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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis undertakes a comparative reading of post-colonial literature written in English in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to bring into focus the similarities and differences between fictional representations of poverty in these three countries. The thesis explores the unique way in which literature may contribute to the better understanding of poverty, a field that has hitherto been largely dominated by scholarship that relies on quantitative analysis as opposed to qualitative approaches. The thesis seeks to use examples from selected texts to illustrate that (as many social scientists have argued before) literature provides insights into the ‘lived realities’ of the poor and that with its vividly imagined specificities it illuminates the broad generalisations about poverty established in other (data-gathering) disciplines. Selected texts from the three countries destabilise the usual categories of gender, race and class which are often utilised in quantitative studies of poverty and by so doing show that experiences of poverty cut across and intersect all of these spheres and the experiences differ from one person to another regardless of which category they may fall within. The three main chapters focus primarily on local indigence as depicted by texts from the three countries. The selection of texts in the chapters follows a thematic approach and texts are discussed by means of selective focus on the ways in which they address the theme of poverty. Using three main theorists – Maria Pia Lara, Njabulo Ndebele and Amartya Sen – the thesis focuses centrally on how writers use varying literary devices and techniques to provide moving depictions of poverty that show rather than tell the reader of the unique experiences that different characters and different communities have of deprivation and shortage of basic needs. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis onderneem ‘n vergelykende studie van post-koloniale letterkunde in Engels uit Botswana, Namibië en Zimbabwe, om sodoende die ooreenstemmings en verskille tussen letterkundige uitbeeldings van armoede in hierdie drie lande aan die lig te bring. Die tesis ondersoek die unieke manier waarop letterkunde kan bydra tot ‘n beter begrip van armoede, ‘n studieveld wat tot huidiglik grotendeels op kwantitatiewe analises berus, in teenstelling met kwalitatiewe benaderings. Die tesis se werkswyse gebruik voorbeelde uit gelekteerde tekste met die doel om te illustreer (soos verskeie sosiaal-wetenskaplikes reeds aangevoer het) dat letterkunde insig voorsien in die lewenservarings van armoediges en dat dit die breë veralgemenings aangaande armoede in ander (data-gebaseerde) wetenskappe kan illumineer. Geselekteerde tekste uit die drie lande destabiliseer die gewone kategorieë van gender, ras en klas wat normaaalweg gebruik word in kwantitatiewe studies van armoede, om sodoende aan te toon dat die ervaring van armoede dwarsdeur hierdie klassifikasies sny en dat hierdie tipe lewenservaring verskil van persoon tot persoon ongeag in watter kategorie hulle geplaas word. Die drie sentrale hoofstukke fokus primêr op lokale armoede soos uitgebeeld in tekste vanuit die drie lande. Die seleksie van tekste in die hoofstukke volg ‘n tematiese patroon en tekste word geanaliseer na aanleiding van ‘n selektiewe fokus op die maniere waarop hulle armoede uitbeeld. Deur gebruik te maak van ‘ die teorieë van Maria Pia Lara, Njabulo Ndebele en Amartya Sen, fokus hierdie tesis sentraal op hoe skrywers verskeie literêre metodes en tegnieke aanwend ten einde ontroerende uitbeeldings van armoede te skep wat die leser wys liewer as om hom/haar slegs te vertel aangaande die unieke ervarings wat verskillende karakters en gemeenskappe het van ontbering en die tekort aan basiese behoefte-voorsiening.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The broad aim of the present study was an exploration of the representation of women in the novels of the Maghreb written in French. Two questions provided obvious and logical starting points: Is the fairly aggressive feminism that is so integral to current Western writing equally evident in the fiction of countries where the position of women is governed by religious conviction? Does the fiction emanating from the pens of male authors differ, in the way it reflects this problem, from the fiction written by women?

Gregory was the first monk to be pope; proverbially, he would have preferred to have remained a monk; the audience he addressed was almost always made up of monks. However, no sustained attempt has been made to establish the contexts for Gregory as a monastic writer. The thesis represents an initial attempt to do so, and in particular, to question the image of Gregory as a monk unable to cope with the assumption of episcopal power. The sources principally chosen for study are as follows: Augustine's Praeceptum; Cassian's Institutes and Conferences; the writings of the early Lerins circle; the Sermons and Rules of Caesarius of Aries; the Rule of St. Benedict, together with the Rules of the Master and Eugippius of Lucullanum. The thesis has been structured as a series of comparisons between these texts, and the situations in which they were produced, with Gregory's writings and his situation in late sixth century Rome. Gregory's ecclesial and eschatalogical perspectives, to which he adhered before papal election, are seen to set him apart from earlier monastic writers, and into confrontation with contemporary ascetics and clerics, the Roman clerical establishment in particular. These aspects of Gregory's thought are related to his rhetorical performance, and the voice he develops is compared to those of earlier ascetics. It is argued that the central concern of the texts considered is that of language: western ascetic projects are seen to focus on holiness of rhetoric, especially in the sixth century. In choosing to speak and write primarily as an exegete, Gregory signalled that he did not wish to contribute to the Gaulish or Italian monastic cultures developing around written Rules. He was concerned instead to articulate a personal holy authority.

This thesis is based on a study of classical Pali texts and of materials gathered during a year spent in a village in central Ceylon. The material consists in particular of interviews with monks living in nearby village monasteries. My notes of these interviews, which cover more topics than could be discussed in the thesis, are reproduced in Appendix One, and some of my printed materials are summarily presented in Appendix Two. The circumstances of my field work are detailed in the last part of the Introduction. Factually, the thesis aims to give an account of the religious beliefs and ethos of Sinhalese (Kandyan) Buddhist villagers, expressed as far as possible in their own terms. As explained in chapter 1, Buddhism is a system of belief almost exclusively concerned with liberation from this world. It is therefore necessarily secretive, requiring supplementation by beliefs concerning other matters. Beliefs about Gods and demons and how they can help or hinder human beings which to a Western observer fall within the domain of religion are not seen in these terms by Buddhists. These are therefore only examined in so far as they are relevant to the understanding of Buddhism. Issue is taken, on the other hand, with the Western interpretation of Buddhism as an essentially nonreligious philosophy. Chapter 2 introduces the terms used by my informants in talking about their beliefs and institutions. The arrangement of chapters 3 to 8 is in some measure due to the formulation of the Buddhists themselves: they consider Buddhism in terms of the Three Jewels, which are the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order of monks, while their doctrinal emphasis is on the operation of karma and on ethical questions. Chapter 3 deals with the Buddha, chapter 4 with karma and the arrangement of the universe, chapter 5 with some problem in the doctrine of karma, chapter 6 with ethics, and chapters 7 and 8 with problems primarily concerning the Order. On the theoretical level the thesis is largely concerned with the interaction of belief and behaviour as an agent of religious change. My problem and concepts are presented in the first part of the Introduction. Although the general tenor of the thesis is to show that Sinhalese Buddhism has been remarkably conservative, if it is compared with the Pali Canon and its commentaries, there have been changes, and I suggest that some at least have arisen because of discrepancies between what people say and what they do: behaviour has affected doctrine, which in turn has affected behaviour. There are still in the religion as observable to-day discrepancies between what people eay and what they do; the thesis attempts to record both statement and performance, and suggests further that statements may vary with the context. Finally the thesis proposes that an acquaintance with Ceylonese Buddhism as a living system may provide insight into the workings of early Buddhism as described in the classical texts. In particular the last chapter suggests that scholars relying on texts and preconceptions have over-drawn the distinction between monks and laity as moral agents, and between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism as ethical systems.

According to Pierre Nora, “[m]emory and history, far from being synonymous, appear now to be in fundamental opposition”. Drawing on theories of memory and psychoanalysis, my thesis examines the role of memory as a narrative of the past in late twentieth-century and twenty-first-century Scottish literature. I challenge Nora’s supposition that memory and history are fundamentally opposed and I argue that modern Scottish literature uses a variety of forms of memory to interrogate traditional forms of history. In my Introduction, I set the paradigms for my investigation of memory. I examine the perceived paradox in Scottish literature between memory and history as appropriate ways to depict the past. Tracing the origins of this debate to the work of Walter Scott, I argue that he sets the precedent for writers of modernity, where the concerns are amplified in late twentieth and twenty-first century literature and criticism. While literary criticism, such as the work of Cairns Craig and Eleanor Bell, studies the trope of history, Scottish fiction, such as the writing of Alasdair Gray, James Robertson, and John Burnside, asserts the position of memory as a useful way of studying the past. Chapter One examines the transmission of memory. Using George Mackay Brown’s Greenvoe, I consider the implications of three methods of transferring memory. Mrs McKee’s refusal to disclose her experience indicates a refusal to mourn loss and to transmit memory. Skarf’s revision of historical narratives indicates a desire to share experience. The Mystery of the Ancient Horsemen demonstrates the use of ritual in the preservation and the communication of the past for future generations. Chapter Two studies the Gothic fiction of Emma Tennant and Elspeth Barker. I examine sensory experience as indicative of the interior and non-linear structure of memory. I argue that the refusal to accept personal and familial loss reveals problematic forms of memory. Chapter Three traces unacknowledged memory in Alice Thompson’s Pharos. I use Nicolas Abraham’s theory of the transgenerational phantom to consider the effects of this undisclosed memory. I argue that the past and its deliberate suppression haunt future generations. Chapter Four considers the use of nostalgia as a form of memory. I investigate the perceptions and definitions of nostalgia, particularly its use as a representation of the Scottish national past. Using Neil Gunn’s Highland River, I identify nostalgia’s diverse functions. I examine nostalgia as a way in which, through the Scottish diaspora, memory is transferred and exhibited beyond national boundaries. Chapter Five builds on the previous chapter and extends the analysis of the ways nostalgia functions. I study nostalgia’s manifestations in the diasporic Scottish-Canadian literature of Sara Jeanette Duncan, John Buchan, Eric McCormack, and Alastair MacLeod.

This thesis demonstrates how a specific tradition of English poetry written by Indians in the nineteenth-century borrowed its subject matter from Orientalist research into Indian antiquity, and its style and forms from the English poetic tradition. After an examination of the political, historical and social motivations that resulted in the birth of colonial poetry in India, the poets dealt with comprise Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-31), the first Indian poet writing in English ; Kasiprasad Ghosh (1809-73), the first Bengali Hindu to write English verse; and Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73), who converted to Christianity in the hope of reaching England and becoming a great 'English' poet. A subsequent chapter examines the Dutt Family Album (London, 1870) in the changing political context of the latter half of the century. In the Conclusion it is shown how the advent of Modernism in England, and the birth of an active nationalism in India, finally brought about the end of all aspects of what is here called 'Orientalist' verse. This area has not been dealt with comprehensively by critics; only one book, Lotika Basu's Indian Writers of English Verse (1933), exists on this subject to date. This thesis, besides filling the gaps that exist in the knowledge available in this area, also brings an additional insight to bear on the current debate on colonialism and literature. After Said's Orientalism (1978), a spate of theoretical work has been published on literary studies and colonial power in British India. Without restricting the argument to the constraints of the Saidian model, this study addresses the issues raised by these works, showing that a subtler reading is possible, through the medium of this poetry, of the interaction that took place in India between the production of literature and colonialism. In particular, this thesis demonstrates that although Orientalist poetry was in many ways derivative, it also evinces an active and developing response to the imposition of British culture upon India.

M.A. (Afrikaans Nederlands) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Os Estados Unidos da América e o Brasil são países que durante séculos fizeram uso intenso da mão-de-obra escrava, trazida de diferentes regiões da África. Após a Abolição da Escravidão os dois países adotaram políticas diferentes de relações raciais, com conseqüências devastadoras para os ex-escravos e seus descendentes. Alice Walker e Conceição Evaristo, autoras afro-americana e afro-brasileira, respectivamente, apresentam em seus romances uma análise das relações étnicas em seus países, apontando a origem dos problemas da população negra e propondo soluções para os mesmos. Através de uma análise comparativa dos dois romances The third life of Grange Copeland e Ponciá Vicêncio - sob a ótica da crítica literária marxista, este trabalho propõe-se a apresentar os pontos em comum e os pontos divergentes entre as duas sociedades. Norteada pela relação entre literatura, história e sociedade, a análise das duas obras vem demonstrar que, embora aparentemente antagônicos, os dois países são extremamente racistas, dominados por relações de opressão derivadas de um sistema econômico regido pelo consumo e pelo lucro, e de uma cultura que não aceita a diferença no caso dos Estados Unidos, declaradamente, e no caso do Brasil, mascarada pela imagem de paraíso racial. Como conseqüência, verifica-se que a cultura opressora dos dois países é tão arraigada que ambas as autoras não conseguem vislumbrar uma solução plausível para o problema, que consiga fugir dos conceitos sócio-políticos solidamente erigidos através dos séculos. / The United States of America and Brazil made use of African slave labour for centuries. After the end of the slavery system both countries adopted different racial policies, with devastating consequences both to ex-slaves and their descendents. Alice Walker and Conceição Evaristo, afro-American and afro-Brazilian writers, respectively, present in their novels an analysis of the ethnical relations in their countries, pointing out the origin of the Black community problems and proposing a way to solve them. Through the comparative analysis of both novels - The third life of Grange Copeland and Ponciá Vicêncio - under the Marxist literary criticism approach, this study aims at presenting both the common and the different aspects of the two societies. Centred on the relationship among literature, history and society, the analysis of both works demonstrates that, although apparently unlike, the two countries are extremely racist, permeated by oppressive relations derived from an economical system guided by consumerism and profit, and by a culture which does not accept difference openly in The United States of America, and, in Brazil, disguised under the image of racial paradise. As a consequence, it becomes clear that the oppressive culture of both countries is so deeply rooted that neither writer is able to find a plausible solution to the problem, one that could escape from the socio-political concepts solidly built through centuries.

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