Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor : James Egan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-268).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Simon Fraser University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

In this dissertation I focus on the life and works of Marguerite Poland and argue that landscapes in her fiction act as sites for identity construction. In my analysis I examine the central characters’ engagement with the land, taking cognisance of Poland’s historical context and that of her fiction as represented in her four adult novels and eleven children’s books. I also focus on her doctoral thesis and non-fiction work, The Abundant Herds: A Celebration of the Nguni Cattle of the Zulu People (2003). Poland’s latest work The Boy In You (2008) appeared as this thesis was being completed, thus I only briefly refer to this work in the Conclusion. My primary aim puts into perspective personal, social and cultural identities that are constructed through an analysis of the landscapes evident in her work. Post-colonial theories of space and place provide the theoretical framework. In summary, this thesis argues that landscape is central to Poland’s oeuvre, that her construction of landscape takes particular forms depending on the type of writing she undertakes; and that her characters’ construction of identity is closely linked to the landscapes in which they are placed by their author, herself a product of her physical and cultural environment. “Landscape is dynamic; it serves to create and naturalise the histories and identities inscribed upon it, and so simultaneously hides and makes evident social and historical formations” (Carter et al 1993: xii). The implication of this statement is that the landscape is continuously constructed and deconstructed; that there is a constant evolution of meaning between individuals and the landscape; and that socio-historical conditions are largely responsible for forming ideology and consciousness. This, I argue, is also true for Poland’s fiction. Poland’s own position, as a writer who draws inspiration from the land and its inhabitants, is also discussed. In this thesis I examine the different phases of Poland’s work looking at different kinds of identity construction through different kinds of landscape portrayal. As a prolific South African female contemporary writer, Poland has made inroads into the world of fiction writing once dominated by men. Consequently, feminist issues abound in her writings and I deconstruct characters’ engagement with the land in order to uncover their gendered identities. Primarily, I explore the themes of belonging, identity formation, displacement and dispossession in a particular space and place. My thesis opens with an introduction outlining reasons for my choice of writer, her works to be discussed and the theoretical approaches to landscape and identity construction pertinent to the thesis. I focus on what Poland’s writing yields in terms of gendered identities, racial attitudes and cultural practices in her fictional landscape construction. These sections are grounded in the theories proposed by writers such as, inter alia, Paul Carter, Edward Relph, Chris Fitter and Dennis Cosgrove. In Chapter 2 my discussion focuses on the life and works of Poland placing her in a historical and cultural context. In Chapter 3, I explore how Poland constructs what I call a ‘mythological landscape’. My aim here, as in the following chapters, is to analyse place as a text upon which histories and cultures are inscribed and interpreted and which, in turn, inscribes them too. I also show the extent to which Poland relies on oral folklore to create space and place in her fiction. The literary focus is on her children’s literature and her writings on cattle description and folklore. Chapter 4 focuses on a literary analysis of Train To Doringbult (1987), Shades (1993), and Iron Love (1999) respectively. These novels demonstrate how Poland shows identity shaped within a ‘colonial landscape’. I examine how these novels reiterate that socio-historical conditions are responsible for forming ideology and consciousness. I also analyse how this particular genre puts into perspective personal, social and cultural identities that emerge from particular periods in South African history. Chapter 5 focuses on what I call the ‘indigenous landscape’, on how the South African landscape and the indigenous cattle of the region become characters in their own right. A literary analysis of Recessional for Grace (2003), The Abundant Herds: A Celebration of the Nguni Cattle of the Zulu People (2003) and Poland’s thesis, Uchibidolo: The Abundant Herds: A descriptive study of the Sanga-Nguni cattle of the Zulu people with special reference to colour-pattern terminology and naming practice (1996), form the basis of my discussion in this chapter. I conclude my thesis by further confirming the significance of landscape in Poland’s work as a site for the construction of identity. I focus on Poland’s impact on South African literature to date. I also focus on Poland’s preoccupation with identity in a transforming landscape, showing that there is a constant evolution of meaning between individuals and the landscape within which they find themselves. In this regard I show that identity linked to place has to be seen in terms of context. I mention Poland’s most recent commissioned project – a historical biography of the St. Andrew’s College in Grahamstown, an institution that is now a hundred and fifty years old. Poland’s association with this college, its social and historical context and other discursive issues pertaining to landscape, transformation and construction of identities are fore-grounded, to lend impetus to my thesis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Nation-building novels are novels which attempt to weave the experiences, values and richness of a variety of cultures, language groups and social contexts into a national heritage that creates a sense ofnational identity and identification for all people within a particular nation-state. This dissertation explores how Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, Keri Hulme's The Bone People and Margaret Laurence's The Diviners all use the particularly illuminating metaphor of family to explore nation-building in India, New Zealand and Canada respectively. In questioning traditional definitions of family through the image of the adopted child (or changeling in the case of Midnight's Children), the novels also explore new ways of understanding "belonging" and the "other". Since the meaning of these terms is rooted in the past, these novels also question the "truth" of the past by exposing the fallibility of memory. In chapter one a working definition of "nation" and "nation-building" is given and the vision, purpose and characteristic features of nation-building novels are discussed. Chapter two focuses on Rushdie's novel in which the metaphor of pickling is used to explore history not as a collection of hard facts but as a conglomeration of subjective, sensuous, manufactured and carefully created and preserved flavours. In chapter three Hulme's novel is discussed, particularly in relation to what is "other" and the importance of names. The narrator's idea of "commensalism" is explored as an ideal of syncrecity which does not deny individual identity. Chapter four looks at the development from consolation to contradiction to construction in the development of a hybrid national identity in Laurence's novel. Chapter five looks at the narrative techniques used in order to convey the prophetic nature of the novels' message and discusses the importance of the intertexts of each novel. Chapter six focuses on belonging as it looks at the return of each narrator to her/his symbolic or literal home. The chapter also discusses how the novels attack linearity by separating "time" and "space" (instances of social interaction) from "place" (specific geographical locations) in order to "disembed" their message to emphasise its universal applicability. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Management and Information Systems. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the representation of women, identity and education in the works of Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1989) and The Book of Not (2006), and Kopano Matlwa, Coconut (2007) and Spilt Milk (2010), through the lens of postcolonial studies. The arguments presented deal with the complicated factors associated with the formation of new identities in independent Zimbabwe and post-apartheid South Africa. I focus on how African women are represented in the texts taking place at particular socio-historical moments, including implications and interpretations of the literal and cultural shift from the indigenous, rural or segregated environments to Western, urban and racially mixed ones. My argument outlines the ways in which the stories are allegorically the stories of the fledgling democracies from which they emerge. I explore the texts in terms of symbolics of food, language, accents, family, academic settings, and the liberating and limiting elements associated with each. The authors present a complicated reality for the women of the novels, one where education is prioritized although somewhat to the detriment of traditional values and norms. The representation of women in the novels varies, leaving few successful role models for navigating workable identities for the characters as mothers, wives, and autonomous individuals. The novels offer interesting imaginaries for the future of their respective countries. The texts promote education tempered with a respect for home cultures and racial reconciliation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die uitbeelding van vroue, identiteit en opvoeding in die werke van Tsitsi Dangarembga en Kopano Matlwa vanuit die oogpunt van postkoloniale studies. Die voorgestelde argument hou verband met die ingewikkelde faktore van identiteit-vorming in 'n onhafhanklike Zimbabwe en 'n post-Apartheid Suid-Afrika. Ek fokus op die uitbeelding van swart vroue in hierdie tekste wat gedurende spesifiek sosio-historiese oomblikke plaas vind. Dit sluit in die gevolge en interpretasies van letterlike en kulterele verskuiwings vanaf inheemse, landelike en gesegregeerde omgewings tot Westerse, stedelike en veelrassige omgewings. My argument sit uit een hoe hierdie vroue se stories as allegorieë vir die jong demokratiese lande waaruit hul na vore kom, beskou kan word. Ek verken die tekste ook in terme van die simboliek van voedsel, taal, aksent, familie en opvoeding, en fokus verder op die bevrydende en beperkende elemente van elk. Die skrywers bied 'n ingewikkelde werkliheid vir vrouens in die romans aan, een waar opvoeding 'n prioriteit is, maar ietwat tot die nadeel van tradisionele waardes en norme. Die uitbeelding van vrouens in die romans wissel en bied min suksesvolle rolmodelle aan waarvolgens die karakters identiteite soos moeder, vrou en selfstandige individue kan vorm. Die tekste bevorder wel die verkryging van 'n volledige opvoeding, maar nie tot nadeel van tradisionele kulture, of die moontlikheid van rasseversoening nie. Beide die romans bied 'n interessante blik op die toekomste vir die onderskeie lande dur hierdie uibeelding van die vroulike karakters.

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The classic Victorian tale by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), has been enjoyed by adults and children alike in many countries and in many languages. In this book, Carroll parodies the accepted style of children’s books of the Victorian Age by mocking the moralistic and realistic expectations. All the poems in the book are parodies of once familiar nursery rhymes, which often conveyed a moral lesson. Translating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a challenging task, as it poses culturespecific, text-specific and language-specific problems. Although the book has been translated into more than 70 languages, it seems to be more popular in some cultures than in others. At the same time, some cultures seem to be content with “older” translations, while others need “updated” versions. Cultural differences seem to play a role in these preferences. The aim of this study is to examine the French and Afrikaans translations of a parodied poem (as found in chapter 2 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) from an intercultural perspective. In both cases, the translators seem to have found equivalents in their respective cultures that would be acceptable to their target readers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die klassieke Victoriaanse verhaal deur Lewis Carroll, Alice se Avonture in Wonderland (1865), het plesier verskaf aan volwassenes en kinders in baie lande en in baie tale. In hierdie boek parodieer Carroll die aanvaarbare styl van kinderboeke van die Victoriaanse tydperk deur die spot te dryf met die moralistiese en realistiese verwagtinge. Al die gedigte in die boek is parodieë van eens bekende rympies, wat dikwels ‘n morele les bevat het. Die vertaling van Alice se Avonture in Wonderland is ‘n uitdagende taak, aangesien dit bepaalde kultuur-, teks- en taalverwante probleme inhou. Hoewel die boek in meer as 70 tale vertaal is, blyk dit meer gewild te wees in sekere kulture as in ander. Terselfdertyd is sommige kulture skynbaar tevrede met “ouer” vertalings, terwyl ander meer “hersiene” weergawes verkies. Kultuurverskille speel oënskynlik ‘n rol in hierdie voorkeure. Die doel van hierdie studie is om die Franse en Afrikaanse vertalings van ‘n geparodieerde gedig (soos dit voorkom in hoofstuk 2 van Alice se Avonture in Wonderland) te ondersoek vanuit ‘n interkulturele perspektief. Klaarblyklik het die vertalers in beide gevalle ekwivalente in hulle onderskeie kulture gevind wat aanvaarbaar sou wees vir hulle teikenlesers.

This thesis deploys Homi Bhabha's perspective of postcolonial literary theory as a critical procedure to examine particular instances of fiction, as well as reportage on Botswana. Its unifying interest is to pinpoint the shifting nature or reality of Botswana and, by extension, of African identities. To that end, I use Bhabha's concept of liminality to inform the work of writers such as Unity Dow, Alexander McCall Smith, and instances of reportage (by Rupert Isaacson and Caitlin Davies), from the 1990s to date. The aims of the thesis are, among other things, to establish the extent to which Homi Bhabha's appropriation of the term liminality (which derives from Victor Turner's notion of limen for inbetweenness), and its application in the postcolonial context inflects the reading of the above works whose main motifs include the following: a contestation of any views which privilege one culture above another, challenging a jingoistic rootedness in one culture, and promoting an awareness of the existence of several, interlocking or even clashing realities which finally produce multiple meanings, values and identities. In short, it is proposed that identity is not a given but rather a product of a lived reality and therefore a social construct, something always in process. The thesis begins by theorizing liminality in Chapter 1 within the context of Homi Bhabha's understanding and interrogation of the colonial discourse. This is followed by the contextualization of liminality through the reading of, firstly, the fiction of Unity Dow in Chapters 2 and 3, and then the "detective" fiction of Alexander McCall Smith in Chapters 4 and 5. In the discussion of these works, I also touch on instances of reportage which relate to the lives of the authors. In the case of Smith's "detective" fiction, for example, reportage refers to his incorporation of actual historical events and personages whose impact, I argue, suggests the liminality of culture. In Chapter 6, the idea of reportage varies slightly to denote works of fiction in which there is a great deal of historical fact. Thus Rupert Isaacson's The Healing Land: A Kalahari Journey and Caitlin Davies' Place of Reeds are treated as works of reportage in line with Truman Capote's application of that term. What comes out most evidently in this study is the shifting idea of (Botswana/African) identity. It should be noted that rather than present an all-embracing account of the fiction on Botswana, the study only looks at the selected examples of writing and reportage. / University of South Africa National Research Foundation / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)