Thesis (MA) -- Stellenbosch University, 1986. / No Abstract Avcailable

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Globalization and the inherent shrinking of geographical boarders have rendered modern societies progressively culturally heterogeneous spaces. Increased encounters between people from different cultures have thus become a normal occurrence. Germany is in no way an exception to this socio-cultural phenomenon and has witnessed an emergence of multi-cultural societies, leading to concerted efforts in developing intercultural competence in all spheres of influence. Literature plays a pivotal role in the representation and transfer of culturally determined imaginations and perceptions of the “other”. This role is further emphasized in the case of children’s and youth literature, which has an imminent pedagogical function. For a long time, research in children’s and youth literature has received very little attention as an integral part of literary studies; this is observed both in English and in German literature, though the pace of development differs slightly (Hunt 1999; Weinkauff and Glasenapp 2010; Ewers 2000). In Germany, historical development of children’s and youth literature as an autonomous area of literature and field of study was influenced by societal values and attitudes as well as perceptions of childhood. This has continued to be the case, though recent research indicates a growing emphasis on children’s literature as a tool to develop literacy as well as an appreciation of the aesthetic value of literature. A third component is the intercultural aspect it is able to offer. Impelled by the paucity of systematic analyses of the representation of Africa in German children’s and youth literature, this dissertation sets out to offer a critical appraisal of intercultural aspects and the image of Africa in contemporary German youth literature. A corpus of literary works has been selected for this purpose. The central thesis of the study is that these literary works are involved in a sustained debate of questioning and contesting numerous representations of Africa and Africans. Given the fact that the study touches on several overarching issues, it draws from diverse theoretical perspectives that include intercultural theories on perceptions of the cultural “other” and “imagology” as well as postcolonial studies, with reflections on the pedagogical nature of youth literature. The study considers intercultural and postcolonial theories as conceptualized by Hofmann (2003; 2010), Mecklenburg (2003, 2006; 2008), Gutjahr (2002; 2010) and Göttsche (2003; 2010; 2011; 2012) as well as considerations on imagology as conceptualized by O’Sullivan (1989; 2000) and Beller (2007). In its exploration of the representation of Africa and Africans, this dissertation shows how literary works make use of diverse artistic, stylistic and narratological strategies and devices as possible ways of presenting and rethinking long-held perceptions about Africa. The present study proposes a reading and an appraisal of the corpus of literary texts as important discursive tools that allow for the expansion of self-conception and definition of otherness and the relationship to this otherness, thus contributing to increased intercultural awareness and competence among young readers. / AFRIKKANSE OPSOMMING: Globalisering en die gepaardgaande krimping van geografiese grense het moderne samelewings algaande omskep in kultureel heterogene ruimtes. Sodoende het toenemende ontmoetings tussen mense van verskillende kulture ʼn normale gebeurtenis geword. Duitsland, geen uitsondering op hierdie sosiokulturele verskynsel nie, was getuie tot die totstandkoming van multikulturele samelewings en dit het gelei tot doelgerigte pogings om interkulturele vaardigheid in alle invloedsfere te ontwikkel. Letterkunde speel ʼn deurslaggewende rol in die verteenwoordiging en oordrag van kultureel bepaalde verbeeldings en persepsies van die “ander”. Hierdie rol word verder beklemtoon in die geval van kinder- of jeugliteratuur, wat ʼn belangrike pedagogiese funksie het. Vir ʼn lang tyd het navorsing in kinder- en jeugliteratuur baie min aandag geniet as ʼn integrale deel van literêre navorsing en dit kan in Engelse sowel as Duitse letterkunde opgemerk word, hoewel die pas van ontwikkeling effens verskil (Hunt 1999; Weinkauff en Glasenapp 2010; Ewers 2000). In Duitsland is die historiese ontwikkeling van kinder- en jeugliteratuur as ʼn outonome veld van letterkunde en van navorsing beïnvloed deur die samelewing se waardes en houdings sowel as persepsies van kindwees. Dit word steeds voorgesit hoewel onlangse navorsing toon dat daar groter klem geplaas word op kinderliteratuur as ʼn manier om geletterdheid asook ʼn waardering vir die estetiese waarde van letterkunde te ontwikkel. ʼn Derde komponent is die interkulturele aspek wat dit kan bied. Aangespoor deur die gebrek aan sistematiese analises van die uitbeelding van Afrika in Duitse kinder- en jeugliteratuur, beoog hierdie proefskrif om ʼn kritiese waardering te bied van interkulturele aspekte en die beeld van Afrika in kontemporêre Duitse jeugliteratuur. ʼn Korpus van literêre werke is geselekteer vir hierdie doel. Die sentrale hipotese van die navorsing is dat hierdie literêre werke betrokke is, dikwels ten spyte van hulself, in ʼn volgehoue debat oor die bevraagtekening en betwissing van verskeie uitbeeldings van Afrika en Afrikane. Die studie raak verskeie oorkoepelende kwessies aan en steun daarom op diverse teoretiese perspektiewe wat interkulturele teorieë oor persepsies van die kulturele “ander” en “beeldstudies” insluit, sowel as postkoloniale studies en beskouings van die pedagogiese aard van jeugliteratuur. Interkulturele en postkoloniale teorieë soos voorgestel deur Hofmann (2003; 2010), Mecklenburg (2003; 2006; 2008), Gutjahr (2002; 2010) en Göttsche (2003;2010; 2011; 2012) asook oorwegings oor “beeldstudies” soos voorgestel deur O’Sullivan (1989; 2000) en Beller (2007) sal in aanmerking geneem word. In die ondersoek na die uitbeelding van Afrika en Afrikane wys hierdie dissertasie hoe literêre werke gebruik maak van diverse artistieke, stilistiese en narratologiese strategieë en middele as moontlike maniere om tradisionele persepsies oor Afrika voor te stel en te heroorweeg. Hierdie studie stel ʼn lees en waardering van die korpus van literêre tekste voor as belangrike diskursiewe instrumente wat ruimte laat vir die uitbouing van selfbeskouing en definisie van andersheid en die verhouding tot hierdie andersheid, om sodoende ʼn bydrae te maak tot die verhoogde kulturele bewustheid en vaardigheid onder jong lesers.

Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A study of poetry by six contemporary women in the Afrikaans and Dutch-speaking worlds points toward a multi-focal approach. While texts by poets of a marked diversity are presented as aesthetic objects, the scope of my research has been determined by considerations of gender, language and culture. The central line of investigation concerns the interplay between the poem as an artefact and the changing socio-cultural contexts by which the respective poets have been informed. My dissertation was inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's argument in favour of a fusion between the close reading practices of the New Critics (and in this case, their Dutch counterparts, the Merlinists) and the contextual approach advocated by literature sociologists. Concomitantly the art philosophical standpoint of Marcia Eaton and the views on the écriture féminine or "women's style of writing" held by Helene Cixous are applied to poetry. By incorporating insights from adjacent disciplines and thereby decentering the relative autonomy of the poetic text, I hope to demonstrate how the study of literature could acquire new relevance, either by expanding its own parameters, or by enriching the field of cultural and gender studies. In conclusion I regard the poetry written by contemporary women as a polyphonic discourse voicing women's newly-found position as subjects and challenging notions such as a monolithic "female identity" and the marginalization of "women's poetry". From this perspective, the aesthetic value of the poetic genre is paralleled by its function as a source of knowledge and a cultural agency. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Ondersoek na die poësie van ses eietydse vroue in die Afrikaanse en Nederlandse taalgebiede veronderstel reeds 'n multifokale invalshoek. Nie alleen word tekste van uiteenlopende digters as estetiese objekte aan die orde gestel nie, maar staan oorwegings soos geslag, taal en kultuur sentraal by die afbakening van die ondersoeksterrein. Daarby vorm die wisselwerking tussen die gedig as artefak en die veranderende sosio-kulturele konteks die riglyn van die betoog. Pierre Bourdieu se aandrang op 'n fusie tussen die stipleesmetode van die New Critics (in Nederland nagevolg deur die Merlinisten) en die kontekstuele benadering van literatuur wat deur literatuursosioloë voorgestaan word, het as aanset tot hierdie studie gedien. Terselfdertyd word die kunsfilosofiese standpunte van Marcia Eaton en die siening van Héléne Cixous omtrent die écriture féminine ("vroulike skryfwyse") op die poësie betrek. Deur insigte uit naasliggende dissiplines te betrek en die outonomie van die poësieteks te relativeer, wil die ondersoek aantoon dat literatuurstudie 'n nuwe relevansie verkry wanneer die parameters van die vakgebied versit, of kultuur- en genderstudies daardeur verryk word. Uiteindelik beskou ek die digkuns van eietydse vroue as In polifoniese diskoers waarin vroue op uiteenlopende wyses stem gee aan hul nuutverworwe subjekposisie, en wat daarmee die nosie van In monolitiese "vroulike identiteit" en dié van "damespoësie" as afsonderlike en gemarginaliseerde kategorie dekonstrueer. Naas die estetiese waarde daarvan, verkry die poësie uit hierdie perspektief ook In nuts- of instrumentele waarde as 'n alternatiewe bron van kennis en In kultuurskeppende agens.

Despite the recent increase in scholarship on the subject of the female experience in exile, there is still much to be done. Exile scholars now have at their disposal an abundance of broad, general overviews of the circumstances and fates of displaced women writers, but a dearth of scholarship that considers specific literary works in an individualised fashion still exists. This is especially true of those female writers who have only recently been 'rediscovered', such as the three under discussion in this thesis. This thesis explores in detail the exile writings of Veza Canetti, Anna Gmeyner, and Lili Korber, about which little scholarship exists, and uses them as case studies to illuminate the situation of exiled women writers in general The exile works of these three authors repay study both for their own literary merits and for what they can tell us about the individual experience of exile. In their broad similarities, these writers also provide us with case studies of the larger experience of authorial exile - particularly, but by no means exclusively, the gendered experience - that allow us to derive more general lessons about the influence of forced flight on literary art. By giving due consideration to work produced in exile, this thesis calls into question some of the generalisations commonly found in recent scholarship and demonstrates that, despite hardsrnps and setbacks and contrary to common scholarly contention, all three women continued to write well into their exile years and that in those years they took their writing in new, skilful, and creative directions.

This study is aimed to read Shakespeare's problem comedies, Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure into the historical and cultural context of dynamically-changing English Renaissance society at the turn of the sixteenth century. In the historical context of emerging capitalism, growing economic crisis, reformed theology, changing social hierarchy, and increasing sexual control, this study investigates the nature of complicated moral problems that the plays consistently present. The primary argument is that the serious and dark picture of human dilemma is attributed not to Shakespeare's private imagination, but to social, political, economic, and religious crises in early modern England.

A study of the literary techniques used by Mariano José de Larra and Ramón de Mesonero Romanos.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é estudar, de forma relacionada e comparada, quatro poetas de quatro diferentes países latino-americanos: César Vallejo, do Peru; Aimé Césaire, da Martinica (Antilhas Francesas); Jorge Luis Borges, da Argentina; e Carlos Drummond de Andrade, do Brasil. Cada um desses poetas é tido como poeta nacional de seu país, com relevância histórica e mundial incontestável. A perspectiva do trabalho é a comparação de como cada poeta resolve o problema de constituir uma lírica ao mesmo tempo moderna e nacional na periferia do capitalismo. Esses problemas serão discutidos do ponto de vista da crítica imanente, tal como foi desenvolvida pela tradição crítica brasileira, que estuda a formação e configuração da literatura nacional em países periféricos. / This research has the purpose of studying, in the connective and comparative way, four poets of four different Latin American countries: César Vallejo, from Peru; Aimé Césaire, from Martinica (French Caribbean); Jorge Luis Borges, from Argentina; and Carlos Drummond de Andrade, from Brazil. Each of these poets is known as a national poet of his own country, and all of them have unquestionable historical and international importance. The perspective of this work is to compare how each poet solves the problem of establishing a poetry at the same time modern and national in the periphery of capitalism. These problems will be discussed by the point of view of immanent criticism, as it was developed by the brazilian critical tradition, in his studies concerning the formation and configuration of literature in peripheral countries.

A obra literária de F. Scott Fitzgerald pode ser entendida como um enfrentamento do paradoxo da narração apontado por Theodor Adorno, decorrente da desintegração do sentido da experiência e da consequente impossibilidade de sua articulação objetiva por parte de quem a experiencia. A figuração que Fitzgerald faz da sociedade norte-americana da década de 1920 é formalizada em O Grande Gatsby (1925) e Suave É a Noite (1934) por meio da incorporação da tradição literária que antecede sua obra, bem como de técnicas do cinema mudo e sonoro e do modernismo europeu. Com isso, Fitzgerald visa evidenciar, em ambos os romances, a falsidade da ideologia do sonho americano. Uma vez que O Grande Gatsby e Suave É a Noite foram publicados antes e depois da crise econômica de 1929, respectivamente, o autor figura sob dois pontos de vista distintos a década de 1920, a fim de mostrar que tal crise revela que o empreendimento individual não é o meio para alcançar o sonho americano, mas apenas uma engrenagem no funcionamento contraditório do capitalismo. / F. Scott Fitzgeralds novels may be read as a confrontation of the paradox that defines the position of the narrator, as theorized by Theodor Adorno, resulted from the disintegration of the sense of experience and the consequent impossibility of its objective articulation on the part of those who experience it. Fitzgeralds figuration of the American society of the 1920s is formalized in The Great Gatsby (1925) and in Tender Is the Night (1934) via the incorporation of the literary tradition that precedes his work, as well as silent and sound film and modernist techniques. Thereby, Fitzgerald aims to expose in both of these novels the falseness of the ideology of the American dream. Since The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night were published before and after the economic crisis of 1929 respectively, Fitzgerald represents the 1920s from two distinct points of view in order to highlight the fact that such crisis reveals that the individual enterprise is not the means to achieve the American dream but only a part in the contradictory operation of the machinery of capitalism

Este estudo consiste numa leitura da obra de Jorge Luis Borges, em especial de sua narrativa, a partir dos pressupostos da crítica literária dialética em sua busca pelo estabelecimento de possíveis mediações entre literatura e sociedade. Nosso ponto de partida foi a análise das premissas teóricas do escritor argentino a respeito do gênero conto e, em seguida, passamos à discussão a respeito dos temas da leitura e da reescrita no âmbito de sua produção literária e teórica. Ao longo desse percurso, delinearam-se características formais que podem ser descritas em termos de uma prevalência do abstrato sobre o específico, do todo sobre a parte, ou, finalmente, do universal sobre o particular. Esse esquema básico, embora se configure de diferentes formas no objeto, foi isolado pelo trabalho de análise e identificado como o princípio constitutivo da forma, concebida tanto do ponto de vista da composição, em que todo e partes se articulam, quanto do ponto de vista da reescrita de uma história tradicional ou arquetípica, em que a fábula básica do intertexto impõe o padrão da ação ao texto receptor. A proposta interpretativa deste estudo sugere ver nesses traços aspectos da sociedade capitalista contemporânea, cujas relações sociais se pautam pelo tipo de racionalidade instrumental típico da sociedade burguesa. O predomínio do geral sobre o particular, isto é, do valor de troca sobre o valor de uso, que caracteriza a forma-mercadoria na visão de Marx, se generaliza e expande sua lógica para todos os domínios da realidade. Convergindo com a formação do valor da mercadoria, a obra de arte partilharia, em certa medida, do pensamento reificado da totalidade social, de acordo com Theodor Adorno. Essa proposta interpretativa é levada a término e suas consequências dialéticas discutidas por meio da análise do conto El Zahir, pertencente ao livro El Aleph, publicado em 1949 em Buenos Aires. A fim de possibilitar essa análise, o presente estudo inclui também a análise do conto Berenice, de Edgar Allan Poe, com o qual El Zahir estabelece um diálogo sutil, embora bastante produtivo. Ademais, encontram-se comentados ou analisados neste trabalho os contos Funes, el memoriso, Tema del traidor y del héroe (Ficções, 1944) e La trama (El hacedor, 1960). / This study consists of a reading of the work of Jorge Luis Borges, especially his narrative, based on the presuppositions of dialectical literary criticism, which seeks to establish modes of mediation between literature and society. Our starting point was the analysis of theoretical propositions about the theory of the short story in the work of the Argentine writer, and then we turn to the discussion about the themes of reading and rewriting in his fictional and theoretical work. Along this path, formal features have been delineated that can be described as a prevalence of the abstract over the specific, the whole over the part, or, finally, the universal over the particular. This basic scheme, even though it is configured in different ways in the object, was isolated by the work of analysis and identified as the constitutive principle of form, conceived both from the point of view of composition, in which whole and parts are articulated, and from the point of view of the rewriting of a traditional or archetypal story, in which the basic plot of the intertext imposes the pattern of action upon the receiving text. The interpretive proposal of this study suggests to look at these features aspects of contemporary capitalist society, whose social relations are based on the form of instrumental rationality typical of bourgeois society. The predominance of the general over the particular, that is, of the exchange value over use-value, which characterizes the commodity form in Marx\'s view, generalizes and expands its logic to all areas of reality. Converging with the formation of the value of the commodity, the work of art would share, to some extent, the reified thought of the social totality, according to Theodor Adorno. This interpretative proposal is brought to an end and its dialectical consequences discussed through the analysis of the short story \"El Zahir\" tale, belonging to the book \"El Aleph\", published in 1949 in Buenos Aires. In order to make this analysis possible, this study also includes an analysis of Edgar Allan Poe\'s short story \"Berenice\", with which \"El Zahir\" establishes a subtle yet productive dialogue. In addition, the short stories \" Funes, el memoriso, Tema del traidor y del héroe (Ficções, 1944) and La trama (El hacedor, 1960) have been commented or analyzed in this work.

Neste estudo de análise e interpretação de Moby-Dick (1851), de Herman Melville (1819-1891), pretendemos formular e esclarecer questões relativas ao momento de definição do romance norte-americano, bem como à obra que se traduz como o esforço mais radical de um norte-americano na tentativa de, então, levar a forma romance ao estudo e reflexão sobre sua sociedade. Para tanto, recuperamos da leitura da obra os aspectos que mais fortemente tematizam tal intento: a crise ideológica de fins da década de 1840, quando os ideais revolucionários de igualdade da antiga república são finalmente confrontados com as consequências de sua integração no sistema capitalista mundializado questão central de Redburn (1849) e White-Jacket (1850), romances que preparam Moby-Dick e marcam as primeiras experiências de Melville como escritor social; o conceito de fronteira, problema de definição identitária norte-americana que abarca desde a ocupação da wilderness puritana no século XVII ao estabelecimento, à época de Melville, de uma política de Estado imperialista e, ademais, passa pela cristalização de perspectivas culturalmente particulares de propriedade e formação social de classe; e, finalmente, as noções de técnica e trabalho, diretamente implicadas na atividade baleeira e, de modo mais amplo, no avanço civilizatório norte-americano, e para quais pesam a consciência do valor social do trabalho livre e sua coexistência com a escravidão. É sob tais preocupações que contemplaremos, à luz da teoria crítica e da tradição crítica brasileira, as especificidades formais do romance, a saber, a apropriação estrutural do trágico em contraposição à épica, que define o percurso de Ahab, o capitão do Pequod, em sua caçada a Moby Dick, e a formação de um narrador reflexionante, o sobrevivente Ishmael, que retoma o passado da catástrofe para ferir o presente em que se perpetuam, no roldão do ingresso norte-americano na modernidade, as condições para sua reprodução. / Through an analytical and interpretative study of Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick I intend to formulate and clarify the historical turning point of the American novel, specifically what is deemed the most radical effort of an American writer to bring a comprehensive study on society into novelistic form. In order to accomplish that, I reconsider some of the features of Moby-Dick that strongly appealed to the times. First the ideological crisis of the 1840s, when the equalitarian revolutionary ideals of the Independence were finally confronted by the consequences of the U.S. being fully compromised to the Industrial Revolution and the capitalistic worldwide system. This is a central issue in Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both novels where some major features of Moby-Dick are anticipated and firstly tested. Second, I scrutinize the concept of frontier -- a national identity issue that can be traced back to the Puritan 17th century errand into the wilderness that is strongly attached in the age of Melville to the ideological making of American imperialism. Besides, it also has had a major role in the crystallization of culturally specific perspectives on property and the establishment of social classes. Finally, I reconsider the notions of technique and labor, directly implied in the whaling industry and in a more general way in the marching of American civilization towards the West, which has had a strong impact on the understanding of the social significance of free labor and its coexistence with slavery. With those things under consideration, and through the surmises of the Critical Theory and the Brazilian tradition of social and literary criticism as well, it is my aim to shed light on some esthetical features of the novel, particularly on the tragic structure (as opposed to the epic) that defines the career of Pequods Captain Ahab and his obsessive chasing of Moby Dick, and the constitution of a self-reflexive narrator, the survivor Ishmael, who recalls the past of the catastrophe in order to attack the social reproduction of its conditions in the present.