In this thesis, I examine a critical procedure appropriate to Black South African autobiography of the 1950s and early 1960s. In particular, I examine these autobiographies as examples of counterhegemonic writing in which the self counters the hegemonic apartheid notion of identity, based on racial and cultural purity, and I propose that the hybrid selves encoded in these narratives have the capacity to inform a new South African nationhood. Chapter One necessitates an autocritique, in which I locate my own discourse within the intersecting discursive strands of Western and local theory, an effort that is guided by the imperatives that emerge from the autobiographies themselves. In Chapter Two, I suggest that the postcolonial autos displaces Humanist, and appropriates postmodernist, conceptions of the "I". Rewriting the terms of the autobiographical pact, the authority of grapos is re-instated in counternarratives that give privileged status to the bios - to lives that claim "I AM!" and selves that reconstruct identity. A related concern is the relationship between autobiographical criticism in South Africa and hegemony. In the chapters that follow, I examine the various ways in which counterhegemonic selves are constructed in Tell freedom, Down Second Avenue, Drawn in colour: African Contrasts and The Ochre People. Peter Abrahams's autobiography is discussed largely in terms of Frantz Fanon's insights on identity construction and the notion of a "hybrid I". Es'kia Mphahlek's (re)writing of the self - whose main feature is ambivalence - forms the focus of Chapter Four. These notions are developed in the final chapter, which focuses on Noni Jabavu's narratives that encode an "in-between" cultural identity and, as in the autobiographies of Abrahams and Mphahlele, a metonymic "I". / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

Text in Afrikaans / This study investigates postcolonial aspects of the prose oeuvre of André P. Brink, with specific reference to his historiographical texts `n Oomblik in die wind, Houd-den-Bek, Die eerste lewe van Adamastor, Inteendeel, Sandkastele and Donkermaan. The texts can be described as links in a textual history of South Africa: a history corresponding to the official version, revisioning it in an imaginative way. The texts also criticize political (mal)practices, and the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial social contexts of the country are critically scrutinized. The texts offer suggestions for a new political dispensation. Since the seventies the Brink oeuvre has developed a multi-dimensional postcolonial approach. Aspects of post-colonialism, post-structuralism, magical realism and feminism as articulated in the texts, are analyzed and interpreted. Brink's investigation of problems concerning historiography, and the relation between history and fiction, comprised an important aspect of the research leading to this report. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil

This dissertation is a report on how Tom Lanoye, a contemporary Flemish author who explores themes of social relevance, deconstructs the sexual identity of his characters within the context of a postmodernist culture. The manifestation of this deconstruction process is described within those theoretical paradigms of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler that link sexual identity and social mores. For the purpose of this research Tom Lanoye‘s ‘Monster’ Trilogy was selected. Set against the backdrop of Belgium society during the late nineties of the twentieth century and highlighting the moral downfall of the Deschryver patriarchy, Lanoye’s novels address an assortment of contemporary gender and social political issues in his trilogy. These include the following: political corruption; incest; homosexuality; racism; the sexual abuse of minors; the relation between language and identity, volatile childrenparent relationships; the subversion of gender norms and sexual transformation. / In hierdie verhandeling word verslag gedoen van die wyse waarop Tom Lanoye as hedendaagse eksponent van die Vlaamse versetprosa die seksuele identiteit van sy karakters binne die konteks van 'n postmodernistiese verwysingsraam dekonstrueer. Die manifestasie van hierdie dekonstruksieproses word beskryf binne die teoretiese paradigmas met betrekking tot die verband tussen seksuele identiteit en maatskappy van Michel Foucault en Judith Butler. Vir die doel van hierdie ondersoek is Lanoye se 'Monstertrilogie' geselekteer. Gesitueer teen die agtergrond van die Belgiese maatskappy in die laat negentigerjare van die twintigste eeu en gefokus op die morele ondergang van die Deschryver-patriargie, sny Lanoye se trilogie 'n verskeidenheid van aktuele gender-en sosio-politieke kwessies aan. Hierdie kwessies sluit in: politieke korrupsie; bloedskande; homoseksualiteit, rassisme; die seksuele misbruik van minderjariges; die verhouding tussen taal en identiteit; onbestendige ouer-kind-verhoudings; die ondermyning van gendernorme en die kwessie van seksuele transformasie. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)

This project considers four writers that have used postmodern narrative strategies to reconfigure classic pulp science fiction tropes. The primary texts are Catherine L. Moore's "Shambleau," Eleanor Arnason's "The Warlord of Saturn's Moons", Robert Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones", and Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin". Each experiments with narrative voices or uses a story-within-a-story structure. These strategies enable the authors to engage and comment on the process of how traditional tropes and narratives are brought into a new context through appropriation and reconstruction. / by Alexandria S. Gray. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This paper seeks to explore the dialogue between postmodern thought and Christian theology. The dialogue will be grounded in four postmodern novels: Toni Morrison's Beloved, Ian McEwan's Atonement, Jill Paton Walsh's Knowledge of Angels, and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. In many Church circles, it has often been said that postmodernism, as it manifests itself in popular culture, is a threat to the Christian faith. However, I will be arguing that the opposite is the case, and that postmodernism has allowed for new ways of thinking about the self that has great resonance with certain theological conceptions of the self. It will be argued that the postmodern subject is one that seeks to make sense of 'the other' without risking the exploitation of the other, and that this lies very close to the theological concept of relationship, based on the idea of covenant. The self as responsible to an other and as a participant in community will be explored, from both the postmodern and theological perspectives. Before exploring issues of the self, this thesis will contextualize the dialogue by exploring postmodern conceptions of space and time. It will examine how ideas around space and time have been imagined throughout human history, thereby contextualizing the emergence of postmodern thinking. It will then show how this emergence of a postmodern space and time in fact creates new possibilities for the Christian faith to reexpress itself in ways that are more relevant to the 21st century. The concluding chapter of this thesis brings to light the longing within our postmodern reality for a place we can call home, a place where we can belong, and find healing. Such a place, such a homecoming, is offered to us in the spaces opened up to us by the dialogue between the Christian faith and postmodernity, and is found within a community of people who are learning that, as, postmodern philosopher Emmanuel Levinas states, "there is something more important than my life, and that is the life of the other" (in Beavers, 1996,16). / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Text in Afrikaans / This study investigates postcolonial aspects of the prose oeuvre of André P. Brink, with specific reference to his historiographical texts `n Oomblik in die wind, Houd-den-Bek, Die eerste lewe van Adamastor, Inteendeel, Sandkastele and Donkermaan. The texts can be described as links in a textual history of South Africa: a history corresponding to the official version, revisioning it in an imaginative way. The texts also criticize political (mal)practices, and the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial social contexts of the country are critically scrutinized. The texts offer suggestions for a new political dispensation. Since the seventies the Brink oeuvre has developed a multi-dimensional postcolonial approach. Aspects of post-colonialism, post-structuralism, magical realism and feminism as articulated in the texts, are analyzed and interpreted. Brink's investigation of problems concerning historiography, and the relation between history and fiction, comprised an important aspect of the research leading to this report. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil

This dissertation is a report on how Tom Lanoye, a contemporary Flemish author who explores themes of social relevance, deconstructs the sexual identity of his characters within the context of a postmodernist culture. The manifestation of this deconstruction process is described within those theoretical paradigms of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler that link sexual identity and social mores. For the purpose of this research Tom Lanoye‘s ‘Monster’ Trilogy was selected. Set against the backdrop of Belgium society during the late nineties of the twentieth century and highlighting the moral downfall of the Deschryver patriarchy, Lanoye’s novels address an assortment of contemporary gender and social political issues in his trilogy. These include the following: political corruption; incest; homosexuality; racism; the sexual abuse of minors; the relation between language and identity, volatile childrenparent relationships; the subversion of gender norms and sexual transformation. / In hierdie verhandeling word verslag gedoen van die wyse waarop Tom Lanoye as hedendaagse eksponent van die Vlaamse versetprosa die seksuele identiteit van sy karakters binne die konteks van 'n postmodernistiese verwysingsraam dekonstrueer. Die manifestasie van hierdie dekonstruksieproses word beskryf binne die teoretiese paradigmas met betrekking tot die verband tussen seksuele identiteit en maatskappy van Michel Foucault en Judith Butler. Vir die doel van hierdie ondersoek is Lanoye se 'Monstertrilogie' geselekteer. Gesitueer teen die agtergrond van die Belgiese maatskappy in die laat negentigerjare van die twintigste eeu en gefokus op die morele ondergang van die Deschryver-patriargie, sny Lanoye se trilogie 'n verskeidenheid van aktuele gender-en sosio-politieke kwessies aan. Hierdie kwessies sluit in: politieke korrupsie; bloedskande; homoseksualiteit, rassisme; die seksuele misbruik van minderjariges; die verhouding tussen taal en identiteit; onbestendige ouer-kind-verhoudings; die ondermyning van gendernorme en die kwessie van seksuele transformasie. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The collection of pages spread before you now, this story-thesis, is a collection of stories about my journey from cult member to the place in life I am now, stories about those stories, and stories about the people who lived or read them, talked about them, and were changed by the tellings. Most importantly, the goal of this story-thesis is to illustrate how the process of story-making and -telling changes how we interpret our identities and our lifeworlds. I argue that the stories that we share change our identities, and I also argue that how we perceive our identity and the identities of others affects the stories that we share.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In his novels Slaughterhouse-five and The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut explores issues of cultural identity in technologically-advanced societies post-World War II. With the rise of globalization and rapid technological advancements that occurred postwar, humans worldwide were mitigating the effects of information overload and instability in cultural identity. The influx of cultural influences that accompany a global society draws attention to the fluidity and inevitability of cultural change. A heightened awareness of cultural influences—past and present—creates anxiety for the generation living postwar and before the dawn of the Information Age. This generation suffers from “cultural schizophrenia”: a fracturing of the psyche characterized by anxiety over unstable cultural identities and agency. With the characters of Billy Pilgrim and Winston Niles Rumfoord, Vonnegut explores the different reactions to and consequences of cultural schizophrenia. His unique writing style is an effective hybrid of science fiction conventions and the complexities of human culture and society. Ultimately, Vonnegut explores the dangers of detachment and the complicated nature of agency with novels that are both innovative and accessible.

<p>This project presents a case study of postmodern trauma, working at the boundaries of the humanities and computer science to produce an in-depth examination of trauma writing in David Foster Wallace’s novel <i>Infinite Jest</i>. The goal of this project is to examine the intricacies of syntax and language in postmodern trauma writing through an iterative process I refer to as <i>broken reading</i>, which combines traditional humanities methodologies (close reading) and distant, computational methodologies (Natural Language Processing). Broken reading begins with close reading, then ventures into the distant reading processes of sentiment analysis and entity analysis, and then returns again to close reading when the data must be analyzed and the broken computational elements must be corrected. While examining the syntactical structure of traumatic and non-traumatic passages through this broken reading methodology, I found that Wallace represents trauma as gendered. The male characters in the novel, when recollecting past traumata or undergoing traumatic events, maintain their subject status, recognize those around them as subjects, and are able to engage actively with the world around them. On the other hand, the female characters in the novel are depicted as lacking the same capacities for subjectivity and action. Through computational text analysis, it becomes clear that Wallace writes female trauma in a way that reflects their lack of agency and subjectivity while he writes male trauma in a way that maintains their agency and subjectivity. Through close reading, I was able to discover qualitative differences in Wallace’s representations of trauma and form initial observations about syntactical and linguistic patterns; through distant reading, I was able to quantify the differences I uncovered through close reading by conducting part of speech tagging, entity analysis, semantic analysis, and sentiment analysis. Distant reading led me to discover elements of the text that I had not noticed previously, despite the occasional flaw in computation. The analyses I produced through this broken reading process grew richer because of failure—when I failed as an interpreter, and when computational analysis failed, these failures gave me further insight into the trauma writing within the novel. Ultimately, there are marked syntactical and linguistic differences between the way that Wallace represents male and female trauma, which points toward the larger question of whether other white male postmodern authors gender trauma in their writings, too. This study has generated a prototype model for the <i>broken reading </i>methodology, which can be used to further examine postmodern trauma writing.</p>