquanto defesa de processos de autodeterminação cole(a)tiva. Essa tese é defendida em três movimentos interdependentes: (3) por meio de reflexões filosófico-epistemológico-poéticas sobre a relevância da espacialização cole(a)tiva para a experiência da temporalidade; (2) por meio de considerações teóricopolíticas sobre a relação entre o problema do essencialismo e a possibilidade de agência cole(a)tiva subversiva; bem como (1) por meio do vislumbre da con-figur-ação do processo de (r)existência dos povos munduruku e ribeirinho à construção de barragens no Médio Tapajós. Conforme sugiro, a politização de diferenças, sob o proposto viés, apresenta-se como condição sine qua non para viabilizar a apreensão do modus operandi de violências estruturais, uma vez que apenas movimentos (pro)positivos cole(a)tivos permitem a emergência de imagens capazes de colocar a norma hegemônica fundamentalmente em xeque, de modo a transcender os limites inerentes a posturas exclusivamente reativas, co-movendo no sentido da reestruturação do mundo. / In this writingbody, I exam in depth the problem of naturalization of structural violence in order to argue for a (re)new(ed) perspective on the politicization of differences. I suggest a reconceptualization of the politicization of differences as a defense of colle(a)ctive selfdetermination processes through an investigation about the preconditions for the generation of non-hegemonic frames in contexts ruled by structural violence. This thesis is undertaken in three interdependent movements: (3) a philosophical-epistemological-poetical reflexion on the relevance of colle(a)ctive spatialization processes for the experience of temporality; (2) a political-theorical consideration on the relationship between the problem of essentialism and the possibility of subversive colle(a)ctive agency; and (1) a perspective on the con-figura( c)tion of the Munduruku and the riverside peoples (r)existence process to the construction of dams in Middle Tapajós region. I argue that the politicization of differences is conditio sine qua non in order to enable the denaturalization of structural violence, as only (pro)positional colle(a)ctive movements transcend the limits of merely reactive positions, enabling the emergency of images that can call the hegemonic rule into question and, therefore, initiate processes of structural trans-formation.

Neste corpascrever, meu argumento é o de que levar a sério o problema da naturalização da violência estrutural confere uma (re)nova(da) perspectiva sobre processos de politização de diferenças. Ao inquirir acerca das precondições para a geração de enquadramentos não hegemônicos em contextos marcados por violências estruturais, proponho a reconceitualização dos projetos de politização de diferenças enquanto defesa de processos de autodeterminação cole(a)tiva. Essa tese é defendida em três movimentos interdependentes: (3) por meio de reflexões filosófico-epistemológico-poéticas sobre a relevância da espacialização cole(a)tiva para a experiência da temporalidade; (2) por meio de considerações teóricopolíticas sobre a relação entre o problema do essencialismo e a possibilidade de agência cole(a)tiva subversiva; bem como (1) por meio do vislumbre da con-figur-ação do processo de (r)existência dos povos munduruku e ribeirinho à construção de barragens no Médio Tapajós. Conforme sugiro, a politização de diferenças, sob o proposto viés, apresenta-se como condição sine qua non para viabilizar a apreensão do modus operandi de violências estruturais, uma vez que apenas movimentos (pro)positivos cole(a)tivos permitem a emergência de imagens capazes de colocar a norma hegemônica fundamentalmente em xeque, de modo a transcender os limites inerentes a posturas exclusivamente reativas, co-movendo no sentido da reestruturação do mundo. / In this writingbody, I exam in depth the problem of naturalization of structural violence in order to argue for a (re)new(ed) perspective on the politicization of differences. I suggest a reconceptualization of the politicization of differences as a defense of colle(a)ctive selfdetermination processes through an investigation about the preconditions for the generation of non-hegemonic frames in contexts ruled by structural violence. This thesis is undertaken in three interdependent movements: (3) a philosophical-epistemological-poetical reflexion on the relevance of colle(a)ctive spatialization processes for the experience of temporality; (2) a political-theorical consideration on the relationship between the problem of essentialism and the possibility of subversive colle(a)ctive agency; and (1) a perspective on the con-figura( c)tion of the Munduruku and the riverside peoples (r)existence process to the construction of dams in Middle Tapajós region. I argue that the politicization of differences is conditio sine qua non in order to enable the denaturalization of structural violence, as only (pro)positional colle(a)ctive movements transcend the limits of merely reactive positions, enabling the emergency of images that can call the hegemonic rule into question and, therefore, initiate processes of structural trans-formation.