Written within an existentialist mode, Nakamura Fuminori’s early fictional works lend themselves to be read as therapeutic technologies reaching out to Japanese youth whose lives are marked by anxiety, isolation, and precariousness. Because English-language scholarship on Nakamura is lacking, this thesis analyzes two of his novels – Child of Dirt and Evil and the Mask – in order to introduce how Nakamura understands the human, how his texts function formally as therapeutic technologies, and how, in the final analysis, they exhibit a nascent sexism that borders on misogyny.

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This study considers the role war victims empowerment has on peacebuilding. Even though the relation between empowerment and peacebuilding is well examined, the importance of involving war victims in the peacebuilding process has been given less attention. Through a qualitative case study on the NGO GWED-G’s interventions for young war victims in Gulu, Amuru, and Nwoya districts in Uganda, this study contributes to the discussion on the importance of empowering young war victims for improved peacebuilding efforts. The findings and analysis are based on two analytical frameworks, empowerment theory and the four dimensions of peacebuilding, as well as previous realized linkage between the two. Through these frameworks, it is clear that the empirical data collected in this study regarding the empowerment of young war victims are strongly correlated to the four dimensions of peacebuilding. When carrying out the research, it was also discovered that this linkage goes well beyond what previous research have stated. This study additionally discovered that the empowerment of young war victims has contributed to peacebuilding by impacting whole communities as well. By empowering these war victims, GWED-G has generated a ripple effect, the impact extended to families and entire communities of the empowered war victims and thereby more effectively contributed to peacebuilding.

Ce projet de recherche propose de déceler les manifestations formelles et narratives du « sentiment d'absurdité » camusien dans Suicide Club (2001) de Sono Shion et The Taste of Tea (2004) réalisé par Ishii Katsuhito. En vue de déterminer la part de responsabilité détenue par la crise économique japonaise des années 1990 dans le traitement absurde de ces œuvres, le caractère inconséquent de la violence représenté chez Sono et le traitement de la solitude chez Ishii sont analysés. Abordant tous deux le concept de rupture générationnelle, la présence d’absurde au sein de ces films illustre la réalité préoccupante de la « génération perdue » japonaise, de jeunes gens confrontés à l’absence d’offre d’emplois et à un isolement sociétal forcé. / This project aims to identify the formal and narrative manifestations of the Camusian “sense of absurdity” in Sono Shion’s Suicide Club (2001) and The Taste of Tea (2004) directed by Ishii Katsuhito. In order to determine the extent to which the Japanese economic crisis of the 1990s contributed to the absurd treatment in these works, the project analyzes the inconsistent nature of the violence represented in Sono’s film and the treatment of solitude in Ishii’s. Both films address the concept of generational rupture. In doing so, the presence of the absurd within these films illustrates the worrying reality experienced by young people faced with the absence of job offers and forced societal isolation, known as the Japanese "lost generation".

This dissertation aims to position train surfing as a visual spectacle that is practised by Sowetan train surfers within the context of post-authoritarian Johannesburg. The author argues that train surfing is a visual and spatial phenomenon that is theoretically under-researched. As such, this study aims to decode seven train surfing videos to establish what train surfing looks like, where train surfing occurs and why individuals participate in such a high risk activity. This study, furthermore, aims to frame train surfing as a spectacle by investigating the similarities between train surfing and rites of passage (initiation rites). The author also regards train surfing as a very specific form of storytelling. The narratives conveyed in the seven videos are, therefore, interpreted to establish that train surfing is practised to ‘voice’ fatalistic feelings, societal as well as individual crises. After establishing the visual aspects of train surfing, the author focuses on the spatial context of train surfing. Johannesburg is described as both an authoritarian and post-authoritarian construct by tracing the spatial and political history of the city. When the discussion turns to the post-authoritarian city, townships and squatter settlements are analysed as being both marginal and hybrid spaces. It is argued that townships are marginal spaces due to their location, they are inhabited by the underclass and they are formed by processes of capitalism and urbanisation, and as a result of these factors, township residents might have fatalistic mindsets (Gulick 1989). The author, however, contends that township space is an ambivalent construct, and as such, it can also be read as hybrid space. Here, hybrid space is interpreted as a platform from which township residents can resist oppressing spatial and political ideologies. In this context, train surfing is regarded as one way in which train surfers use hybrid space to express tactics of resistance. After establishing the spatial context of train surfing, the socio-economic and material living conditions of train surfers are investigated. The discussion firstly, explores the underclass, as theorised by Jencks and Peterson (1990), and thereafter highlights why train surfers can be classified as being part of this sub-category. It is, furthermore, argued that Sowetan train surfers are part of a new lost generation due to high unemployment rates, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and bleak future outlooks. The author aims to establish that, as a result of their socio-economic status and material living conditions, train surfers are fatalistic, and practice an extreme activity to exert control over one area of their lives, namely their bodies. Lastly, the dissertation aims to explore train surfing as being both a risk-taking activity and a new spatial practice. The dynamics of adolescent risk-taking behaviour is explored by emphasising the psychological motivations behind high risk activities. The author argues that alienating space can be regarded as an additional factor that usher adolescents into risk-taking activities. As such, the place(s) and space(s) inhabited by train surfers, namely Johannesburg, Soweto and township train stations, are discussed as alienating spaces. Moreover, it is argued that alienating spaces create opportunities for resistance (following the power-resistance dialectic inherent to space), and as such, train surfing is interpreted as a de-alienating spatial practice that enables the marginalised train surfer to exert control over his surroundings. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

The thesis explores the notion of physicality in selected novels of Ernest Hemingway and Francis Scott Fitzgerald, using the works of Jean Baudrillard as its theoretical base. The text seeks to uncover the significance of a human body in the novels through a detailed observation of the depicted characters, focusing mainly on the role of the body as an emblem that reflects not only its owner's individual battles, but also the transgressive processes taking place in the society. The study assumes that the works written by the authors of the Lost Generation capture the gradual onset of capitalism and consumerism, and thus they reflect the emergence of the consumer society, a social order that became Baudrillard's main subject of study. The main aim of the thesis is thence to explore the human body as a reflection of major societal changes and uncover the methods in which the characters use their bodies to define their own position in the newly arising system. Following the theoretical introduction, the analysis firstly examines fashion and demonstrates its capability to either unify the members of the consumer society through their shared desire to follow specific trends, or alternatively hierarchically divide the consumers based on their dissimilar approaches to consumption. Secondly, the thesis...