The study addresses the reasons why Buthelezi is regarded as a post-apartheid writer. Among other reasons that are discussed in this study is that in his novels, he touches on some of the issues that were not dealt with in the apartheid period. It also looks at the didactic elements that are conveyed in Buthelezi's novels as far as the post-apartheid period is concerned. Advantages and disadvantages of the post-apartheid period to South Africans are also examined, one of the very important disadvantages being the loss of the spirit of ubuntu among the African people while they try to move on with times. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This dissertation analyses a number of key themes in the work of postcolonial theorist and literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and uses her ideas to argue for the usefulness of both deconstructive and postmodern thought in a postcolonial context generally, and in South Africa in particular. The early part of the thesis presents a brief overview of Spivak's work (Chapter 1) and discusses its relationship with Derridean deconstruction and what I have called "progressive postmodern thought". Chapter 2 explores in detail Spivak's use of theoretical concepts adapted from, or closely related to, deconstruction. Perhaps the most important of these is catachresis - the idea that all naming is in a sense false, and the words we use to conceptualise the world must be seen as "inadequate, yet necessary". The thesis looks at how Spivak foregrounds the methodological consequences of this insight in her own practice of constantly revisiting and rethinking her own conclusions, and also at the political consequences of recognising specific terms like "nation", "identity" or "woman" as catachrestic. Closely related to this area of Spivak's work are her idea of "strategic essentialism" and her adaptation of Derrida's concept of the pharmakon -- that which is simultaneously poison and medicine. Chapter 3 relates Spivak's work to three key areas of postmodern thought: alterity, and the ethics of the relationship between self and other; Lyotard's notions of the differand and the "unpresentable"; and aporia, or the ethical and political consequences of undecidability. I argue here that all of these emphases are potentially very useful in postcolonial studies, particularly in relation to the predicament - of the gendered subaltern, and that they help to define a progressive postmodern politics. The remainder of the dissertation discusses individual essays at greater length. Chapter 4 focuses in the main on "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988) and Spivak's arguments concerning the nature of subalternity and the politics of representation. Chapter 5 examines Spivak's engagement with French Feminism and her feminist critiques of mainstream deconstruction, arguing that Spivak's use of deconstruction undermines the opposition between linguistic and material forms of oppression and hence between theory and practice. Chapter 6 focuses on Spivak's reading of literary texts and raises issues concerning, inter alia, the production of the first world self at the expense of the third world other; the limits of both metropolitan theories and narratives of national liberation, democracy and development in relation to the experience of the gendered subaltern; reading the text of the subaltern body; the (impossible but necessary) ethical relationship between first world feminist and the subaltern in neocolonial space; rights and responsibility; the need to respect subaltern selfhood; and the possibility of what Spivak calls "learning from below". Finally, I look at the relevance of Spivak's thought to three areas of South African political and academic life: conflicts over representation within the local Women's movement; notions of national origin and national identity; and debates over deconstruction and the relationship between the academy and society. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

This research is entitled "The historical representation of the praise-poetry of the two Zulu kings, Dingane and Mpande." In this study the researcher is trying to explore the ways in which history is portrayed in these two above mentioned kings. This is done firstly by looking particularly at their historical outlooks and secondly by looking at their praises. In traditional Zulu society, every Royal king has to possess praises. Therefore the praises basically contain historical events. The analysis of the findings reveals that king praises contain largely of the heroic deeds, body features and characteristics of the kings. Based on this statement it therefore stands to reason that the king praises cannot be considered merely as a complete history of the Zulu kings. The data collection was carried out through interviews and through reading books for each king. It must be noted that the king praises are only performed by a bard/imbongi. The king praises serve as a mirror that detects how the king live and perform the duties of the nation. / Thesis (M.A)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1993.

The cinematic experience in Taisho Japan was a defining part of a spectrum of modernity's experiences associated with daily urban life. This paper argues that rather than theorizing film in rational terms common to "serious" film criticism focussing on aspects of production, Ozaki Midori envisioned the cinematic experience from the standpoint of an enthralled spectator, in terms of a sensual, bodily interaction with the cinematic image. Given the over-determined relationship of women to mass culture, one that is wrought with contradictions, Ozaki's writings on film open up the question of gender as it relates to spectatorship and the development of subjectivity within mass culture. Ozaki writes from a perspective within the cinematic experience in which the boundaries between spectator and image collapse. Ozaki offers a new mode of thinking and writing, a poetics of distraction to articulate and comprehend the modern experience.

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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.