This study aims to evaluate the original white colonisers‟ or settlers‟ position and experience in Africa and South Africa during the transitional period between 1998 and 2011, as represented by English white male protagonists who feature in The Lostness of Alice (1998) by John Conyngham, The Good Doctor (2003) by Damon Galgut, and Lost Ground (2011) by Michiel Heyns. The analysis of the selected novels illustrates that the legacy of colonisation and apartheid still influences the settler descendants‟ perception of self and the other. The analysis focuses specifically on the males‟ experience of space and place in the construction of identity, and the awareness that the expansion of space and place through the transgression of physical and psychological boundaries contributes towards a more balanced personality. After the dissolution of apartheid, contemporary white South African men, as exemplified by the three protagonists, have become aware of their minority status and tend to dissociate themselves from the country as home. As borderline figures, they contend with feelings of marginalisation and isolation. Increasingly conscious of their contradictory non-African identity, the protagonists undertake journeys during which they acquire insight into themselves as well as an altered perception of the other. Although the former settlers‟ experience of alienation and ambivalence about colonisation and apartheid has been depicted in various novels, the significance of this experience relating to white South African male identity has not yet been fully explored in a comparative study of Conyngham‟s, Galgut‟s and Heyns‟s works with reference to the authors‟ place within a postcolonial paradigm, their implementation of the detective narrative frame and the role of intertextuality and irony that can be seen to define the novels and suggest other interpretative possibilities. The novels are critically analysed in terms of the concepts of space and place, the presence, transgression and transcendence of boundaries, and the influence of these paradigms on the characters‟ sense of self and their relationship with others and society at large. The novels‟ narrative frame and strategies in relation to the myths of Africa are also investigated. The thesis argues that the apprehension articulated by representatives of European settlers regarding the consequences of colonisation and apartheid has become more prominent during the post-liberation dispensation. The acceptance of responsibility for the past and for others, as well as intense self-appraisal, should enable the three protagonists to achieve a more expansive sense of self and a meaningful existence. / PhD (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This study aims to evaluate the original white colonisers‟ or settlers‟ position and experience in Africa and South Africa during the transitional period between 1998 and 2011, as represented by English white male protagonists who feature in The Lostness of Alice (1998) by John Conyngham, The Good Doctor (2003) by Damon Galgut, and Lost Ground (2011) by Michiel Heyns. The analysis of the selected novels illustrates that the legacy of colonisation and apartheid still influences the settler descendants‟ perception of self and the other. The analysis focuses specifically on the males‟ experience of space and place in the construction of identity, and the awareness that the expansion of space and place through the transgression of physical and psychological boundaries contributes towards a more balanced personality. After the dissolution of apartheid, contemporary white South African men, as exemplified by the three protagonists, have become aware of their minority status and tend to dissociate themselves from the country as home. As borderline figures, they contend with feelings of marginalisation and isolation. Increasingly conscious of their contradictory non-African identity, the protagonists undertake journeys during which they acquire insight into themselves as well as an altered perception of the other. Although the former settlers‟ experience of alienation and ambivalence about colonisation and apartheid has been depicted in various novels, the significance of this experience relating to white South African male identity has not yet been fully explored in a comparative study of Conyngham‟s, Galgut‟s and Heyns‟s works with reference to the authors‟ place within a postcolonial paradigm, their implementation of the detective narrative frame and the role of intertextuality and irony that can be seen to define the novels and suggest other interpretative possibilities. The novels are critically analysed in terms of the concepts of space and place, the presence, transgression and transcendence of boundaries, and the influence of these paradigms on the characters‟ sense of self and their relationship with others and society at large. The novels‟ narrative frame and strategies in relation to the myths of Africa are also investigated. The thesis argues that the apprehension articulated by representatives of European settlers regarding the consequences of colonisation and apartheid has become more prominent during the post-liberation dispensation. The acceptance of responsibility for the past and for others, as well as intense self-appraisal, should enable the three protagonists to achieve a more expansive sense of self and a meaningful existence. / PhD (English), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The meditation Sinner and beggar of Noordmans is used as a heuristic instrument to conduct a critical theological inquiry into the relationship between standard of living and the forgiveness of sins in the Reformed tradition. According to Noordmans the beggar (Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31) unlike the sinner (the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14) repents not only in a brief moment, but testifies with the totality of his existence to his heavenly inheritance. The intimate relation between physical suffering and salvation that Noordmans deducts from the parables, is compared with the parable interpretations of a few selected commentators. The content of his meditation is analysed against the background of his theological thought in general. Noordmans’s critique on the views of Pierson and the Heidelberg Catechism, Sunday 10, on Providence is placed in perspective by Calvin’s general guidelines on the correct use of earthly comforts. The connection between Calvin and contemporary society is brought about by examining exponents of neo-Calvinism (Kuyper) and Liberation theology (Gutiérrez). The perspectives on the relation between standard of living and the forgiveness of sins of Heyns, Bosch and Mofokeng are investigated to verge upon the Southern African situation. The particular angles of interlocutors on creation, eternal life and responsibility with regard to the relationship between standard of living and forgiveness of sins are systematically scrutinized. From this analysis a B&S-SCHEME (beggar-and-sinner-scheme) evolves – an aid to a more nuanced reflection on theological propositions concerning the relationship between standard of living and the forgiveness of sins. / Thesis (DD)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

This PhD comprises a work of fiction and a dissertation, both of which explore childhood, children and parenthood. The Imagined Child, the novel, closely examines the nature of parenthood, the expectations inherent in the parent-child relationship, and the responsibilities that society imposes on parents. It explores the strains of guilt and blame that surround all primary relationships: every child is damaged in some way – through nature and nurture. How they deal with that damage determines the kinds of adults – and ultimately the kinds of parents – they become. The dissertation approaches childhood as a literary device. It explores the ways in which four novelists from different historical periods have characterised and thematised childhood. It presents ‘childhood’ as a social construct and considers the ways in which childhood and parenting have changed in recent, Western history. It then focuses on the research into and literary representations of children in Africa to explore the versions of childhood inherited by African, and particularly South African, children and how this differs from American or European models. Textual analysis was employed to examine the representation of childhood in four texts: Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield (1850), L.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between (1953), Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), and Michiel Heyns’s The Children’s Day (2002). An examination of research and literature shows a very different trajectory for childhood in Africa than in Europe, and reveals that childhood on the continent has never been consistent, in life or literature. There is, in other words, no universal “African childhood”. The literary children of South Africa are examined not only to show how differently childhood is experienced in diverse segments of society, but also to measure the temperature of the times. The differing versions of literary childhood, and their varying treatments, provide a gauge for the zeitgeist in South African society from the 1990s. The dissertation argues that an examination of literary children provides insight into the development of a new democracy. The dissertation and the novel, taken together, suggest that through the real and imagined children of literature can be gained a sense of ourselves.

Johan Adam Heyns is probably the most productive and noteworthy Afrikaans theologian of the twentieth century, born in South Africa. He was a real pioneer in his field. It is a well known fact that the kingdom of God played a vital role in all of his work. In fact, he used it as a systematic-theological category, which flows like a perennial river of opportunity, consistently through all of his writings. It gave him the opportunity to be consistent in both his systematic theology and in his ethics. Heyns used the kingdom of God as a systematic-theological category to show clearly how man and God can be co-workers in this world in a dialogical relationship. This relationship, of which God is the initiator, are characterised by the covenant between God, the Father-King, and man, the obedient child-servant. He also used the opportunity to integrate his love for philosophy with his love for theology. This integration opened up a wide spectrum of thoughts, ideas and meanings which he could scientifically analyze, explore, connect and merge together systematically. His contact with Stoker and their shared Calvinistic worldview as well as their shared Afrikaans culture and Christian religion, together with the influence of amongst others Du Toit and Snyman, Oberholzer, Vollenhoven, Barth, Brunner and Berkouwer, laid the foundation for his frame of reference. Unfortunately there was philosophical flooding from time to time, because it caused him to fill the kingdom of God with philosophical concepts which allowed him to think of the kingdom of God as an ontological cosmic-universal entity. His philosophical background and connection also leads to some inadequate speculations in his theology and especially in his eschatology. Inadmissibly he didn’t always use the Bible appropriately, although his doctrine of Scripture and hermeneutics were satisfactory. Heyns could have explored the important part which prayer must play in theology more thoroughly. But he did pioneer’s work in Dogmatics and Ethics in Afrikaans and as an ecumenist and church leader, which we must really appreciate. Lastly his philosophical modus operandi also had a positive side. It helped him to differentiate between important theological concepts. Heyns distinguished between the rule of God and the kingdom of God, as well as between the realisation of the kingdom of God and the eschatological fulfilment of God’s kingdom. These differentiations were tested on some theological problems, including the question whether the kingdom of God is really an ontological entity, the Theodicy problem and the “Nah-erwartung” problem. It was found that these differentiations, when used consistently, have valuable theological problem solving abilities. Although Heyns perhaps didn’t realise this, and he weren’t consistent in the use of these differentiations, he must be credited for identifying and clarifying them. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted