Die geesteswetenskappe, en spesifiek letterkunde en literatuurstudies, loop toenemend deur onder kritiek oor die relevansie van letterkunde in die 21ste eeu. Die letterkundige Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht reken egter dat die probleem nie is dat fiksie irrelevant geword het nie, maar dat die suiwer hermeneutiese manier waarop letterkunde gelees word, gelei het tot ’n reduksionistiese beskouing van letterkunde. Gumbrecht reken dat dit moontlik is om taal op so ’n wyse aan te wend dat dit die leser weer nader kan bring aan die wêreld waarvan hy grootliks verwyderd voel. Hierdie konsep noem hy die “produksie van teenwoordigheid”, en hy identifiseer sewe wyses waarop taal kan funksioneer om só ’n “teenwoordigheidseffek” te bewerkstellig. Marlene van Niekerk se Die sneeuslaper word in hierdie studie ondersoek deur gebruik te maak van Gumbrecht se konsep van die “teenwoordigheidseffek” van ’n literêre teks. Die “produksie van teenwoordigheid” word egter in ’n spanning teenoor die hermeneutiese aspek, die betekenis of interpretasie, en teenoor die “sosiale betrokkenheid” van letterkunde ondersoek – ’n spanning wat deurgaans in Van Niekerk se oeuvre teenwoordig is. Gumbrecht se voorstel om die “teenwoordigheidseffek” van ’n teks te ondersoek, lei daartoe dat Die sneeuslaper gelees kan word as ’n bydrae tot die breër besinning oor die rol en relevansie van letterkunde, kuns en kunskritiek in ons samelewing, en die manier waarop kunswerke ervaar word. Benewens Gumbrecht se idee van teenwoordigheidsproduksie, sal daar ook aangesluit word by Wolfgang Iser se “werkingsestetika” waarvolgens hy aandui dat literêre tekste “strukture uit die werklikheid” neem en herrangskik om daardie strukture op ’n vars en nuwe wyse in die literêre teks te belig. In die proses word tekortkominge of probleme van hierdie “strukture” uit die buite-tekstuele wêreld duidelik. Met behulp van Iser se teorie, word aangedui hoe Van Niekerk in die vier verskillende verhale die leser dwing om bestaande, hermeneutiese aannames oor die letterkunde en literêre tekste te heroorweeg. Die idee dat tekste betekenis moet inhou, sluiting moet bied of noodwendig sosiopolitieke betrokkenheid moet toon word uitgedaag. In ruil ondersoek Van Niekerk eerder die mate waartoe ’n benadering wat gerig is op die “estetiese ervaring” van literêre tekste, voorafopgestelde idees en aanvaarde strukture kan belig ten einde die leser se persepsies oor daardie strukture te wysig. Daar sal aangedui word hoe Van Niekerk taal aanwend om ook ’n teenwoordigheidseffek te bewerkstellig, en in die proses die leser, soos wat Gumbrecht voorstel, vir ’n oomblik “tot stilstand dwing”. / The role and potential relevance of the humanities, specifically of literature and literary criticism in the 21st century, has been increasingly called into question. Literary theorist Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht suggests that the problem is not that fiction has become irrelevant. Rather it is the exclusively hermeneutic way in which literature is read, that leads to a reductionist view of literature. Gumbrecht argues that it is possible to apply language in such a way that it could again bring the reader closer to the world to which the reader feels increasingly distant. He calls this concept the “production of presence”, and identifies seven ways in which language functions to create a “presence effect”. In this dissertation, Gumbrecht’s concept of the "presence effect" of literature will be applied to analyse Marlene van Niekerk’s Die sneeuslaper. The production of presence is, however, analysed in a tension with the hermeneutic aspect, the meaning or interpreation of literature, and literature that engages with social and political realities – a tension which is often present in Van Niekerk’s oeuvre. Gumbrecht’s theory of the “presence effect” of literature, opens up the possibility to read Die sneeuslaper as a contribution to a broader reflection on the way in which art is experienced, and on the role and relevance of literature, art and art criticism at the start of the 21st centuary. Apart from Gumbrecht’s concept of the production of presence, this study will rely on Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory in which he indicates how literary texts can rearrange structures from the world in order to highlights those structures in a new way. Hence, the deficiencies or problems of those “structures” become clear to the reader. Iser’s theory is used to indicate how the Van Niekerk forces the reader to reconsider existing hermeneutic perceptions on literature and literary texts. These include perceptions that texts should necessarily have meaning, that it should provide closure, or that it should be a socially or politically engaged text. Van Niekerk investigates an approach that is focused on the “aesthetic experience” of a literary text, and how such an approach could highlight preconceived ideas about existing and assumed structures about art and society in order to alter the reader’s perceptions of those structures. This study shows that Van Niekerk applies language in such a way that it leads to a presence effect which, as Gumbrecht suggest, forces the reader to experience a “moment of intensity”. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Unit for Creative Writing / MA / Unrestricted

This M.F.A. thesis in dramaturgy presents the first-ever stage adaptation of South African writer Marlene van Niekerk’s 2004 novel Agaat. Van Niekerk is an internationally acclaimed novelist, short story writer, poet, and dramatist particularly known for her lengthy novelistic excavations of Afriakner identity, in which sexuality, race, and gender collide in compelling but fraught ways. Covering nearly fifty-years of South African history—from the establishment of apartheid in 1948 through the nation’s transition to democracy in 1994—Agaat investigates everyday cycles of abuse and intimacy through the story of white farmer Milla de Wet and her coloured adopted daughter-cum-maid, Agaat Lourier. This thesis foregrounds the interconnections between theory and practice by presenting both the adaptation itself and a prolonged engagement with theories of adaptation and dramaturgy. It is framed, then, around a simple question: How might dramaturgy and adaptation, as cultural and artistic processes and products, encounter one another? Through analysis of current discussions in the fields of Adaptation Studies and dramaturgy, and reflections on the particular challenges and possibilities of adapting van Niekerk’s novel to the stage, the thesis argues that adaption can be understood as a mode of encounter that opens up spaces for connection between people, texts, and cultures. A dramaturgical method of adaptation is concerned not with hierarchy, authority, and fidelity, but rather with viewing adaptation as a conversation between a network of resonances. The thesis begins with an overview of van Niekerk’s work and context, moves to an examination of current conversations in Adaptation Studies and dramaturgy, and concludes with a prolonged reflection on the process of adapting Agaat to the stage.

The novel Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk is a highly complex text. One of the most compelling aspects of the novel is the way in which the author constructs an underlying metaphorical grid which determines the composition of the novel. The motives in the novel cannot be regarded merely as motives because specific prominent and powerful metaphors are continually exploited by variation and extension. The complicated relationship between narrative and metaphor on different levels is of great importance in the interpretation of the novel. Due to the complexity of the text, the dominant metaphors cannot be analyzed in the traditional manner. In this study I want to demonstrate that conceptual blending theory, which can be regarded as a branch of conceptual metaphor theory, offers a theoretical framework that can be used to understand the underlying cognitive functioning of the interaction between author, text and reader. This dissertation will examine the processes of blending shaped from the mottos posted at the beginning of the novel. The three mottos, the music motto, the embroidery motto and the farming motto, act throughout the novel as a backdrop against which events in the novel can be interpreted. The blending formed from these mottos merge with other metaphors in the novel in order to generate meaning. The three mottos were taken from the introductions of the FAKVolksangbundel, the embroidery book Borduur so and the Hulpboek vir boere in Suid-Afrika. The three books are used by Milla to educate and teach Agaat. She uses the books to "create" Agaat and to mould her into the person that Milla wants her to be. The mottos stress the uplifting of the people and the creation of a true Afrikaner identity. Agaat accomplishes everything that the books require of her, she becomes an expert in the areas that determine the Afrikaner identity. However, as a brown woman, she is still not considered a member of community or as a fully acceptable civilized woman. The meanings of the other important metaphor in the novel, the mirror metaphor, are also investigated extensively. The mirror plays an important role in the relationship between Milla and Agaat. The mirror is also important in Milla's confrontation with herself, especially in her experience of her illness and her acceptance of her imminent death. The mirror is also used in the depiction of the relationship between characters and the experience of each other as the "Other". The blending of the mirror metaphor and the link that can be established with the theories of Lacan are part of one of the main blendings formed from the mirror metaphor. This metaphor also interacts with the embroidery metaphor. The mirror reflects images to the characters and via the characters to the readers which enforce moral judgments about perceptions and practices. The final part of the dissertation analyses how the dominant metaphors, namely music, embroidery, farming and the mirror, blend in multiple ways in the text to create new domains of meaning. The four main metaphors also blend with secondary metaphors in the novel in order to generate meaning. One of the important secondary metaphors is the "waterhondjies". The "waterhondjies" blend with Guido Gezelle's poem "Het Schrijverke". There is also emphasis on the relationship between writing and the "waterhondjies". The blending of the caeser butterfly plays an important role in the novel as well. In the final chapter the statement is made that the metaphors and symbols in Agaat cannot merely be regarded and interpreted as traditional motives, but rather as examples of cognitive blending. The types of blending in the novel require the cooperation of the reader in all cases. The reader must, in some cases, as with the mirror metaphor and the metaphor of the "waterhondjies", identify and activate the second domain of the blend. In the case of the mottos the different domains of the blend are activated by the author and the reader only needs to provide an interpretation. At the end of the dissertation the conclusion is made that the blending theory offers a suitable method and terminology to analyze the complex processes of generating meaning in the novel. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010

The novel Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk is a highly complex text. One of the most compelling aspects of the novel is the way in which the author constructs an underlying metaphorical grid which determines the composition of the novel. The motives in the novel cannot be regarded merely as motives because specific prominent and powerful metaphors are continually exploited by variation and extension. The complicated relationship between narrative and metaphor on different levels is of great importance in the interpretation of the novel. Due to the complexity of the text, the dominant metaphors cannot be analyzed in the traditional manner. In this study I want to demonstrate that conceptual blending theory, which can be regarded as a branch of conceptual metaphor theory, offers a theoretical framework that can be used to understand the underlying cognitive functioning of the interaction between author, text and reader. This dissertation will examine the processes of blending shaped from the mottos posted at the beginning of the novel. The three mottos, the music motto, the embroidery motto and the farming motto, act throughout the novel as a backdrop against which events in the novel can be interpreted. The blending formed from these mottos merge with other metaphors in the novel in order to generate meaning. The three mottos were taken from the introductions of the FAKVolksangbundel, the embroidery book Borduur so and the Hulpboek vir boere in Suid-Afrika. The three books are used by Milla to educate and teach Agaat. She uses the books to "create" Agaat and to mould her into the person that Milla wants her to be. The mottos stress the uplifting of the people and the creation of a true Afrikaner identity. Agaat accomplishes everything that the books require of her, she becomes an expert in the areas that determine the Afrikaner identity. However, as a brown woman, she is still not considered a member of community or as a fully acceptable civilized woman. The meanings of the other important metaphor in the novel, the mirror metaphor, are also investigated extensively. The mirror plays an important role in the relationship between Milla and Agaat. The mirror is also important in Milla's confrontation with herself, especially in her experience of her illness and her acceptance of her imminent death. The mirror is also used in the depiction of the relationship between characters and the experience of each other as the "Other". The blending of the mirror metaphor and the link that can be established with the theories of Lacan are part of one of the main blendings formed from the mirror metaphor. This metaphor also interacts with the embroidery metaphor. The mirror reflects images to the characters and via the characters to the readers which enforce moral judgments about perceptions and practices. The final part of the dissertation analyses how the dominant metaphors, namely music, embroidery, farming and the mirror, blend in multiple ways in the text to create new domains of meaning. The four main metaphors also blend with secondary metaphors in the novel in order to generate meaning. One of the important secondary metaphors is the "waterhondjies". The "waterhondjies" blend with Guido Gezelle's poem "Het Schrijverke". There is also emphasis on the relationship between writing and the "waterhondjies". The blending of the caeser butterfly plays an important role in the novel as well. In the final chapter the statement is made that the metaphors and symbols in Agaat cannot merely be regarded and interpreted as traditional motives, but rather as examples of cognitive blending. The types of blending in the novel require the cooperation of the reader in all cases. The reader must, in some cases, as with the mirror metaphor and the metaphor of the "waterhondjies", identify and activate the second domain of the blend. In the case of the mottos the different domains of the blend are activated by the author and the reader only needs to provide an interpretation. At the end of the dissertation the conclusion is made that the blending theory offers a suitable method and terminology to analyze the complex processes of generating meaning in the novel. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010

This thesis investigates the depiction of ageing and old age in several key works of South African literature of the transitional and post-transitional period. The study covers texts set both in the transitional period prior to the 1994 democratic elections and in the years following that historical watershed. I examine how the literary representation of the ageing individual operates within the rhetoric of transition and new beginnings that characterizes the contemporary political and ideological climate of South Africa. The study includes a close examination of two novels (Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee, and Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk), a collection of short stories (The Mistress’s Dog by David Medalie), and a volume of poetry (Body Bereft by Antjie Krog). My reading of these texts centres on exploring how the authors depict their ageing protagonists in relation to ideas of time, place and the body. Using Julia Kristeva’s theories on abjection, I analyse whether or not a degree of agency can be found in the abject depiction of older age. Similarly, I examine the ways in which reading older age through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of the grotesque allows for a liberation from reductive understandings of the embodiment of ageing individuals. Because both Agaat and Body Bereft are translated from Afrikaans, I also explore the ways in which translation intersects with the socio-political ideologies of the periods in which these texts are set, as well as how this may have an impact upon the representation of older age. Through examining the tension between the nostalgic, backward-looking perspective usually attributed to old age, and the progressive, forward-looking sentiment of modern South Africa, I investigate the ways in which these writers – Coetzee and Van Niekerk in particular – associate the ageing body with political concerns. I also show how, in their different ways, all four writers counteract stereotypes associated with senescence. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / English / DLitt / Unrestricted

AFRIKAANS : Die doel van die navorsing was om vas te stel watter metodes Marlene van Niekerk in haar roman Agaat gebruik om die karakters en hulle omstandighede deur middel van verwysings na musiek te teken. Die verhandeling begin met ’n oorsig oor die interdissiplinêre studiegebied van verwysing na musiek in die letterkunde. Op hierdie terrein het onder andere Fuller, Losseff, Scher en Weliver belangrike rolle gespeel. Die wyse waarop uitsprake van onder andere Bakhtin, Barthes, Blanchot, Eco, Kristeva en Van Wyk Louw op die gebied van verwysing, en dus op Van Niekerk se Agaat, van toepassing gemaak kan word, is ondersoek. Deur ’n onderhoud met Van Niekerk is daar meer oor haar houding oor musiek en verwysings daarna in Agaat uitgevind. Sy voel sterk dat die gebeure en musiekverwysings in Agaat nie op haar as persoon van toepassing gemaak moet word nie. Tog is daar baie van die musiek waarna verwys word wat vir haar ook baie betekenisvol is. Sy luister baie na musiek en gebruik dit as ’n stimuleringsmiddel, maar ook om haar in toom te hou sodat sy nie te “maklik” skryf nie. Van Niekerk beskik oor ’n goeie kennis van musiek en van die repertorium en kan dus ’n wye verskeidenheid verwysings maak na musiekterminologie, musiekinstrumente, musiekmaak, Suid-Afrikaanse kultuur waarin musiek ’n deurslaggewende rol speel, FAK- en Afrikaanse volksliedere, psalms, gesange en hallelujaliedere, ander ligte liedere, en komposisies uit die repertorium van klassieke musiek. Daar word in Agaat ook verskuilde, vertaalde aanhalings van versreëls uit getoonsette gedigte uit die Duitse kunsliedrepertorium ingesluit. In laasgenoemde geval (gedigte getoonset deur Brahms, Mahler, Schubert en Schumann) word die woordteks op ’n komplekse manier geïntegreer. Van Niekerk sluit die woordteks van godsdienstige en volksliedere byna uitsluitlik in om ironiese kommentaar op gebeure te lewer. Dit is selde dat hierdie tekste in hulle gebruiklike omgewing aangewend word. Die intertekstuele integrasie van musiekverwysings in Agaat kan as ’n baie groot prestasie beskou word. ENGLISH : The aim of the research was to establish the methods used by Marlene van Niekerk in her novel Agaat (the Afrikaans version) to paint the characters and their circumstances by means of references to music. The dissertation starts with an overview of the interdisciplinary field of music references in literature. In this area Fuller, Losseff, Scher and Weliver (amongst others) have played a major role. The ways in which pronouncements by (amongst others) Bakhtin, Barthes, Blanchot, Eco, Kristeva and Van Wyk Louw can be applied to the field of references, and therefore to Van Niekerk’s Agaat, were investigated. In an interview with Van Niekerk, her views on music and references to music were clarified. She feels strongly that the events and references to music in Agaat should not be equated to her own life. Nevertheless, much of the music referred to is also significant to Van Niekerk. She listens to music much, using it as a stimulus, but also to keep her in check so that she does not fall into “easy” writing. Van Niekerk possesses a sound knowledge of music and of the repertoire. She can therefore make a variety of references to music terminology, music instruments, music making, South African culture in which music plays a decisive role, Afrikaans folk songs and songs from the FAK song album, psalms and hymns, popular songs, and compositions from the repertoire of classical music. Concealed, translated quotations of lines from German poems set to music as art songs are also included in Agaat. In these cases (poems set to music by Brahms, Mahler, Schubert and Schumann) the word text is incorporated in a complex manner. Van Niekerk includes the word texts of religious and folk songs nearly exclusively in order to comment on events in an ironic way. These texts are seldom presented in their proper circumstances. The intertextual integration of music references in Agaat can be regarded as a great achievement. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

The Eudaimonic turn: Well-being in Literary Studies (2013), a study by Pawelski et al, sheds light on a recent turn in literary studies. The eudaimonic approach entails that texts are examined with the help of a hermeneutic of affirmation rather than the sceptical, suspicious methods of the deconstruction and post-structuralism. Pawelski et al’s text is drawn upon in this study because it corresponds to the way in which Marlene van Niekerk utilises themes such as relationships, friendship and loss in Die sneeuslaper (2009). The eudaimonic turn focusses on the way in which complex interpersonal connections are able to add to an individual’s well-being through positive as well as negative processes. Die sneeuslaper is mainly a reflection on what it means to be an author. However, it also raises important questions about the nature of being. The four short stories provide different perspectives on friendship, on how friendship can sometimes be problematic and even a nuisance, but also how relations with others repeatedly prove to be beneficial to a person’s well-being. In my study, the relational theme of friendship in Die sneeuslaper is studied from a eudaimonic point of view. Kaja Silverman’s text, Flesh of my Flesh (2009), is referred to in order to shed light on the term relationality. The relational themes of finitude (or mortality) and interpersonal connection are clearly present in Van Niekerk’s text. Although the death of a beloved friend causes trauma in Die sneeuslaper, the trauma proves to have positive effects in the form of posttraumatic growth, comfort and acceptance as time goes by. Comfort is also construed through the creation and appreciation of a work of art like Die sneeuslaper. Cognitive narratology is referenced to show how Marlene van Niekerk overthrows and plays with fixed ideas regarding relationality and friendship, causing the reader to converse with the text. Views on friendship held by thinkers such as Aristotle, Montaigne, Lacan, Kierkegaard and Derrida are referenced to give Van Niekerk’s use of the theme in Die sneeuslaper a certain context. This context represents the fixed frames of thinking generally applicable with regard to friendship. When a reader is willing to critically interpret these as well as personal frames of reference, it provides him or her the opportunity to contemplate reality from new perspectives. In Die sneeuslaper the reader is continually challenged to question existing frames of reference by means of never ending methods (resembling a Möbius-strip) and strange notions. This study concludes with the notion that it is necessary for artists (like the writers in Die sneeuslaper) to reflect differently on reality, so that readers may be inspired to also view reality in a different light. This will result in a broader view of reality, which in turn will have a more defining influence on personal well-being. / MA (Afrikaans and Dutch), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The Eudaimonic turn: Well-being in Literary Studies (2013), a study by Pawelski et al, sheds light on a recent turn in literary studies. The eudaimonic approach entails that texts are examined with the help of a hermeneutic of affirmation rather than the sceptical, suspicious methods of the deconstruction and post-structuralism. Pawelski et al’s text is drawn upon in this study because it corresponds to the way in which Marlene van Niekerk utilises themes such as relationships, friendship and loss in Die sneeuslaper (2009). The eudaimonic turn focusses on the way in which complex interpersonal connections are able to add to an individual’s well-being through positive as well as negative processes. Die sneeuslaper is mainly a reflection on what it means to be an author. However, it also raises important questions about the nature of being. The four short stories provide different perspectives on friendship, on how friendship can sometimes be problematic and even a nuisance, but also how relations with others repeatedly prove to be beneficial to a person’s well-being. In my study, the relational theme of friendship in Die sneeuslaper is studied from a eudaimonic point of view. Kaja Silverman’s text, Flesh of my Flesh (2009), is referred to in order to shed light on the term relationality. The relational themes of finitude (or mortality) and interpersonal connection are clearly present in Van Niekerk’s text. Although the death of a beloved friend causes trauma in Die sneeuslaper, the trauma proves to have positive effects in the form of posttraumatic growth, comfort and acceptance as time goes by. Comfort is also construed through the creation and appreciation of a work of art like Die sneeuslaper. Cognitive narratology is referenced to show how Marlene van Niekerk overthrows and plays with fixed ideas regarding relationality and friendship, causing the reader to converse with the text. Views on friendship held by thinkers such as Aristotle, Montaigne, Lacan, Kierkegaard and Derrida are referenced to give Van Niekerk’s use of the theme in Die sneeuslaper a certain context. This context represents the fixed frames of thinking generally applicable with regard to friendship. When a reader is willing to critically interpret these as well as personal frames of reference, it provides him or her the opportunity to contemplate reality from new perspectives. In Die sneeuslaper the reader is continually challenged to question existing frames of reference by means of never ending methods (resembling a Möbius-strip) and strange notions. This study concludes with the notion that it is necessary for artists (like the writers in Die sneeuslaper) to reflect differently on reality, so that readers may be inspired to also view reality in a different light. This will result in a broader view of reality, which in turn will have a more defining influence on personal well-being. / MA (Afrikaans and Dutch), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014