This dissertation explores the question of identity in times of violence. In this regard attention is drawn to the significance of the motto and to various inter-texts. The connection between the Afrikaans language, the country of South Africa and the identity of the Afrikaner is scrutinised, but more especially language as a means of communication and tool for the protagonist, who is a poet. His lifestyle, personal safety and place of work are under threat while the rural areas are becoming inaccessible, the city inhospitable and military violence prevails. The question he asks himself, “what is left?”, is used as the premise for an enquiry into identity from a post-colonial and sociological angle. It appears eventually that his search for identity is a highly personal one and Jung’s concept of individuation and the reconciliation of the conscious ego with the unconscious is pursued as the only option and refuge for the protagonist. It is not advocated that Afrikaners turn their back on reality by means of inner or actual emigration, but the implicit recommendation is an enrichment of life with full cognizance of current conditions. / Prof. W. Botha Prof W. Burger

M.Phil. / This study is undertaken against the backdrop of the "narrativistic turn" in the human sciences. While narratives were traditionally regarded as the terrain of literary studies, it has increasingly become a focus in various disciplines since the 1970s. The usefulness of the concept "narrative identity" is investigated as a means to deal with the problematization of the subject (and personal identity) in postmodern thought. The influence of 20th Century language theory and constructionism on the problematization of the subject is also discussed. It is argued that the self (and personal identity) can not be regarded as a pre-existing subject that simply finds expression in narratives (as sometimes happens in narrative therapy). Such a view would presuppose a pre-linguistic cogito. The self (and personal identity) is not readily available for examination by the self. From a hermeneutical point of view, the self is always an interpretation. Paul Ricoeur's discussion of "narrative identity" is used tot discuss the processes of identity construction in self-narratives. The way in which a "narrative identity" is constructed in a self-narrative is examined with reference to Karel Schoeman's autobiography (Die laaste Afrikaanse boek – literally "The Last Afrikaans Book"). An autobiography is a representation of a life in which a subject is self-consciously constructing an identity. This specific autobiography makes explicit, self-conscious use of literary devices and refers to literary texts which makes it possible to examine the influence of fiction on self-narratives. In the process of this study it is demonstrated that insights provided by literary studies could contribute to narrative psychology and in this sense it is demonstrated that the strict boundaries that often exist between disciplines could be dissolved. Various ways by which the study of literature could contribute to the expansion of the hermeneutical basis on which individuals base their self-narratives, and the spin-offs for narrative therapy, is the most important result of the study. Some gains of narratology (within literary analysis) for narrative therapy are also examined.

This dissertation attempts a Bakhtinian analysis of the polyphonic dialogue between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Karel Schoeman's Na die Geliefde Land and Jason Xenopoulos' Promised Land. Specific Bakthinian concepts are employed to determine whether the films are "apt" adaptations of the literary texts; how the stylistically hybrid texts engage in conversation with different movements, genres and trends; how the polyphonic conversations between different texts and discourses, such as literature and film, or colonialism and postcolonialism, can provide insight into the variety of discourses, textual and ideological, of a postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa; and how identity crises experienced by key characters can be explained using the notions of hybridity, "The Marginal Man" and liminality. All four texts have key characters that experience identity crises that spring from cultural hybridity; their cultural hybridity has the potential to either render them marginally stagnant or lead them to liminally active participation within their imagined communities. This dissertation argues that even though there are major differences between the films and the literary texts they are based upon, they are relevant to a specific target audience and therefore enrich the ur-texts. Salient characteristics of realism, symbolism, impressionism, modernism, postmodernism, postcolonialism and the apocalyptic dialogise one another within the four texts, thereby liberating the texts from one authorial reading. The dialogue between the discourses of literature and film supplement an understanding of the dialogue between war, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism and the Will to Power. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This dissertation attempts a Bakhtinian analysis of the polyphonic dialogue between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Karel Schoeman's Na die Geliefde Land and Jason Xenopoulos' Promised Land. Specific Bakthinian concepts are employed to determine whether the films are "apt" adaptations of the literary texts; how the stylistically hybrid texts engage in conversation with different movements, genres and trends; how the polyphonic conversations between different texts and discourses, such as literature and film, or colonialism and postcolonialism, can provide insight into the variety of discourses, textual and ideological, of a postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa; and how identity crises experienced by key characters can be explained using the notions of hybridity, "The Marginal Man" and liminality. All four texts have key characters that experience identity crises that spring from cultural hybridity; their cultural hybridity has the potential to either render them marginally stagnant or lead them to liminally active participation within their imagined communities. This dissertation argues that even though there are major differences between the films and the literary texts they are based upon, they are relevant to a specific target audience and therefore enrich the ur-texts. Salient characteristics of realism, symbolism, impressionism, modernism, postmodernism, postcolonialism and the apocalyptic dialogise one another within the four texts, thereby liberating the texts from one authorial reading. The dialogue between the discourses of literature and film supplement an understanding of the dialogue between war, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism and the Will to Power. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006