Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study explores the different ways that South African novels have represented fatherhood across historical periods, from the dawn of apartheid to the post-transitional moment. It is argued that there is a link between narrative power and the father, especially in the way that the father figure is given authority and is central to dominant narratives which support pervasive ideologies. The study introduces the concept of paternal narratives, which are narratives that support the power of the father within patriarchal systems and societies, and which the father is usually given control of. This lens will be applied to prominent South African literature in English, including early texts such as Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter and J. M. Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country, where the father’s authority is strongly emphasised, and where resisting the paternal narratives often leads to identity struggles for sons and daughters. Later texts, published during the transition from apartheid, often deconstruct the narrative power of fathers more overtly, namely Mark Behr’s The Smell of Apples, Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying and K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams. More recent novels, published in “post-transitional” South Africa, are radical in their approach to father figures: fathers are often shown to be spectral and dying, and their control of narratives is almost completely lost, such as in Lisa Fugard’s Skinner’s Drift, Mark Behr’s Kings of the Water, Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light and Zukiswa Wanner’s Men of the South. Exploring these shifting representations is a useful way to unearth how ideological and social shifts in South Africa affect the types of representations produced, and how fatherhoods are being reimagined.

Abstract (Jill Nudelman) This dissertation presents a novel that charts the progress of the white protagonist, Rose, whose mysterious origins have rendered her disconnected and alienated. In addition, moulded by her sheltered and privileged lifestyle she experiences guilt faced with the suffering and poverty that she encounters in post-apartheid South Africa, but lacks the strength to act. The novel opens with Rose, now 30, bereft and alone. When she discovers a box of mysterious objects which hint at her origins, she is lead to Oberon, a fictional village in the southern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg. Here, Rose’s search becomes more than a search for her biological parents as she experiences events that lead her to an identity beyond whiteness and help her to find rootedness in African soil. A reflexive essay follows. The essay is a personal reflection of the writing process, and includes the inspiration and development of the story line, problems encountered around the narrative voice and the contribution of the Masters programme workshops to the project. It also explores and expounds on the theoretical underpinnings of the novel, such as white identity in post-apartheid South Africa, the use of Western mythologies in an African context, and a discussion of San culture, including concerns around its inclusion in the text. The use of the heavily-loaded signifier, “White Goddess” as in the title, is also touched upon.

This study examines the representation of "white" poverty in Afrikaans youth literature between 1990 and 2009 by focussing on the following novels: Droomwa (1990) by Barrie Hough, Die optog van die aftjoppers (1994) by George Weideman, Vaselinetjie (2004) by Anoeschka von Meck, Roepman (2004) by Jan van Tonder, Lien se lankstaanskoene (2008) by Derick van der Walt and Lammervanger (2009) by Frans van Rensburg. The novels are analysed by employing critical whiteness studies as an overarching theoretical framework. Indicators of the "white" characters' poverty are identified with regard to description, dialogue, actions, place and narration with the aim of determining how and why these representations are evident in the novels. In these novels, poverty partly functions as a feature of the the so-called problem book and coming of age novel. Apartheid is the backdrop for some of the novels; here, "white" poverty is portrayed in a nostalgic manner. The most prominent indicator of the characters' poverty is the place where they reside. Other indicators are their appearance, possessions, dialogue and actions. The characters' poverty is not stated explicitly by the narrator in any of the novels. The "whiteness" of characters is represented as self-evident. Apart from this matter-of-factness, there is other evidence of "white" privilege in the way that "white" poverty is represented. The relative poverty of the "white" characters becomes apparent through the opportunities still available to them. These opportunities enable most of the characters to experience relief from or rid themselves of their poverty. The implications of "whiteness" are evident on various levels in the novels and also imbue some "white" characters with the illusion that they should act as the rescuers of "black" characters. / Die representasie van "wit" armoede in Afrikaanse jeugliteratuur tussen 1990 en 2009 word in hierdie studie ondersoek. Die romans wat bestudeer word, is Droomwa (1990) deur Barrie Hough, Die optog van die aftjoppers (1994) deur George Weideman, Vaselinetjie (2004) deur Anoeschka von Meck, Roepman (2004) deur Jan van Tonder, Lien se lankstaanskoene (2008) deur Derick van der Walt en Lammervanger (2009) deur Frans van Rensburg. Kritiese witheidstudies is die oorkoepelende teoretiese raamwerk waarbinne die romans ontleed word. Die merkers van die "wit" karakters se armoede word ten opsigte van beskrywing, dialoog, optrede, ruimte en vertelling geïdentifiseer met die doel om vas te stel hoe en hoekom "wit" armoede in die tekste gerepresenteer word. Die prominentste merker van die karakters se armoede is die ruimte waarin hulle bly. Ander merkers is voorkoms, besittings, dialoog en optrede. In geen van die romans word die karakters se armoede eksplisiet deur die vertelinstansie aangedui nie. Die karakters se "witheid" word grotendeels in die ses romans as vanselfsprekend aangebied. Tesame met hierdie vanselfsprekendheid is daar besliste elemente van "wit" bevoorregting in die uitbeelding van "wit" armoede in die tekste teenwoordig. Die relatiwiteit van die "wit" karakters se armoede word duidelik deur die geleenthede waartoe hulle ten spyte van hul armoede toegang het; hierdie geleenthede stel meeste van die karakters in staat om hul armoede te verlig of daarvan verlos te word aan die einde van die romans. Die implikasies van "witheid" is op verskillende vlakke in die romans waarneembaar en verleen ook aan die karakters die illusie dat hulle, in meeste van die romans, tot die "swart" karakters se redding moet kom. Sleutelterme / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Afrikaans / MA / Unrestricted

Student Number : 7805464 - MA dissertation - School of SLLS - Faculty of Arts / This dissertation interrogates Anne Landsman’s The Devil’s Chimney. The novel is narrated by the poor-white alcoholic, Connie, who imagines a story about Beatrice, an English colonist living on a farm in the Little Karoo. Connie, who is a product of the apartheid era, interweaves her own story with that of Beatrice’s and, in this way, comes to terms with her own memories, her abusive husband and the new South Africa. Connie deploys the genre of magical realism to create a defamiliarised farm setting for Beatrice’s narrative. She thus challenges the stereotypes associated with the traditional plaasroman and its patriarchal codes. These codes are also subverted in Connie’s representation of Beatrice, who contests her identity as the authoritative Englishwoman, as constructed by colonial discourse. In addition, Beatrice’s black domestic, Nomsa, is given voice and agency: facilities denied to her counterparts in colonial and apartheid fiction. Nomsa’s relationship with Beatrice is also characterised by subversion as it blurs the boundaries between colonised and coloniser. In this regard, the text demands a postcolonial reading. Connie, in narrating Beatrice’s and Nomsa’s stories, reinvents their invisible lives and, by doing so, is able to rewrite herself. In this, she tentatively envisions a future for herself and also potentially ‘narrates’ the nation, thus contributing to the new national literature. The nation is inscribed in the Cango caves, whose spaces witness the seminal episodes in Beatrice’s narrative. In these events, the caves ‘write’ the female body and women’s sexuality and the text thus calls for an engagement with feminism. The caves also inscribe South African history, the Western literary canon, the imagination and Landsman’s own voice. Hence, the caves assume the characteristics of a palimpsest. This, together with the metafictive elements of the novel, invites an encounter with postmodernism.

This thesis examines ways in which identities have been represented in new South African play texts. It begins by exploring various ways in which identity has been described from various philosophical, psychological and anthropological perspectives. In particular, the thesis describes its methodology in terms of Gilles Deleuze's definition of "rhizomatic" structures. The introduction also elaborates ways in which drama is uniquely suited to represent ¨C as well as to effect ¨C transformations of identity. The thesis then moves on to an examination of specific texts in terms of four broad areas of investigation ¨C gender, political affiliation, ethnicity and syncretism. In these chapters a number of play texts are investigated from different points of view. Firstly, in a chapter on gender, the thesis focuses specifically on issues of masculinity and exile in plays by Athol Fugard, Anthony Akerman and Zakes Mda. This chapter explores orientations of the masculine which have become embedded within notions of nationalism and patriotism. In terms of political affiliations, the thesis looks at what Loren Kruger has called "post-anti-apartheid theatre" (2002: 233) and considers the trend away from protest theatre. With reference to the plays of Mike van Graan it also examines new forms of protest theatre. This chapter also explores plays which were inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and looks in more detail at Ubu and the Truth Commission by Jane Taylor. When considering ethnicities, the thesis reflects on how identity in terms of an ethnic collective is most often premised on laws of exclusion, and on the construction of what Benedict Anderson refers to as an "imagined community" (1991: 15). Representations of ethnic identities are then analysed in Happy Natives by Greig Coetzee. Syncretism seems to present a preferable description of how South African identities can be constructed and the thesis then elaborates attempts to forge a new identity in terms of amalgamation and a creative fusion of cultural resources, with particular reference to the plays of Brett Bailey and Reza de Wet. In the conclusion of this thesis, the thorny issue of racial identities is considered, and in particular the trope of the "rainbow nation", which many writers regard as a problematic blanketing description which cancels out difference. Instead, Ashraf Jamal's "radical syncretism", which does not seek to subsume heterogeneous identities, is suggested as a viable means of approaching definitions of identity. The final chapter also briefly touches on the development of physical theatre in South Africa and describes how the body can be used as a tool for transformation, relying principally on the writings of Mark Fleishman and Eugenio Barba in this regard. Finally, again resorting to a Deleuzian vocabulary which describes identity as constructed in terms of lines operating on particular planes, the thesis considers whether it may not be more beneficial in the post-apartheid context to favour paradoxical processes which relinquish identities, instead of those which attempt to consolidate them. @ 2008 Author Please cite as follows: Krueger, AR 2008, Experiments in freedom : representations of identity in new South African drama : an investigation into identity formations in some post-apartheid play-texts published in English by South African writers, from 1994 - 2007, DLitt thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10282008-141823/ > D497/gm / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / English / unrestricted