Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This research focused on the metaphor of space as used by Afrikaans female poets in South Africa in the period 1994-2005, both space as an environment and as an abstract space in which the poets find themselves. In this period, South Africa got a new democratic dispensation and women were de-marginalised. As a background to the study, a brief overview was given of the work of various Afrikaans poetesses, but the main focus was on the work of two contemporary poetesses, namely Use van Staden and Wilma Stockenstrom, to observe whether the new role of women in society is reflected in the work of these two poetesses. In the study, the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, a French culture-sociologist, was used, namely that no text is ever "free", but that there is a close relation between text and context. Because only the work of female writers was studied in this research, and because the poetesses give a voice to the spatiality of women, theories of feminism as well as postcolonialism were also involved in the study. The spatial metaphors in the texts of the poetesses were also analysed, because they use metaphors to portray their spatiality. These spatial metaphors also lead to the exploitation of other relevant themes. In the investigation of the representation of spatial metaphors used by Afrikaans poetesses, and in particular Use van Staden and Wilma Stockenstrom, it was found that the spaces in which women find themselves play a prominent role in their lives. It was also observed that there is disharmony between poetesses and the spaces in which they find themselves. This research found that women have been de-marginalised and that the patriarchal system has been crossed, and that this phenomenon is being portrayed by the work of female poets who give a voice to the women of this country and portray the many facets of female experience. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This research focused on the metaphor of space as used by Afrikaans female poets in South Africa in the period 1994-2005, both space as an environment and as an abstract space in which the poets find themselves. In this period, South Africa got a new democratic dispensation and women were de-marginalised. As a background to the study, a brief overview was given of the work of various Afrikaans poetesses, but the main focus was on the work of two contemporary poetesses, namely Use van Staden and Wilma Stockenstrom, to observe whether the new role of women in society is reflected in the work of these two poetesses. In the study, the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, a French culture-sociologist, was used, namely that no text is ever "free", but that there is a close relation between text and context. Because only the work of female writers was studied in this research, and because the poetesses give a voice to the spatiality of women, theories of feminism as well as postcolonialism were also involved in the study. The spatial metaphors in the texts of the poetesses were also analysed, because they use metaphors to portray their spatiality. These spatial metaphors also lead to the exploitation of other relevant themes. In the investigation of the representation of spatial metaphors used by Afrikaans poetesses, and in particular Use van Staden and Wilma Stockenstrom, it was found that the spaces in which women find themselves play a prominent role in their lives. It was also observed that there is disharmony between poetesses and the spaces in which they find themselves. This research found that women have been de-marginalised and that the patriarchal system has been crossed, and that this phenomenon is being portrayed by the work of female poets who give a voice to the women of this country and portray the many facets of female experience. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 1999. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-182). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9955914.

This master project addresses the problem of stage fright in a musical performance context. To meet my personal, uncomfortable feelings of stage fright, I decided to “prepare” my body for such situations by doing breathing exercises developed by Ilse Middendorf (The Perceptible Breath). With help and support of the Berliner Centrum für Musikermedizin at the Charité the project became a pilot study about how Ilse Middendorf's breathing exercises could minimize bodily stress of a non-wind instrument player in a stress situation. Following method was applied. I did breathing exercises over a period of six weeks. I made three recordings of the same cello piece that I know well (Josef Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D-major, 1. movement, exposition): before the six-week period, in the middle of it and at the end. The recordings represent the stress situations. The impact of breathing exercises on my cello practice and recordings were evaluated in three ways. I documented my subjective perceptions of my personal development with a questionnaire and a report. The objective results were then documented in two ways. The three recordings were sent out to professional audience members who did not know in which order recordings were done. They listened and rated them in order of their quality. Finally, I measured a series of body parameters which indicate the level of stage fright (e.g. heart rate, finger temperature, blood pressure) before and after the recordings. The results of my project are quite encouraging. On the subjective level, I felt less stress, more musicality and a new body awareness. The recordings were rated by audience members in exactly the order in which I recorded them which indicates a musical quality improvement. The body measurements showed that breathing exercises lead to a decrease in bodily stress symptoms (blood pressure and heart rate).

Cette thèse de doctorat se donne pour objet d’analyser la notion de réalité dans l’oeuvre d’Ilse Aichinger, née en 1921 à Vienne. Cette recherche s’attache à la réflexion théorique de l’auteure sur les relations entre littérature et réalité, ainsi qu’aux différents aspects textuels de l’écriture de cette réalité. Il s’agit également de replacer la production d’Aichinger dans le contexte de la littérature d’après 1945, au sein de laquelle la réflexion sur la transmission du réel et sur la fonction cognitive de l’écrivain occupe une place essentielle. La première partie de ce travail traite de la place de la fiction dans l’oeuvre et la pensée d’Ilse Aichinger, à travers les notions de fictivité et fictionalité. Cette analyse est complétée par une réflexion sur le statut de la fiction dans le contexte de la production et de la réception des textes littéraires de cette auteure. Le savoir constitue la seconde approche de ce travail sur la notion de réalité. Nous caractérisons dans cette partie le statut du savoir au fil de l’oeuvre d’Aichinger, pour ensuite nous intéresser à ses mises en oeuvre spécifiques, telles que le savoir subjectif ou l’intuition. Pour finir, cette recherche se consacre à l’étude de deux articulations de la réalité plus spécifiques à la littérature. Il s’agit d’une part de traiter la notion d’artificialité textuelle,ce qui aboutit à une réflexion sur l’authenticité et le statut de l’imaginaire chez cette auteure. Une étude de l’évolution des structures narratives dans l’oeuvre d’Aichinger vient conclure cette thèse. / This doctoral research analyzes the statute of the reality notion within Ilse Aichinger’s literature. It focuses on her theoretical cogitation about the connection between literature and reality and on the different textual aspects of her writing about reality. We also tried to set Aichinger’s production back in the context of literature after 1945, in which cogitation about transmission of reality and about the cognitive function of writers plays a great part.The approach of the first part is the importance of fiction through the concepts of fictivity and fictionality. This analysis is completed by a cogitation about fiction in the context of literature production and reception. Knowledge is the second approach of this research about reality. In this part, we first characterize the status of knowledge in Aichinger’s literature and secondly describe some particular examples which are characteristic for Aichinger’s writing, as subjective knowledge or intuition. We finally analyze two different ways of writing about reality in literature. The study on the artificiality of the literature text leads to a reflection about the meaning of authenticity and imagination by this author. We conclude this research by analyzing the changing of narrative structures in Ilse Aichinger’s literature.

In this dissertation I analyze how the postwar German writers Wolfdietrich Schnurre, Günter Eich, and Ilse Aichinger negotiate anthropocentric and speciesist discourses via animal figures by drawing on such posthumanist thinkers as Derrida, Agamben, and Deleuze & Guattari. The literary texts question a world view and discourse organized around the establishment of power that utilizes animal metaphors to turn living beings into objects (and could thus be called “carno-phallogocentric”). They thus react to the strict hierarchy of (gendered) man over animal and respond - in the aftermath of the Second World War – by highlighting instead the similarities between man and animal, such as creaturely existence and shared trauma. The analysis is guided by questions such as: How do the literary texts reflect and subvert the power discourses which surround man and animal? What is the role of language in this context? How does the animal, which is usually assumed to be mute, relate to the categories that are established in language? Does its place outside of language grant it capabilities the human cannot realize? Can the literary encounter between man and animal establish a space of the “Open” in which language can be re-evaluated and, after World War II, be saved? Is there a unique “animal poetology” which correlates to post-anthropocentric conceptions of the human? Because these writers disorient the reader’s perception of reality via figures of the animal, i.e., animals as both metaphors and as subjects, I develop what I would like to call an “animal poetology” that is unique to them. This animal poetology, which redefines Agamben’s concept of the open by giving it a postwar, language-critical dimension, includes a thorough critique of human language with regard to power structures and a speciesist language which, during the early 20th century, was a vehicle for ideology and discrimination. The encounter with the animal leads the human being to reflect on the limits of language and thus enables the establishment of a mode of being in which the encounter with the other – beyond a space of judgement and hierarchies –is once again possible.

In this dissertation I analyze how the postwar German writers Wolfdietrich Schnurre, Günter Eich, and Ilse Aichinger negotiate anthropocentric and speciesist discourses via animal figures by drawing on such posthumanist thinkers as Derrida, Agamben, and Deleuze & Guattari. The literary texts question a world view and discourse organized around the establishment of power that utilizes animal metaphors to turn living beings into objects (and could thus be called “carno-phallogocentric”). They thus react to the strict hierarchy of (gendered) man over animal and respond - in the aftermath of the Second World War – by highlighting instead the similarities between man and animal, such as creaturely existence and shared trauma. The analysis is guided by questions such as: How do the literary texts reflect and subvert the power discourses which surround man and animal? What is the role of language in this context? How does the animal, which is usually assumed to be mute, relate to the categories that are established in language? Does its place outside of language grant it capabilities the human cannot realize? Can the literary encounter between man and animal establish a space of the “Open” in which language can be re-evaluated and, after World War II, be saved? Is there a unique “animal poetology” which correlates to post-anthropocentric conceptions of the human? Because these writers disorient the reader’s perception of reality via figures of the animal, i.e., animals as both metaphors and as subjects, I develop what I would like to call an “animal poetology” that is unique to them. This animal poetology, which redefines Agamben’s concept of the open by giving it a postwar, language-critical dimension, includes a thorough critique of human language with regard to power structures and a speciesist language which, during the early 20th century, was a vehicle for ideology and discrimination. The encounter with the animal leads the human being to reflect on the limits of language and thus enables the establishment of a mode of being in which the encounter with the other – beyond a space of judgement and hierarchies –is once again possible.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 228-240).

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