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English Studies / M.A. (English)

Submitted in partial fulfillment in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Fine Art, Department of Fine Art and Jewelery Design, Durban University of Technology. Durban. South Africa, 2014. / This dissertation introduces and explores the link between the phenomenon of the celebrity artist and autobiographical narratives. It investigates the possibility that artists plan, strategize and embellish or create stories that could gain enough attention from the general public to achieve celebrity status. This enquiry will establish various contexts, that of different artists, the audience, the celebrity artist and my own, locating the research and findings within a historical and contemporary discourse. The research presents several concepts and factors that will contribute to the understanding and contextualization of the hypothesis, as well as possibly substantiate it. Concepts such as celebrity, fame, narcissism, the ego and exhibitionism form the basis of the enquiry while theories based on narrative, autobiography and memory rehearsal provide credible support and background. The nature of this dissertation requires a broad investigation including contemporary social sciences, philosophy and psychology, media studies and history of art. In order to determine whether the aforementioned concepts and theories are employed by certain individuals to gain celebrity status, three celebrity artists are introduced through their biographies, rises to fame and their popularity and relationships with the general public. The artists, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Tracey Emin are introduced chronologically. All three artists have established public identities and in the attempt to substantiate whether these identities are constructed and pre-mediated the final analysis (in form of a causal analysis) presents fluctuating results with several possible causes. As part of this enquiry I introduce my creative output through discussing my autobiography, themes (of my work), mediums (I choose to use), exhibition and the resonance found with the selected artists. In light of the discussions based on the backgrounds, public identities and resonance I have found with each artist I determine whether I embellish my stories to gain fame. The research is conducted through qualitative research methodologies and presented in a consequential order. The methodological approach and process is best described through the term Bricolage, which refers to the use of multiple methodologies in its approach to research, in other words, a hybrid of praxis (Barrett & Bolt ed., 2010). The process of this enquiry includes theoretical research, historical research; studio based and –led research, as well as a causal analysis. As part of the research, many factors have been considered and discussed, as an investigation into autobiography; the research will aid me in progressing as an artist as well as contribute to the greater knowledge of the autobiographical field. Furthermore, introducing and exploring the link between autobiographical narratives and the artist, as celebrity is a discourse that can be developed and further expanded on. Through this research I have attempted to establish a link between high art and popular culture, and the artist and the audience. The findings represent a process of attempting to understand a complex set of possible causes with one ultimate effect and the influence it has on an individual and the general population. Many artists want to be famous and would go through the motions to become a celebrity. It does, however, fully depend on the individual and no ultimate formula can be presented. / M

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The archive as mnemonic device and taxonomic structure plays a significant role in the visualisation of identity. This thesis draws on the example of the personal photographic archives of three trans men to suggest ways of understanding archives as discursive and visual practices through which fluctuating narratives of self can be uncovered, traced, erased, renegotiated and fictionalised. This thesis considers how these participants negotiate the roles of author, archivist and photographer in the creation of their personal photographic archives, and how such archives intersect with discourses on the social, somatic and political. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die argief speel as beide ‘n mnemoniese apparaat en ‘n taksonomiese struktuur ‘n beduidende rol in die voorstelling van identiteit. In hierdie tesis word die fotografiese argiewe van drie trans mans bespreek om maniere voor te stel waarop argiewe as diskursiewe en visuele praktyke funksioneer waardeur veranderlike narratiewe van self ontbloot, nagespoor, uitgewis, heroorweeg en verbeel kan word. Hierdie studie oorweeg die manier waarop hierdie deelnemers die rolle van outeur, argivaris en fotograaf onderhandel tydens die skep van hul persoonlike fotografiese argiewe, sowel as die wyse waarop hierdie argiewe as kruispunte dien waar diskoerse rondom die sosiale, liggaamlike en politiese bymekaarkom.

Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines how selected Ugandan literary texts portray constructions and negotiations of national identities as they intersect with overlapping and cross-cutting identities like race, ethnicity, gender, religious denomination, and political affiliation. The word “negotiations” is central to the close reading of selected focal texts I offer in this thesis for it implies that there are times when a tension may arise between national identity and one or more of these other identities (for instance when races or ethnic groups are imagined outside the nation as foreigners) or between one national identity (say Ugandan) and other national identities (say British) for those characters who occupy more than one national space and whose understanding of home therefore includes a here (say Britain) and a there (say Uganda). The study therefore examines the portrayal of how various borders (internal and external, sociocultural and geopolitical) are navigated in particular literary texts in order to construct, reconstruct, and perform (trans)national identity. The concept of the border is crucial to this study because any imagining of community is done against a backdrop of similarities (what the “us” share in common) and differences (what makes the “them” distinct from “us”). Drawing from various theorists of nationalism, postcolonialism, transnationalism and gender, I explore the representation of key events in Uganda’s history (for instance colonialism, decolonization, expulsion, and civil war) and investigate how selected writers narrate/sing these events in their constructions of Ugandan (trans)national identities. My analysis is guided by insights drawn from the work of the Russian literary theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin, particularly his concepts of dialogism and heteroglossia. His proposition that the novel is a site for the dialogic interaction of multiple languages (say of authorities, generations and social groups) and of speeches (say of narrators, characters and authors) each espousing a particular worldview or ideology enables me to create a correlation between literary texts and the nation (which contains a multiplicity of identities like races, ethnic groups, genders, religious denominations and political affiliations with each having its own interests and ‘language’), and to argue that Ugandan national identity is constituted by the existence of these very identities that overlap with it. By paying attention to the way selected literary texts portray how these disparate identities dialogue with the larger national community in different situations and how the national community in turn dialogues with other nations through cultural exchanges, migration, exile and diaspora, this study aims at unravelling the dynamics involved in the negotiation of (trans)national identities both within the nation and outside it. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek hoe geselekteerde Ugandese literêre tekste vorms, hervormings en onderhandelings van nasionale identiteite – na mate hulle deurvleg word deur oorvleuelende en dwarssnydende identitite soos díe van ras, etnisiteit, gender, godsdienstige denominasies en politieke affiliasies – uitbeeld. Die term “onderhandelings” staan sentraal in die diepte-lesing van geselekteerde fokus-tekste wat ek in hierdie tesis aanbied, want dit impliseer dat daar tye is wanneer ‘n spanning mag onstaan tussen nasionale identiteit en een of meer van hierdie ander identiteite (byvoorbeeld wanneer rasse of etniese groepe gekarakteriseer word as buite die nasie, m.a.w. as vreemdelinge), of tussen een nasionale identiteit (bv. Ugandees) en ander nasionale identiteite (bv. Brits) vir daardie karakters wat meer as een nasionale ruimte beset of wie se begrip van hul tuiste dus inbegrepe is van ‘n hier (bv. Brittanje) sowel as ‘n daar (soos bv.Uganda). Om hierdie rede ondersoek die studie die uitbeelding van maniere waarop verskeie soorte (interne en eksterne, sosio-kulturele en geo-politiese) grense gehanteer word in partikulêre literêre tekste ten einde (trans)nasionale identiteite te konstrueer, omvorm, of uit te beeld. Die konsep van ‘n grens is die belangrikste idee in hierdie studie, want enige konseptualisering van ‘n gemeenskap gebeur teen die agtergrond van gemeenhede (wat die “ons” in gemeen het) en verskille (wat “hulle” onderskei van “ons”). Met behulp van verskeie teoretici van nasionalisme, post-kolonialisme, trans-nasionalismes en gender, ondersoek ek die uitbeeldings van kern-gebeurtenisse in die geskiedenis van Uganda (byvoobeeld kolonialisme, dekolonialisering, verbanning van sekere mense en groepe en die burgeroorlog) en analiseer ek hoe sekere skrywers hierdie gebeurtenisse uitbeeld of verhaal in hulle konstruksies van Ugandese (trans)nasionalisme/s. My analises word gelei deur insigte verleen aan die oeuvre van die Russiese literêre teoretikus Mikhael Bakhtin, veral sy konsepte van dialogisme en heteroglossia. Sy voorstel dat die roman die ruimte is vir die interaksie van verskeie ‘tale’ (byvoorbeeld díe van outoriteite, ouderdoms- en sosiale groepe) en van diskoerse (bv. díe van vertellers, karakters en skrywers) wat elkeen ‘n partikulêre wêreldbeeld of ideologie aanbied of aanhang, stel my in die posisie om ‘n korrelasie te skep tussen die literêre tekste en die nasie (wat self ‘n oorvloed van identiteite soos díe van rasse, etniese groepe, genders, godsdienstige denominasies of politieke affiliasies bevat) en om te kan argumenteer dat die Ugandese nasionale identiteit konstitueer word deur die bestaan van presies hierdie (ander) identiteite wat daarmee saamval of oorvleuel. Deur aandag te gee aan die manier waarop geselekteerde literêre tekste die dialoë tussen hierdie onderskeie identiteite uitbeeld, elk waarvan hul eie belange en ‘tale’ behels, en hoe die nasionale identiteit op sy/haar beurt in gesprek is met ander nasies deur middel van kulturele uitruiling, migrasies, eksiel of diaspora, mik hierdie studie daarna om die dinamika van onderhandelings van (trans)nasionale identiteite beide binne asook buite die nasionale raamwerk uit te lig.