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The thesis examines some of the short and long fiction set in Johannesburg, which is published between approximately 1980 and 2003. The thesis examines how the residents viewed themselves, and evaluates the various social and political struggles and strategies that were employed in an attempt to belong, imagine the city differently and establish strategic identities that would enable them to live a better life during the focused quarter of a century of experiences in an ever-changing fictive Johannesburg. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-258) / 258 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Presents readings of six novels which depict something of the nature of war trauma. Collectively, the novels suggest that the attempt to narrativise war trauma is inherently problematic. Traces the disjunctions between narrative and war trauma which ensure that war trauma remains an elusive and private phenomonen; the gulf between private experience and public discourse haunts each of the novels. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2001

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Cyberpunk literature explores the effects that developments in technology will have on the lives of individuals in the future. Technology is seen as having the potential to be of benefit to society, but it is also seen as a dangerous tool that can be used to severely limit humanity's freedom. Most of the characters in the texts I examine wish to perpetuate the boundaries that contain them in a desperate search for stability. Only a few individuals manage to move beyond the boundaries created by multinational corporations that use technology, drugs or religion for their own benefit. This thesis will provide a definition of cyberpunk and explore its development from science fiction and postmodern writing. The influence of postmodern thinking on cyberpunk literature can be seen in its move from stability to fluidity, and in its insistence on the impossibility of creating fixed boundaries. Cyberpunk does not see the future of humanity as stable, and argues that it will be necessary for humanity to move beyond the boundaries that contain it. The novels I discuss present different views concerning the nature of humanity's merging with technology. One view is that humanity is moving towards a posthuman future, while some argue that humanity is not discarded, but that these characters have merely evolved to the next step in the natural development of humankind. Both these views deal with constant change, a notion advocated by both postmodernism and cyberpunk. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: "Cyberpunk" literatuur ondersoek die uitwerking wat tegnologiese ontwikkeling in die toekoms op die lewens van individue sal hê. Tegnologie word gesien as tot moontlike voordeel vir die samelewing, maar dit kan ook 'n gevaarlike wapen wees wat gebruik kan word om die mens se vryheid in te perk. Die meerderheid van die karakters in die romans wat ek bespreek verkies om die grense wat hulle inperk te handhaaf in 'n desperate strewe na stabiliteit. Slegs 'n paar individue kry dit wel reg om verby die grense te breek wat deur multinasionale organisasies geskep word vir hul eie gewin. In hierdie tesis kyk ek na 'n definisie van "cyberpunk" en ek ondersoek die invloed van wetenskapsfiksie en postmodernisme op die ontwikkeling van die beweging. Die invloed van postmodernistiese denke kan gesien word in "cyberpunk" se fokus op veranderlikheid eerder as stabiliteit. "Cyberpunk" sien nie die toekoms van die mens as stabiel nie, en die argument is dat dit nodig is vir die mens om verby die grense te beweeg wat vryheid inperk. Die romans wat ek bespreek bevat verskillende sieninge oor die tipe samesmelting wat die mens en tegnologie sal hê. Sommige voel dat die kategorie "mens" permanent agterlaat gaan word, terwyl ander argumenteer dat individue slegs sal ontwikkel tot die volgende stap in die natuurlike ontwikkeling van die mens. Voortdurende verandering is die fokus van beide hierdie standpunte, en dit is ook die belangrikste fokus van beide "cyberpunk" en postmodernisme.

楊彩杰. / "2008年9月". / "2008 nian 9 yue". / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-102). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Yang Caijie. / Chapter 第一章 --- 緒論 / Chapter 第一節 --- 硏究目的 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二節 --- 硏究方法 --- p.3 / Chapter 第三節 --- 前人硏究槪況 --- p.10 / Chapter 第二章 --- 「小說實驗」釋義´ؤ´ؤ香港五、六十年代小說實驗的參照 / Chapter 第一節 --- 文學雜誌對時代的詮釋 --- p.16 / Chapter 第二節 --- _「政治」´ؤ´ؤ香港五、六十年代「政治介入文學」的文學景觀 --- p.21 / Chapter 第三節 --- 「五四」´ؤ´ؤ早期香港文學接受「五四」小說的範式 --- p.26 / Chapter 第四節 --- 「大眾文化」´ؤ´ؤ香港五、六十年代的通俗小說 --- p.29 / Chapter 第五節 --- 小結 --- p.32 / Chapter 第三章 --- 香港五、六十年代小說實驗的敘述形式 / Chapter 第一節 --- 香港五、六十年代文學雜誌所載文章表現的敘述觀念 --- p.34 / Chapter 第二節 --- 時間意識的改變 --- p.40 / Chapter 2.1 --- 時間中的空間 / Chapter 2.2 --- 意識流技巧 / Chapter 第三節 --- 共時性的敘述結構 --- p.54 / Chapter 3.1 --- 「一天之內」的共時性結構 / Chapter 3.2 --- 多角度敘述的共時性結構 / Chapter 第四節 --- 小說敘述與現實經驗的關係 --- p.58 / Chapter 4.1 --- 人物與場景的邏輯關係 / Chapter 4.2 --- 後設敘述 / Chapter 第五節 --- 小結 / Chapter 5.1 --- 「敘述權威」 --- p.65 / Chapter 5.2 --- 「現代主義思潮」的再思 --- p.67 / Chapter 第四章 --- 另一個硏究面向´ؤ´ؤ香港五、六十年代小說的內容實驗 / Chapter 第一節 --- 香港五、六十年代文學雜誌所載作品表現的政治意識形態 --- p.69 / Chapter 1.1 --- 右翼文學 / Chapter 1.2 --- 左翼文學 / Chapter 第二節 --- 拆解政治論述的合法性 --- p.75 / Chapter 2.1 --- 政治寓言 / Chapter 2.2 --- 內心獨白的宣言 / Chapter 2.3 --- 「對革命的革命」 / Chapter 第三節 --- 淡化政治色彩 --- p.82 / Chapter 3.1 --- 大時代下的小人物 / Chapter 3.2 --- 私人領域的政治 / Chapter 3.3 --- 紅白以外的本土關懷 / Chapter 第四節 --- 女體與戰爭 --- p.86 / Chapter 4.1 --- 女體與屍體 / Chapter 4.2 --- 女體´ؤ´ؤ另一個自我的投射 / Chapter 第五節 --- 小結 --- p.90 / Chapter 第五章 --- 總結´ؤ´ؤ港五、六十年代小說實驗的意義探析 / Chapter 第一節 --- 從「五四傳統」到「現代實驗性」 --- p.92 / Chapter 第二節 --- 在地視野 --- p.95 / 參考書目 --- p.98 / 附錄:文學雜誌作品簡表 --- p.103

This study sought to uncover gender bias in selected Shona novels and examine the manner in which authors present the subject. The major objectives were to identify the effects of hostile gender relations and assess Shona novel authors’ commitments to promote healthy gender relations which are pre-requisites for national development. The study adopted the dual approach by fusing feminism with Afrocentricity as the literary tool of analysis. These theories served as lenses for exploring gender biases in selected Shona novels. The liberal feminism was the most relevant feminist theory to this study because it advocates more about inclusion and unrestricted participation of women in all spheres of social life. The research was anchored on the qualitative design. The methodology used to gather data for analysis involved interviewing three out of four authors of this research’s selected Shona novels, eight Shona literature lecturers from teachers’ colleges and universities in Zimbabwe as well as five accomplished scholars who have also written their own Shona novels. Questionnaires were administered to thirty two students, twenty from teachers’ colleges and twelve from universities in Zimbabwe. The total number of all participants in this study was forty-eight and purposive sampling was used to come up with the sample. Data was analysed in descriptive form. This study has established that most Shona novelists are not gender neutral. While some authors are championing the emancipation of women others are perpetuating their marginalisation. Basing on the findings of this study, the researcher recommends that Shona authors should be sensitised through workshops, seminars or conferences on the need to pen gender balanced novels if national development is to be realised. This would help the societies who are the consumers of such novels to be gender neutral through emulating the positive portrayal attributed to characters. The Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (ZIMSEC), teachers’ colleges and universities should approve gender neutral Shona novels so that students can have appropriate role models to emulate. It is envisaged that this research will be of great benefit to all those who will have the privilege to access it. Gained knowledge will help to extricate women from marginalisation and also promote healthy gender relations. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This study examines the myth of the surrogate power of canonicity by exposing the condition of liminality of the Zimbabwean short story genre within African literary canon. Building on the hypothesis that canonisation distorts literature the study postulates that literary canon produce predictable biases in construing the position of the short story. It fossilises and condenses the marginal genres to the extent that the existing canon repertoire hardly recognises them. The peripheral but de facto canon of the short story genre entertains a strong relationship of heteronomy to the mainstream/central canon. This thesis studies this relationship which determines canon formation within the African literary systems. It challenges the prevailing status quo in which the short story is polarised against other literary modes. The polarity creates a charged diametric force between the presumed canonical genres and the supposedly non-canonical short story mess. What lacks in this equation of conflicts is a sense of revival, reformation and continuity of the short story canon. The marginality of the short story canon is predicated on factors external to the genre itself, such as the influence of colonial institutions, collegiate institutions and publishers on writers. These factors pervade the dialectics of canonical marginality of the genre. The study, which argues that there is no unanimity on theory of canon, proposes Africulture, as both a theory and praxis of Afrocentricity, to function as an arbiter of short story literary reputation and consecration. The research reveres the autonomous value of African story-telling tradition which withstood the test and movement of time, in the process, surviving not only the historical-cum-cultural threat of colonial loss and canonical displacement, but also the throes and will power of new media and digital technologies. The ascendancy of the electronic short story genre to canonical status remains questionable. Critical controversies abound about the canonicity of electronic literature. The study employs Technauriture as a theoretical model for rethinking the transcendence of the electronic short story canon. The study concludes that, by virtue of its resilience, the short story ought to be treated as a wholesale and independent genre, worth of full scale appreciation. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

A lot of research on the Shona novel has focussed on the influence of orature and the Bible. It has also focused on the influence that the Southern Rhodesia Literature Bureau had on its development. This research has endeavoured to highlight the reliability and validity of the Shona novel as a historical document. The dependability of the novel as an alternative site from which history can be deciphered is corroborated by historical documents. The history that comes out in the Shona novels that have been studied covers the pre-colonial period right up to the post-independence period. Among the issues that come up in the research that relate to history are the Rozvi state under Chirisamhuru, the economic activities in pre-colonial Shona society that include raids for cattle and women as well as hunting and external trade. The Shona novel has also proved historically reliable in as far as it relates to the navigability of the Save River. It has highlighted the living conditions and the wages that Blacks got in colonial Rhodesia and exposed the land imbalances that came into existence because of the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, which left Blacks living on the periphery and in overcrowded, hot and dry reserves that were hardly fertile. The Rhodesian authorities, as the novels have exposed, denied most Blacks access to education. When schools were provided, they were poorly staffed and those on farms functioned more as labour pools than schools. The novel has also proved its dependability when it highlights the early days of the nationalist movement and the unilateral declaration of independence of 1965. It has also brought to the fore the birth of the armed struggle and the Rhodesian responses to it. The Rhodesians responded politically and militarily. Politically, it was through the Internal Settlement Agreement of March 1978. Militarily they moved people into 'protected villages' in an effort to deny guerrillas access to food and clothing. The novel also highlights the post-independence period especially political intolerance. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Early written Shona narratives like Solomon Mutswairo's Feso [Thorn; name of main character, 1982] evince fantasy since they emanated from folktales, a genre that abounds in this element. Contrary to this, Charles Mungoshi attempts to portray life faithfully in Makunun'unu Maodzamwoyo [Brooding breeds despair, 1977], Ndiko Kupindana Kwamazuva [How time passes, 1975] and Kunyarara Hakusi Kutaura? [Is silence not a form of speech? 1983]. This study attempts to show how this realism manifests itself in the components that constitute each of the works: setting, plot, characterisation, theme and style. Mungoshi's characters, for instance, are not one-sided supernatural beings who perform fabulous acts. Instead, they have strengths and limitations like people in everyday life. Their actions and speech are consistent with their social backgrounds. By injecting realism into the Shona narrative, Mungoshi has contributed towards its development. Due to this realism, the works deserve the label "novels" as opposed to "romances". / African Languages / M.A. (African languages)