Proefschrift--Amsterdam. / "Stellingen": [3] p. laid in.

This thesis analyzes Viktor Pelevin's Chapaev i Pustota (1996) from the perspective of its (extra-)literary context, and status as a threshold text on various levels. It argues that through the expression of satire, parody, and nostalgia, Pelevin's novel exemplifies and transcends the threshold between the Soviet and post-Soviet literary narrative. Against the background of various comparison texts, by such precursors and contemporaries as Kaledin, Makanin, Petrushevskaia, P'ietsukh, Sorokin and Tolstaia, Pelevin's novel is shown both to conform with and diverge from the (post-)glasnost' literary text. Common features on the levels of theme and motif are identified, in order to establish both the notion of literary threshold, and a link to its extra-literary counterpart, in keeping with the crises of national transition from late- to post-Soviet status. Using Bakhtinian theory as a point of departure, the notion of threshold is identified on various levels of Pelevin's text, including theme, motif, and bifurcated structure in the form of dual time frames and plotlines. Through satire, Pelevin is shown to reconcile the notion of threshold as change, with that of frozen transition. / Overtly parodic, Chapaev i Pustota manipulates three principal constructs of Socialist Realism: the positive hero, the mentor/disciple relationship, and the spontaneity/consciousness dialectic. The thesis traces the role and development of these constructs in the four (un-)official versions of the so-called 'Chapaev myth' before examining Pelevin's own manipulation of the constructs against three distinct models of parody by Gary Saul Morson, Linda Hutcheon, and the Russian Formalists. / As an aesthetic manifestation of the extra-literary threshold state, the expression of nostalgia is examined in various texts of the (post-)glasnost' period. Pelevin's parody and satire of nostalgic expression attests to the evolution in his novel from Socialist Realism to sots-art, and beyond.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46).

No description available.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines cabaret in South Africa, and more particularly the use of a personation in cabaret. Cabaret employs a variety of comedic forms that combine to comment on social and political issues. The personation is often a manifestation of current social and political values, and the cabaretist uses such personation to deride these values and expose society. Themes such as human nature and life are foregrounded by means of comedy, parody and satire in order to highlighted weaknesses and malpractices. The personation often serves as a shield, affording the cabaretist the freedom of speech to assume a critical stance; it serves as a mouthpiece for enquiring societal mores and norms. The cabaretist not only entertains the audience in a comical way, but also strives to make audiences aware of social and political irregularities. Comedy, parody and satire are found in various forms of entertainment and literature, but in the cabaret genre it is purposefully applied to voice socio-political criticism. The success of cabaret is indebted to each caberetist’s unique style. South African performers such as Pieter-Dirk Uys, Casper de Vries and Hennie Aucamp apply these means successfully to entertain their audiences and encourage reflection. The cabaret persona, drawing upon comedic devices, is used to present reality as opposed to the human ideal, while treating the audience to a lighter view of life. Apart from the fact that cabaret, like comedy, parody and satire, is difficult to define, these forms often overlap, as they serve the same purpose, namely to entertain and to comment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek kabaret in Suid-Afrika en in die besonder die gebruik van ’n karakter in kabaret as sosiale en politiese kommentator. Kabaret gebruik ’n verskeidenheid komiese vorme wat saamspan om sosiale en politieke kommentaar te lewer. Die karakter verteenwoordig dikwels ’n gemeenskap se sosiale en politieke waardes en die kabarettis gebruik so ’n karakter om hierdie waardes te bespot en kommentaar op die gemeenskap te lewer. Temas soos die menslike natuur en die lewe word met behulp van die komiese, parodie en satire in die kalklig geplaas om swakhede en wanpraktyke te beklemtoon. Die karakter dien ook dikwels as ’n skild waaragter ’n kabarettis skuil en waarmee hy sodoende vryheid van spraak verkry met die doel om te kritiseer; dit dien as spreekbuis vir sosiale waardes en norme. Die kabarettis vermaak nie net ’n gehoor op komiese wyse nie, maar probeer ook om die gehoor van sosiale en politieke wantoestande bewus te maak. Die komiese, parodie en satire kom in verskeie vorme van vermaak en die literatuur voor, maar in kabaret word dit doelgerig as middel gebruik om sosio-politiese kommentaar te lewer. Die sukses van kabaret word gemeet aan elke kabarettis se unieke styl. Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars soos Pieter-Dirk Uys, Casper de Vries en Hennie Aucamp slaag daarin om hierdie middele aan te wend en sodoende hul gehore te vermaak en tot nadenke te stem. Die kabaret-karakter word met behulp van komiese vorme aangewend om die werklikheid teenoor die menslike ideaal op te weeg en aan gehore ’n ligter sy van die lewe te wys. Buiten dat kabaret en ook die komiese, parodie en satire moeilik gedefinieer kan word, oorvleuel hierdie vorme dikwels en word dit vir dieselfde doel gebruik, naamlik om te vermaak en kommentaar te lewer.

No description available.

M.A. / The idea that parody can be used as an instrument of internal criticism and at the same time be a form of literary history is the point of departure for this study. By analysing and comparing the parody pendants of D.J. Opperman ("Met apologie" in Kuns-mis, 1964) and Johann Johl ("Dubbelloop: 'n pastiche" in Gewalste woord, 1990), the way in which parody functions as internal criticism and even as method of periodisation in literary history is examined. D.J. Opperman parodies the Afrikaans poets of the thirties. In the parodies he establishes a critical dialogue with these poets and their work by means of the intertextual nature of parody. Through these parodies he comments on each poet's oeuvre with regard to the mannerisms and personal style of writing apparent in their work by exaggeration and intentional ridicule. However, the parody does not only reduce the poet's work to a ridiculous level, but is also used as a vehicle of praise for the highlights in the poet's work. Furthermore, by restricting these parodies to the poets of the thirties and two of their successors of the forties, Opperman also establishes a kind of miniature literary history. One can deduce some aspects of the characteristics of the thirties poetry from these parodies. In the same way Johann Johl parodies the Afrikaans writers of the sixties and seventies. Here the critical dialogue is established on two levels. On the first level it serves as criticism on the work of D.J. Opperman and that done by the poets of the thirties by means of the intertextual relationship existing between the parody pendants. In doing so it compares and contrasts the renewal in Afrikaans literature by the poets of the thirties to the renewal brought by two writers of the sixties and seventies. In this study the focus will be on the writers of the sixties (Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne Leroux). On the second level it serves as criticism on the work of Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne Leroux as well as a form of miniature literary history of the writers of the sixties. Some characteristics of this period in the Afrikaans literature can be deduced from these parodies. The whole study is based on the statement made by Lyotard (Hutcheon, 1985:1) "Art forms have increasingly appeared to distrust external criticism to the extent that they have sought to incorporate critical commentary within their own structures in a kind of self-legitimizing short-circuit of the normal critical dialogue." From what has been said above, it is clear that parody may well be this "self-legitimizing short-circuit". The parodies analysed in this study are examples of parody being used as an internal instrument of criticism, thus incorporating critical commentary within art's own structures. Furthermore, due to its intertextual nature, parody also comments on the characteristics of (in this case) two important periods (the thirties and sixties) in the history of Afrikaans literature and therefore also serves as a kind of miniature literary history.

Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2004. / Full text to be digitised and attached to bibliographic record. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following thesis develops a theory of parody as a multifunctional practice in relation to selected works of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Tom Stoppard. The study discusses parody as a mode of generic engineering (rather than a genre itself) with ideological ramifications. Based on an understanding of literary and non-literary genres as social institutions, this thesis describes the practice of parody as one of engineering generic or discursive incongruity with a particular cultural purpose in mind. In refiguring generic conventions, the parodist simultaneously reworks their implicit ideological premises. Parody hence comes to serve as a means of negotiating with "the world" through generic modification, and the notions of parodic social agency and cultural work are consequently central to this thesis. Focusing on The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest respectively, Chapters Two and Three discuss Wilde's use of parody, and especially parodic "word-masks", for subverting the aesthetic and social conventions of Victorian England, and covertly propagating a gay subculture through parodic injokes. Word-masks - central to Wildean parody - entail the duplicitous use of an object text / genre as a cover under which a parodist hides other meanings. If Wildean parody might be described as claiming a covert agency, Joycean parody must, in contrast, be acknowledged as expressing deep-seated political ambivalence. Chapters Four and Five of this thesis discuss Joyce's Ulysses with specific reference to his use of parody to conflate, relativize and problematize the dominant aesthetic and Irish nationalist discourses of the early twentieth-century. Joycean parody also demonstrates parodic ambivalence and this is especially evident in what might be called his "parodic patriotism". In contrast to Wilde's and Joyce's use of parody for the expression of subversive or progressive political views, Stoppard's parodies confirm conservative English values not only in their reification of the English canon but also in terms of the ideological premises with which they invest their hypotexts. Chapters Six and Seven examine how parody can serve as one of the ways in which modem artists have managed to come to terms with tradition. Focusing on Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Travesties respectively, these chapters explore parody's capacity to function as tribute or homage to the writers of the past being parodied. Ultimately this thesis aims to demonstrate the continuum of parodic cultural work or effects of which parody, as a mode of generic engineering, is capable. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word daar - met verwysing na geselekteerde werke van Oscar Wilde, James Joyce en Tom Stoppard - 'n teorie van parodie as multi-funktionele praktyk ontwikkel. Parodie word bespreek as 'n vorm van generiese manipulasie (eerder as 'n genre op sigself) met ideologiese implikasies. Op die basis van 'n vertolking van literêre en nie-literêre genres as sosiale instellings, beskryf hierdie tesis die praktyk van parodie as die bewerkstelling van generiese en diskursiewe ongelyksoortigheid met 'n besondere kulturele oogmerk in gedagte. In die herfigurering van generiese konvensies is die beoefenaar van parodie terselfdertyd besig om hulle geïmpliseerde ideologiese aannames te herbewerk. Parodie word dus 'n metode om met behulp van generiese modifikasie in omgang met "die wêreld" te verkeer; en die idee van die sosiale agentskap en kulturele aksie van parodie staan dus ook sentraal tot hierdie tesis. Hoofstukke Twee en Drie fokus onderskeidelik op The Picture of Dorian Gray en The Importance of Being Earnest. In hierdie twee hoofstukke word Wilde se gebruik van parodie bespreek, met besondere aandag aan sy parodiese "woordmaskers" om die estetiese en sosiale konvensies van Victoriaanse Engeland te ondermyn, asook sy bedekte propagering - deur middel van parodiese binne-grappe -- van 'n gay subkultuur. Sentraal tot Wilde se parodie is woordmaskers wat 'n dubbelsinnige gebruik van teks en genre inspan as 'n dekmantel waaronder die beoefenaar van parodie ander betekenisse verskuil hou. As Wilde se parodie beskryfkan word as bedekte bemiddeling oftussenkoms (covert agency), moet Joyce se parodie - as teenstelling - identifiseer word as 'n uitdrukking van diepliggende politiese ambivalensie. In Hoofstukke Vier en Vyf word Joyce se Ulysses bespreek met spesifieke verwysing na sy gebruik van parodie om dominante estetiese en Ierse nasionalistiese diskoerse van die vroeë twintigste eeu saam te voeg, te relativiseer en te bevraagteken.. Joyce se parodie illustreer ook parodiese ambivalensie - 'n aspek wat duidelik blyk uit wat sy "parodiese patriotisme" genoem kon word. In teenstelling met Wilde en Joyce se gebruik van parodie as uitdrukking van ondermynende of pregressiewe gesigspunte, bevestig Stoppard se parodie konserwatiewe Engelse waardes nie net in hulle vergestalting van Engelse kanoniese tekste nie, maar ook in terme van die ideologiese aannames wat hulle aan hul hipotekste toeskryf. Hoofstukke Ses en Sewe ondersoek hoe parodie kan dien as een van die weë waarlangs moderne kunstenaars daarin geslaag het om hulleself te versoen met tradiese. In Hoofstukke Ses en Sewe - waar daar onderskeidelik op Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead en Travesties gefokus word - word ook aandag geskenk aan die vermoë van parodie om te funksioneer as huldeblyk of eerbetoon aan skrywers wie se werke geparodieer word. Hierdie tesis poog om die kontinuum van parodiese kulturele werk te illustreer waartoe parodie, as 'n vorm van generiese manipulasie, in staat is.

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The classic Victorian tale by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), has been enjoyed by adults and children alike in many countries and in many languages. In this book, Carroll parodies the accepted style of children’s books of the Victorian Age by mocking the moralistic and realistic expectations. All the poems in the book are parodies of once familiar nursery rhymes, which often conveyed a moral lesson. Translating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a challenging task, as it poses culturespecific, text-specific and language-specific problems. Although the book has been translated into more than 70 languages, it seems to be more popular in some cultures than in others. At the same time, some cultures seem to be content with “older” translations, while others need “updated” versions. Cultural differences seem to play a role in these preferences. The aim of this study is to examine the French and Afrikaans translations of a parodied poem (as found in chapter 2 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) from an intercultural perspective. In both cases, the translators seem to have found equivalents in their respective cultures that would be acceptable to their target readers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die klassieke Victoriaanse verhaal deur Lewis Carroll, Alice se Avonture in Wonderland (1865), het plesier verskaf aan volwassenes en kinders in baie lande en in baie tale. In hierdie boek parodieer Carroll die aanvaarbare styl van kinderboeke van die Victoriaanse tydperk deur die spot te dryf met die moralistiese en realistiese verwagtinge. Al die gedigte in die boek is parodieë van eens bekende rympies, wat dikwels ‘n morele les bevat het. Die vertaling van Alice se Avonture in Wonderland is ‘n uitdagende taak, aangesien dit bepaalde kultuur-, teks- en taalverwante probleme inhou. Hoewel die boek in meer as 70 tale vertaal is, blyk dit meer gewild te wees in sekere kulture as in ander. Terselfdertyd is sommige kulture skynbaar tevrede met “ouer” vertalings, terwyl ander meer “hersiene” weergawes verkies. Kultuurverskille speel oënskynlik ‘n rol in hierdie voorkeure. Die doel van hierdie studie is om die Franse en Afrikaanse vertalings van ‘n geparodieerde gedig (soos dit voorkom in hoofstuk 2 van Alice se Avonture in Wonderland) te ondersoek vanuit ‘n interkulturele perspektief. Klaarblyklik het die vertalers in beide gevalle ekwivalente in hulle onderskeie kulture gevind wat aanvaarbaar sou wees vir hulle teikenlesers.

In 'A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism', Jerome J. McGann writes, '[A]n author's work possesses autonomy only when it remains an unheard melody'. For the published and successful writer in the nineteenth century, such autonomy was often unattainable. Publications such as The Pickwick Papers inspired an array of opportunistic successors, including stage plays, unauthorized sequels, jest books, song books, and shilling and penny imitations. Despite the proliferation, this strain of writing is rarely studied. This thesis recovers ephemeral, scurrilous texts, often anonymous or pseudonymous, and reads them in the context of their canonical sources. Retrieving bibliographical environments, it demonstrates how plagiaristic, parodic, and willfully unoriginal works impacted on the careers of three novelists: Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer Lytton, and George Eliot. The thesis argues that formal distinctions among modes of Victorian writing - criticism, parody, and plagiarism - often blur. Further, it argues that our understanding of a particular novelist's work must be broadened to include sequels, spinoffs, and imitations: to know a particular author means to know the spurious and oftentimes bad (morally or aesthetically) works that the author inspired. The Spurious Victorians of the title form something of countercanon to the 'major' writers of the period. Thomas Peckett Prest, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, and Joseph Liggins, among many others, informed and influenced the literary history that has in turn denied them admission. William Makepeace Thackeray wrote, 'If only men of genius were to write, Lord help us! how many books would there be?' Of course, Victorian print culture found room for the genius and the subgenius, Boz as well as Bos. 'Spurious Victorians' recovers works that have been lost from view in order to better understand the process by which an individual authorial voice emerged amid an echo chamber of competing, imitative voices.