Thesis (MA (Modern Foreign Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation investigates the different forms of otherness and alterity (“Fremde”) in Bulgarian born German author, Ilija Trojanow’s novel, Der Weltensammler (2006). In this novel, alterity, as portrayed by Trojanow, is read as threatening and uncanny (“unheimlich”), on the one hand, and fascinating on the other. The novel, Der Weltensammler, translated by William Hobson and published under the title The Collector of Worlds (2008), narrates the life of the historical figure Sir Richard Francis Burton. Burton, a colonist, traveller and explorer, undertakes a journey across continents: British-India, Arabia and East Africa. As one of the first Europeans to do so, Burton - disguised and converted to Islam - undertakes a pilgrimage to Mecca. Like the title of the novel suggests, Burton is a contradictory man who not only collects worlds, but also obsessively adopts the cultures of the colonised. However, this British officer’s bizarre lifestyle and unusual ability to adapt to and adopt the foreign world raises certain questions regarding the relationship between coloniser and colonised. More importantly, he grapples with the portrayal of otherness. Throughout the novel both the narrator and a writer (the Lahiya) try to put together the pieces of Burton’s life. As the narrator warns in the preface of his novel, Burton remains an enigma. His antipodes are another historical figure, the former slave Sidi Mubarak Bombay and his servant Naukaram. Unlike in Burton’s and Stanley’s travel diaries where Bombay takes a marginalised position, he comes to the fore in Der Weltensammler. Though Burton appears to become part of the foreign world, it is the change of narrative perspectives between coloniser and colonised that puts their relation into question, thereby dissolving binary opposites. This thesis begins with a general discussion of the novel and its significance within German post-colonial literature. The study moves on to a discussion of the discourses surrounding the concept of alterity, identifying one key form of alterity, namely mimicry, a term borrowed from the theorist Homi K. Bhabha. The greater part of the thesis is devoted to the analysis of the novel. The first part deals with the analysis of alterity and otherness by focussing attention on the portrayal of otherness as threatening and fascinating, the concept of mimicry, and finally, Burton’s transformation. The second part investigates the process of re-writing that takes place and the manner in which alterity is portrayed in the novel paying particular attention to the relation between author, writer and narrator. Following this analysis of alterity and its rewriting, this thesis moves to the more general question of how Ilija Trojanow’s novel, Der Weltensammler, functions as a refutation (Gegenschrift/Kampfabsage) of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Relying on the words of Stephen Slemon, this study finally questions whether this novel can be read as another “scramble for post-colonialism”. Based on the theoretical framework developed on the concept of culture by Homi K. Bhabha on the one hand and the insights on cultures by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski on the other, this study demonstrates how it is through the processes of revision and re-writing of literary borrowings, e.g. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), that the concept of alterity is redefined and the novel in itself gains a post-colonial voice. Furthermore, this thesis shows how otherness is deconstructed to such an extent that it is not difference that is highlighted, but instead a literary model for the co-existence of cultures. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is ‘n studie van die verskillende fasette van vreemde, die onbekende en alteriteit (“Fremde”) in die Duits-Bulgaarse skrywer, Ilija Trojanow se roman Der Weltensammler (2006). In hierdie roman word alteriteit, soos deur Trojanow uitgebeeld, gelees as bedreigend en unheimlich, en gelyktydig as fassinerend. Die Roman, Der Weltensammler, deur William Hobson vertaal as The Collector of Worlds (2008), beskryf die lewe van die historiese figuur Sir Richard Francis Burton. Hy onderneem as kolonis en ontdekkingsreisiger ‘n reis regoor verskeie kontinente: Brits-Indië, Arabië en Oos-Afrika. Vermom en bekeer tot Islam, onderneem hy as een van die eerste Europeërs ‘n pelgrimstog na Mekka. Soos deur die titel van die roman gesuggereer word, is Burton op sigself ’n ambivalente karakter wat nie net wêrelde nie, maar ook die kulture van die gekoloniseerdes approprieer. Dit is juis hierdie Britse offisier se vreemde leefstyl en buitengewone vermoë om die vreemde toe te eien, wat sekere vrae ten opsigte van die verhouding tussen die kolonisator en die gekoloniseerde laat ontstaan. Van grootste belang vir hierdie analise is veral die uitbeelding van die vreemde. Deurgaans poog die verteller en ‘n skribent (die Lahiya) om uitsluitsel oor Burton se lewe te kry. Soos die verteller alreeds in die voorwoord van sy roman waarsku, bly Burton egter ‘n enigma. Sy teenpole is die ander minder bekende historiese figuur, die gemarginaliseerde en voormalige slaaf Sidi Mubarak Bombay en sy bediende Naukaram. Anders as in onder andere Burton en Stanley se reisbeskrywings waar Bombay slegs ‘n randverskynsel is, kry hy nuwe betekenis in Trojanow se roman. Ofskoon Burton deel van die vreemde blyk te word, word die verhouding tussen die kolonisator en die gekoloniseerde veral bevraagteken deur die verandering van narratiewe perspektiewe. Terselfdertyd word binêre opposisies gedekonstrueer. Die tesis word ingelei deur ‘n algemene oorsig van die roman en sy betekenis binne die konteks van Duitse postkoloniale literatuur. Na afloop van die oorsig, volg ‘n bespreking van die diskoerse rondom die konsep alteriteit. Die klem val hier veral op een spesifieke vorm van alteriteit, naamlik mimiek, ‘n term ontleen aan die teoretikus Homi K. Bhabha. Die grootste deel van die tesis word gewy aan die analise van die roman. In die eerste deel van die analise word die konsep alteriteit onder die loep geneem. Die klem val hier veral op die uitbeelding van die vreemde as bedreigend en fassinerend, mimiek and laastens Burton se gedaanteverwisseling. Die tweede deel van die analise fokus deurentyd op die verhouding tussen die skrywer, skribent en verteller en bestudeer veral die herskrywingsproses (re-writing) wat plaasvind en die wyse waarop alteriteit beskryf word. Deur die loop van die studie volg die meer algemene vraagstuk van hoe Ilija Trojanow se roman Der Weltensammler beskou kan word as ‘n weerlegging (Gegenschrift/Kampfabsage) van Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Laastens word op Stephen Slemon se algemene vraagstuk gesteun of die roman beskou kan word as ‘n “scramble for postcolonialism”. Hierdie analise word volgens die teoretiese raamwerke van twee outeurs nl. Homi K. Bhabha en die Poolse verslaggewer Ryszard Kapuscinski ondersoek. Dit is veral deur die proses revisie en die herskrywing van literêre ontlenings, bv. Joseph Conrad se Heart of Darkness (1899), dat die begrip alteriteit geherdefinieer word en die roman op sigself ‘n postkoloniale perspektief inneem.Vervolgens word die begrippe vreemde en alteriteit tot so ‘n mate gedekonstrueer deurdat die aandag nie op ongelykheid val nie, maar ‘n literêre model vir die naasbestaan van kulture ontskep word.

Por meio de uma investigação que incide sobre as práticas críticas, o trabalho apresenta uma elaboração sobre o potencial político da desconstrução para uma leitura de textos literários comprometida com reivindicações identitárias feitas às margens dos discursos hegemônicos. O gesto desconstrutivo, como proposto pelo pensador franco-argelino Jacques Derrida, desafia a estabilidade de categorias que fundamentam estes discursos, tais como “essência”, “natureza”, “origem” e outros nomes metafísicos que envolvem a idéia de identidade a si, demonstrando, desta forma, que toda estrutura é atravessada por uma falta constitutiva. Sugerindo uma noção de identidade enquanto diferença, o trabalho examina estratégias gerais da desconstrução e propõe uma análise de suas apropriações nos esforços teórico-críticos dos autores indianos Gayatri Spivak e Homi Bhabha no que diz respeito à leitura de produções textuais que articulam questões de gênero e diferença sexual e de nação e diferença cultural respectivamente. / By way of investigating critical practices, this work deploys an elaboration on the political potential of deconstruction aimed at a reading of literary texts committed to identity claims from the margins of hegemonic discourses. The deconstructive gesture, as proposed by French-Algerian thinker Jacques Derrida, challenges the stability of categories that ground these discourses, such as “essence”, “nature”, “origin”, and other metaphysical names which involve the idea of identity to itself, demonstrating, thus, that every structure is crossed by a constitutive lack. In suggesting a notion of identity as difference, this work examines general strategies of deconstruction and proposes an analysis of its appropriations by the theoreticcritical efforts of Indian authors Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha in the reading of textual productions that articulate questions of gender and sexual difference, and of nation and cultural difference respectively.

Por meio de uma investigação que incide sobre as práticas críticas, o trabalho apresenta uma elaboração sobre o potencial político da desconstrução para uma leitura de textos literários comprometida com reivindicações identitárias feitas às margens dos discursos hegemônicos. O gesto desconstrutivo, como proposto pelo pensador franco-argelino Jacques Derrida, desafia a estabilidade de categorias que fundamentam estes discursos, tais como “essência”, “natureza”, “origem” e outros nomes metafísicos que envolvem a idéia de identidade a si, demonstrando, desta forma, que toda estrutura é atravessada por uma falta constitutiva. Sugerindo uma noção de identidade enquanto diferença, o trabalho examina estratégias gerais da desconstrução e propõe uma análise de suas apropriações nos esforços teórico-críticos dos autores indianos Gayatri Spivak e Homi Bhabha no que diz respeito à leitura de produções textuais que articulam questões de gênero e diferença sexual e de nação e diferença cultural respectivamente. / By way of investigating critical practices, this work deploys an elaboration on the political potential of deconstruction aimed at a reading of literary texts committed to identity claims from the margins of hegemonic discourses. The deconstructive gesture, as proposed by French-Algerian thinker Jacques Derrida, challenges the stability of categories that ground these discourses, such as “essence”, “nature”, “origin”, and other metaphysical names which involve the idea of identity to itself, demonstrating, thus, that every structure is crossed by a constitutive lack. In suggesting a notion of identity as difference, this work examines general strategies of deconstruction and proposes an analysis of its appropriations by the theoreticcritical efforts of Indian authors Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha in the reading of textual productions that articulate questions of gender and sexual difference, and of nation and cultural difference respectively.

Por meio de uma investigação que incide sobre as práticas críticas, o trabalho apresenta uma elaboração sobre o potencial político da desconstrução para uma leitura de textos literários comprometida com reivindicações identitárias feitas às margens dos discursos hegemônicos. O gesto desconstrutivo, como proposto pelo pensador franco-argelino Jacques Derrida, desafia a estabilidade de categorias que fundamentam estes discursos, tais como “essência”, “natureza”, “origem” e outros nomes metafísicos que envolvem a idéia de identidade a si, demonstrando, desta forma, que toda estrutura é atravessada por uma falta constitutiva. Sugerindo uma noção de identidade enquanto diferença, o trabalho examina estratégias gerais da desconstrução e propõe uma análise de suas apropriações nos esforços teórico-críticos dos autores indianos Gayatri Spivak e Homi Bhabha no que diz respeito à leitura de produções textuais que articulam questões de gênero e diferença sexual e de nação e diferença cultural respectivamente. / By way of investigating critical practices, this work deploys an elaboration on the political potential of deconstruction aimed at a reading of literary texts committed to identity claims from the margins of hegemonic discourses. The deconstructive gesture, as proposed by French-Algerian thinker Jacques Derrida, challenges the stability of categories that ground these discourses, such as “essence”, “nature”, “origin”, and other metaphysical names which involve the idea of identity to itself, demonstrating, thus, that every structure is crossed by a constitutive lack. In suggesting a notion of identity as difference, this work examines general strategies of deconstruction and proposes an analysis of its appropriations by the theoreticcritical efforts of Indian authors Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha in the reading of textual productions that articulate questions of gender and sexual difference, and of nation and cultural difference respectively.

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.

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.

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諾貝爾文學獎得主奈波爾(V. S. Naipaul)可以說是當代文學中最具爭議性及最難以捉摸的一位作家，因為他對自己祖國千里達的前殖民國英國懷有一種好惡相參的矛盾態度。奈波爾的自傳性小說《抵達之謎》，故事橫跨三十年，描述一位曾被殖民的離散敘事者其人生旅程。旅程始自敘事者還是一個得到牛津大學獎學金的十八歲學生，終至敘事者成為在英國有立足之處的作家，其間歷經迷惘、錯置、覺醒、安頓等過程。在後殖民批評及文學的「信條」下，奈波爾的作品理應對大英帝國表示出一種明確的對抗態度，但其作品卻幾乎未能達到此一預期，而這也使得他必須承受遭指控為背叛者的衝擊。批評家普遍將奈波爾稱為英國的喉舌，而本論文旨在提供一個有別於此的觀點。本論文想要處理的關鍵問題如下：奈波爾是否真的是大英帝國的擁護者？如果不是的話，他如何與英國性(Englishness)協商以換取發言位置？ 論文首章對奈波爾及《抵達之謎》的批評做簡短的回顧。第二章以法農(Frantz Fanon)的觀點來檢視敘事者與白人女性角色的關係，以說明敘事者從崇拜英國文化到擺脫對英國謬誤幻想的發展。筆者也嘗試描繪出敘事者成為一個作家的軌跡。藉此，筆者認為敘事者經歷一段從目光狹隘的英國經典作家模仿者，到寫自己人生故事的作家的歷程。在第三章，本文認為在倫敦及英國鄉間的停留期間，敘事者看出帝國中心的破敗以及英國文化核心中英國性的矯揉造作。第四章首先就「離散」這個概念做一回顧，並說明奈波爾及《抵達之謎》如何能置於這樣的概念之下來解讀。筆者指出，敘事者同時身為離散者及流亡者的身份，使得他能夠取得一個「對位」的觀點，而此觀點幫助敘事者發展其後殖民牧歌，揭發英國性背後的殘酷。第五章揭示筆者對現存奈波爾批評中潛在缺陷的根本關懷。本論文希望藉由提供非主流但具建設性的觀點來補足現存的奈波爾批評。 / A Nobel laureate in literature, V. S. Naipaul is arguably the most controversial and elusive writer in contemporary literature because his signature is his ambivalence on England, a country which once colonized his mother country Trinidad. Spanning thirty years, The Enigma of Arrival, Naipaul’s autobiographical novel, delineates an ex-colonial and diasporic narrator’s life journey—from an eighteen-year-old schoolboy granted a scholarship to Oxford University to a writer gaining a foothold in England—of disorientation, dislocation, awakening and anchorage. Under the “doctrine” of postcolonial criticism and literature, Naipaul’s works are expected to express an explicit and confrontational attitude towards the British Empire, but his works hardly come to terms with such expectation, which makes him bear the brunt of the accusation of being an apostate. This thesis aims at providing a different viewpoint from criticism in general which labels Naipaul as the mouthpiece of England. The pivotal issues this thesis intends to tackle are as follows: Is Naipaul really an exponent of the British Empire to the core? If not, how does he negotiate with Englishness for a position of enunciation? The opening chapter offers a brief review of criticism about Naipaul and The Enigma of Arrival. In Chapter II, I examine the narrator’s relationship with white female characters in the light of Fanon’s perspective, trying to illustrate the progression in which the narrator at first worships the English culture but at last sheds his false fantasy. I also try to chart the trajectory of the narrator’s becoming a writer. By doing so, I intend to argue that the narrator undergoes a course from a blinkered colonial emulating English canonical writers to a writer writing his own life story. In Chapter III, I argue that during his stay in London and the English countryside, the narrator discerns the dilapidation of the imperial center and the artificiality of Englishness in the heart of English culture. Chapter IV begins with a review of the concept “diaspora” and how Naipaul and The Enigma of Arrival could be situated in this concept. I point out that the narrator’s identity as a diasporan and an exile enables him to obtain a “contrapuntal” perspective that contributes to the narrator’s postcolonial pastoral which exposes the cruelty behind Englishness. The concluding chapter reveals my ultimate concern about the latent flaw in the established Naipaul criticism, unfolding my intention to make this thesis complement the Naipaul criticism by contributing an alternative yet constructive perspective.

Taking as its central motif Hans-Georg Gadamer’s claim that “the true locus of hermeneutics is [the] in-between,” this thesis defends Gadamer’s concept of the fusion of horizons as radically interstitial against recent allegations that link his project to Romantic interpretive commensurability. Distancing Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics from both the Romantic hermeneutical approach and the incommensurabilist alternative proposed by John D. Caputo, this study reassesses Gadamer’s contributions toward understanding the other in a manner that avoids both imperious reductions and hyperbolic valorizations of the other’s alterity. Extending this discussion to cross-cultural interpretation, this thesis concludes by arguing for the fusion of horizons as a model for conceiving a new postcolonial space, irreducible to the commensurabilism of colonialism and the incommensurabilism of nativism. To this end, Gadamer is brought into discussion with Homi K. Bhabha, whose work on cultural hybridity offers a striking parallel with Gadamer’s fusion of horizons.

This study and the accompanying design project explore postmodern identity construction as a nomadic state of being in relation to the shared experience of space. The potential of the relationship between postmodern identity and physical space is explored both theoretically and through practical application. The main theory explored is ‘third space’, with specific reference to the concept of ‘thirdness’ as articulated by American psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin (in Frosh&Baraitser 2009). This study examines how shared spaces can, through narrative reframed by ontology (Somers 1994), be seen as physical manifestations of the ‘third space’ as envisaged by the likes of Homi K Bhabha (1994) and Edward Soja (1996). The notion of ‘thirdness’ is used to explore the relationship between individuals and shared space. ‘Thirdness’ is also paralleled to Ubuntu. ‘Thirdness’ is investigated as a means to access shared relational spaces that provide an abundance of symbolic narratives that can be gathered and integrated into the self. This study explores how being connected through shared space has the potential to be constructive in identity formation in the wake of unstable postmodern identity. This study uses a design process adapted from Karl Aspelund (2006) as an approach to the research. In the context of this study, design is seen as more than the resulting artefact. It encompasses the thought process, the methods used and steps taken to reach a particular research outcome. This study attempts to form a synthesis between the theoretical research conducted and design praxis in the form of the design outcome. As inspiration for the design action, the design process followed in this research facilitates the exploration of theory that is perhaps unfamiliar to design discourse. The steps in the process allow the refinement of concepts, application of the theory in a practical environment (a paper making workshop) and finally, the visualisation of the theory via the design artefact (an animated short). The medium of animation is selected purposively in order to convey the interpretive narrative derived from the process. The paper produced in the workshop reflects the theory, inspires the narrative of the animation and is used to create the environment and characters of the animation, which, in turn, embody the overarching concepts of the study. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted