Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of this study will be on the unique way in which language is used in Marlene van Niekerk‟s collection of short stories, Die sneeuslaper (2010). When reading Die sneeuslaper it is impossible not noticing the number of Dutch words, as well as words and phrases from other foreign languages, as Bargoens, Rotwelsch, German, French, Italian, Hebrew, Greek and Maltese. Some of the characters‟ speech, as well as so called sound poems (or nonsense verses) are characterised by a number of newly invented words. However, the meaning of some of these words or phrases remains unclear. Other themes in the four short stories which will be analysed are the so called political responsibility of the artist, as well as music, rhythm and bird-noises. As a theoretical basis of this study, Deleuze and Guattari‟s Kafka Toward a Minor Literature will be used. In Kafka Toward a Minor Literature Deleuze en Guattari formulate their ideas regarding minor literature. They describe a major language as a language of dominance and power, while a minor language is a language without any power. According to them the three characteristics of minor literature are: the minor deterritorializes the major, minor literature is always political, and minor literature always has a collective function. Deleuze and Guattari‟s, as well as Bogue‟s writing regarding the territorialization and deterritorialization of the refrain, is also explored briefly. Deleuze en Guattari‟s theories regarding minor literature is used in this study to read Die sneeuslaper. In the end it is concluded that the unconventional use of language in this short story collection can be associated with the political nature of some of the stories. The unique usage of language in Die sneeuslaper, the way in which Afrikaans is transformed into a language that stammers, stutters and mumbles, can be seen as a subtle form of political protest. Therefore this collection of short stories can be seen as a form of minor literature. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die vreemde wyse waarop taal in Marlene van Niekerk se kortverhaalbundel, Die sneeuslaper (2010), aangewend word. Met die lees van Die sneeuslaper is die hoeveelheid Nederlandse woorde, asook enkele woorde en frases uit ander vreemde tale, soos Bargoens, Rotwelsch, Duits, Frans, Italiaans, Hebreeus, Grieks en Maltees, opvallend. Verder is daar in die karakters se spraak, sowel as in klankgedigte (of onsinverse), vele nuutskeppings waarvan die betekenis nie altyd so duidelik blyk nie, teenwoordig. Ander temas wat in die vier verhale figureer en ondersoek sal word is kunstenaarskap, die sogenaamde politieke verantwoordelikheid van die kunstenaar, asook musiek, ritme en voëlgeluide. As teoretiese vertrekpunt vir die studie word Deleuze en Guattari se Kafka Toward a Minor Literature, waarin hul idees oor mineurlettekunde geformuleer word, gebruik. Deleuze en Guattari onderskei tussen ‟n dominante majeurtaal en ‟n mineurtaal wat sonder mag is. Volgens Deleuze en Guattari is daar drie kenmerke van mineurletterkunde, naamlik dat die mineur die majeur deterritorialiseer, dat mineurletterkunde altyd polities is, en laastens dat mineurletterkunde altyd kollektief van aard is. Bykomend word daar ook kortliks gekyk na Deleuze en Guattari, sowel as Bogue, se skrywe oor territorialisering en deterritorialisering in die refrein. Deleuze en Guattari se teorie oor mineurletterkunde word in hierdie studie as ‟n agtergrond gebruik om Die sneeuslaper te lees. Daar word uiteindelik tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die onkonvensionele taalgebruik in die kortverhaalbundel wel geassosieer kan word met deterritorialisering en dat dit aansluit by die politieke aard van sommige van die verhale. Die wyse waarop Afrikaans in Die sneeuslaper getransformeer word na ‟n taal wat stamel, stotter en struikel, kan dus as subtiele, politieke protes gesien word en daarom kan dié kortverhaalbundel inderdaad as ‟n vorm van mineurletterkunde beskou word.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese

Diss. Northwestern Univ. Evanston, Ill., 2006.

Diss. Northwestern Univ. Evanston, Ill., 2006.

Thesis (MA (English Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As existent beings, we identify with the world through our thoughts and perceptions. Man is driven to seek meaning by the very complexities and contradictions of existence. As self-conscious beings, we cannot live without a sense of awareness and understanding. Creativity allows an individual to develop a unique understanding of the nature and destiny of man. This study draws attention to writers who were able to transcend their external environment and immerse themselves in a setting where man’s individuality is fundamental to living an authentic life. Camus, Dostoevsky and Kafka made every effort to live consciously and authentically. They believed that inwardness was not to be defined by an external, social setting, but rather through an intimacy of consciousness. This awareness and unveiling of being enables us to create meaning. These authors removed their social mantles and were willing to sacrifice acceptance in the pursuit of this cause. They believed that every man has a responsibility to live an individual and authentic life. This psychological and even physical isolation is not easy, however, and often causes much suffering. Using existentialism as a framework, this thesis will focus on solitariness, suffering and creativity, all of which point to the importance of individual consciousness rather than living a life of societal pressures and conformity. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: As lewende wesens identifiseer ons onsself met die wêreld deur middel van gedagtes en waarnemings. Die mens word gedryf deur die soeke na betekenis in die kompleksiteit en teenstellings van sy bestaan. As wesens met selfkennis kan ons nie leef met ‘n gebrek aan bewustheid en begrip nie. Kreatiwiteit laat die individu toe om ‘n unieke begrip van die aard en lot van die mens te ontwikkel. Hierdi verhandeling vestig die aandag op skrywers wat verby hul uiterlike omgewings kon uitreik en hulself kon indompel in ‘n mileu waar die mens se individualiteit grondliggend is om ‘n onvervalste lewe te lei. Camus, Dostoevsky en Kafka het alles in hul vermoë gedoen om bewustelik en suiwer te lewe. Hulle het geglo dat die innerlike nie gedefinieer kan word deur die uiterlike, sosiale omgewing nie, maar eerder deur ‘n intimiteit van bewustheid. Hierdie bewustheid en openbaring van bestaan laat ons toe om betekenis te skep. Hierdie skrywers het hul sosiale mantels afgewerp en was bereid om sosiale aanvaarbaarheid op te offer in hul strewe na hierdie doelwit. Hulle het geglo dat elke mens oor ‘n individuele en onvervalste lewe beskik. Die sielkundige en selfs fisieke afsondering is egter nooit maklik nie en het dikwels groot lyding tot gevolg. Met eksistensialisme as raamwerk sal hierdie tesis focus op afsondering, lyding en kreatiwiteit.

Informada pelos pressupostos da área interdisciplinar conhecida como estudos animais, esta tese propõe uma leitura a contrapelo das figuras animais na literatura, na qual elas não são entendidas apenas como metáforas de certos aspectos da vida humana, mas como presenças textuais com um estatuto de personagens e, nessa condição, são interrogadas em sua alteridade. A questão central em pauta é: o que a metáfora diz sobre os animais e sobre a relação entre os animais e os seres humanos e o que significa des-figurar a metáfora e explorar a possibilidade de re-significar, a partir da textualidade ficcional, a relação humano-animal. Para tanto, desenho um panorama dos estudos animais, abordando o estado da arte no Brasil, inserindo tais estudos nas possibilidades de inovação no campo da literatura comparada. A seguir, elaboro um aporte teórico a partir da filosofia animal de Jacques Derrida, ao qual incorporo e coloco em discussão posicionamentos teóricos de Calarco (2008), Krell (2013), Lawlor (2007) e Naas (2010) sobre a questão em pauta. Por fim, realizo leituras comparadas entre A metamorfose (1915), de Franz Kafka, e Porcarias (1996), de Marie Darrieussecq, ambos sobre o tornar-se animal, e entre Flush (1933), de Virginia Woolf, e Timbuktu (1999), de Paul Auster, ambos sobre a domesticação de animais. / Following the tenets of the interdisciplinary area of animal studies, this dissertation presents a reading of animal figures in literature against the grain, which means that they are not taken only as metaphors of certain aspects of human life but as textual presences with a status assigned to characters and, in this condition, are interrogated in their alterity. The central question to be explored is: what the animal metaphor says about animals and the relation of animal and human beings and what it means to de-figure the metaphor in order to explore the possibility of re-signifying, in ficcional textualities, the human/animal relation. In order to address these issues, I draw a panorama of animal studies, including the state of the art in Brazil, to contend that this area adds to the possibilities of innovation in the field of comparative literature. Then, I consider a theoretical framework of Jacques Derrida’s animal philosophy, also discussing theoretical positions of Calarco (2008), Krell (2013), Lawlor (2007) and Naas (2010) on this topic. Finally, I propose comparative readings of Franz Kafka’s The metamorphosis (1915) and Marie Darrieussecq’s Pig tales (1996), from the perspective of becoming animal, and of Virginia Woolf’s Flush (1933) and Paul Auster’s Timbuktu (1999), both on domesticating animals.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-05-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:47:31Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 paula_br_me_arafcl.pdf: 689530 bytes, checksum: 788100750962c1221dfb3eb58a79be2c (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O espaço e o tempo são elementos estruturais de fundamental importância na narrativa literária, podendo assumir funções diversas. Os métodos e os recursos narrativos de que o escritor dispõe são variados. A sua instauração gera uma relação entre ambos de valores estéticos e narrativos muitas vezes diferentes para cada obra. Cada escritor projeta-os segundo a sua concepção estético-literária e ao seu estilo. Partindo deste axioma, que é a existência do espaço e do tempo como categorias narrativas, analisamos duas obras literárias específicas: o conto “O gato preto”, de Edgar Allan Poe, e o romance O Processo, de Franz Kafka. A partir da análise das respectivas obras, verificamos como ambas as categorias narrativas se apresentam em um conto e em um romance e como elas auxiliam na obtenção de efeitos pré-definidos, como, por exemplo, os efeitos elencados na filosofia da composição e no realismo fantástico, respectivamente. Objetivamos ressaltar as especificidades de como Poe e Kafka retratam o espaço e o tempo em ambas narrativas. Pretendemos estudar, desta forma, os principais aspectos narrativos do conto e do romance em questão de modo a ressaltar as suas especificidades, elencando as suas funções narrativas, para tanto trabalhamos com os conceitos de espaço tópico e descrito, além dos aspectos do tempo a partir do nível narrativo e do nível diegético / Space and Time are structural elements of fundamental importance in literary narrative, and may take several functions. The methods and narrative procedures the writer arranges are diverse. Their establishment generate a relationship between them which aesthetic and narrative values are often different for each work. Each writer designs them according to their style, as well as their aesthetic-literary conceptions. From this axiom, which is the existence of space and time as narrative categories, we analyze two specific literary works: the short story called The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, and the novel The Judgment by Franz Kafka. Drawing on the analysis of their works, we see how both categories are presented in a short story and in a novel and how they assist in achieving predefined effects, such as the ones listed in “The Philosophy of Composition” and in the Fantastic Realism, respectively. Our aim is to highlight the specificities of how Poe and Kafka portray Space and Time in both narratives. By doing so, we intend to study the main narrative aspects of the short story and the novel in question so as to highlight their specific features, listing their narrative functions. Therefore, the concepts of topic and described Space, in addition to the aspects of Time from the narrative and diegetic levels are focused

This thesis examines the literary dream in selected works by Kafka, Kubin, Meyrink, Musil and Schnitzler, with a particular focus on the redefinition of subjectivity through dreamlife. The introductory chapter contextualises these case studies in the broader field of oneirocriticism, emphasising the dream's ancient role as fixtional template and its specific significance in the destabilised environment of German Central Europe during the early twentieth century. Alfred Kubin's Die andere Seite (1909), which uses the 'other side' as metaphor for both oneiric and artistic experience, reveals the inherent dualism of the literary dream and its close relationship with creativity. In Robert Musil's Die Verwirrungen des Zdglings Tdrlefi (1906), the protagonist serves as the model for a new type of self-determining subject who draws on the knowledge of dreams and irrationality. Franz Kafka's texts reveal techniques for integrating the dream into fictional worlds that are already dreamlike through the prevalence of (literalised) metaphor and free association. Gustav Meyrink, in Der Golem (1915), shares Kafka's interest in concretised metaphor, but also explores the dream's associations with occult practices, used as a defence against the threatening claims of science. Finally, Arthur Schnitzler's literary dreams offer a direct confrontation with psychoanalysis and a dismantling of nineteenth-century ideals of gender and bourgeois love. Overall, it is argued that the literary dreams by these authors hold varied responses to fragmentation of the Ich in the face of psychological 'vivisection', theories of relativity, and the collapse of old social orders. The dream, as a nightly 'psychosis', crystallised the pervasive fears of self-loss during this period; however, in its perennial role as micro-narrative, it also provided a site for re-construction of the subject. The incorporation of dreams in fictional lives served as a metonymical guide for the integration of un- and subconscious experience overall.

Informada pelos pressupostos da área interdisciplinar conhecida como estudos animais, esta tese propõe uma leitura a contrapelo das figuras animais na literatura, na qual elas não são entendidas apenas como metáforas de certos aspectos da vida humana, mas como presenças textuais com um estatuto de personagens e, nessa condição, são interrogadas em sua alteridade. A questão central em pauta é: o que a metáfora diz sobre os animais e sobre a relação entre os animais e os seres humanos e o que significa des-figurar a metáfora e explorar a possibilidade de re-significar, a partir da textualidade ficcional, a relação humano-animal. Para tanto, desenho um panorama dos estudos animais, abordando o estado da arte no Brasil, inserindo tais estudos nas possibilidades de inovação no campo da literatura comparada. A seguir, elaboro um aporte teórico a partir da filosofia animal de Jacques Derrida, ao qual incorporo e coloco em discussão posicionamentos teóricos de Calarco (2008), Krell (2013), Lawlor (2007) e Naas (2010) sobre a questão em pauta. Por fim, realizo leituras comparadas entre A metamorfose (1915), de Franz Kafka, e Porcarias (1996), de Marie Darrieussecq, ambos sobre o tornar-se animal, e entre Flush (1933), de Virginia Woolf, e Timbuktu (1999), de Paul Auster, ambos sobre a domesticação de animais. / Following the tenets of the interdisciplinary area of animal studies, this dissertation presents a reading of animal figures in literature against the grain, which means that they are not taken only as metaphors of certain aspects of human life but as textual presences with a status assigned to characters and, in this condition, are interrogated in their alterity. The central question to be explored is: what the animal metaphor says about animals and the relation of animal and human beings and what it means to de-figure the metaphor in order to explore the possibility of re-signifying, in ficcional textualities, the human/animal relation. In order to address these issues, I draw a panorama of animal studies, including the state of the art in Brazil, to contend that this area adds to the possibilities of innovation in the field of comparative literature. Then, I consider a theoretical framework of Jacques Derrida’s animal philosophy, also discussing theoretical positions of Calarco (2008), Krell (2013), Lawlor (2007) and Naas (2010) on this topic. Finally, I propose comparative readings of Franz Kafka’s The metamorphosis (1915) and Marie Darrieussecq’s Pig tales (1996), from the perspective of becoming animal, and of Virginia Woolf’s Flush (1933) and Paul Auster’s Timbuktu (1999), both on domesticating animals.

Informada pelos pressupostos da área interdisciplinar conhecida como estudos animais, esta tese propõe uma leitura a contrapelo das figuras animais na literatura, na qual elas não são entendidas apenas como metáforas de certos aspectos da vida humana, mas como presenças textuais com um estatuto de personagens e, nessa condição, são interrogadas em sua alteridade. A questão central em pauta é: o que a metáfora diz sobre os animais e sobre a relação entre os animais e os seres humanos e o que significa des-figurar a metáfora e explorar a possibilidade de re-significar, a partir da textualidade ficcional, a relação humano-animal. Para tanto, desenho um panorama dos estudos animais, abordando o estado da arte no Brasil, inserindo tais estudos nas possibilidades de inovação no campo da literatura comparada. A seguir, elaboro um aporte teórico a partir da filosofia animal de Jacques Derrida, ao qual incorporo e coloco em discussão posicionamentos teóricos de Calarco (2008), Krell (2013), Lawlor (2007) e Naas (2010) sobre a questão em pauta. Por fim, realizo leituras comparadas entre A metamorfose (1915), de Franz Kafka, e Porcarias (1996), de Marie Darrieussecq, ambos sobre o tornar-se animal, e entre Flush (1933), de Virginia Woolf, e Timbuktu (1999), de Paul Auster, ambos sobre a domesticação de animais. / Following the tenets of the interdisciplinary area of animal studies, this dissertation presents a reading of animal figures in literature against the grain, which means that they are not taken only as metaphors of certain aspects of human life but as textual presences with a status assigned to characters and, in this condition, are interrogated in their alterity. The central question to be explored is: what the animal metaphor says about animals and the relation of animal and human beings and what it means to de-figure the metaphor in order to explore the possibility of re-signifying, in ficcional textualities, the human/animal relation. In order to address these issues, I draw a panorama of animal studies, including the state of the art in Brazil, to contend that this area adds to the possibilities of innovation in the field of comparative literature. Then, I consider a theoretical framework of Jacques Derrida’s animal philosophy, also discussing theoretical positions of Calarco (2008), Krell (2013), Lawlor (2007) and Naas (2010) on this topic. Finally, I propose comparative readings of Franz Kafka’s The metamorphosis (1915) and Marie Darrieussecq’s Pig tales (1996), from the perspective of becoming animal, and of Virginia Woolf’s Flush (1933) and Paul Auster’s Timbuktu (1999), both on domesticating animals.