This dissertation is a study of the gangster film genre and how it has been used to represent the sociopolitical and economic conditions of South Africa over an extended period of time. Firstly, by looking at the early history of the influence of the gangster genre on South African audiences, specifically the Sophiatown generation, a history of the genre being strongly linked to sociopolitical conditions in South Africa is established. The project then focuses on South African-made gangster films, beginning with Mapantsula (1988) and how it speaks to the tumultuous times of the 1980s prior to liberation. It then proceeds to examine Hijack Stories (2000) as a gangster film that represents South African society post-liberation. Lastly, it examines Jerusalema (2008) as a recent example of the gangster film and its representation of current issues, problems and tensions within South African society. The project delves into the messages that the gangster genre in particular holds as a genre that is intimately linked to social, economic and political conditions. The use of the genre as a tool to represent the experiences of South Africans prior to and post liberation is of particular interest to this research. Introduction: Genre and the Gangster Film This chapter attempts briefly to define genre in film studies, discuss how genres operate and explore the importance of genre. It also offers an elaboration of the history of the gangster film as well as discussion of the ideas of its three most significant theorists. Chapter 1: The Hollywood gangster figure in Sophiatown This chapter examines the influence of the Hollywood gangster figure on the audiences of Sophiatown. It explores the emulation of the style, mannerisms and behavior of the cinematic gangster by the residents of Sophiatown as a way of adopting a resistant urban identity in opposition to the dominant ideology of the time. However, it is found that this resistance fails to effectively become political in the form of an anti-government resistance. Chapter 1: The Hollywood gangster figure in Sophiatown This chapter examines the influence of the Hollywood gangster figure on the audiences of Sophiatown. It explores the emulation of the style, mannerisms and behavior of the cinematic gangster by the residents of Sophiatown as a way of adopting a resistant urban identity in opposition to the dominant ideology of the time. However, it is found that this resistance fails to effectively become political in the form of an anti-government resistance. Chapter 2: Mapantsula as Pre-liberation South African Gangster Film This chapter explores the relationship between the ‘pantsula’ subculture and the cinematic gangster and thereafter makes a case for how Mapantsula can be read as a gangster film. Furthermore, it goes on to study how Mapantsula works within the gangster genre framework looking at the politicization of Panic with a focus on pre-liberation South Africa. Chapter 3: Hijack Stories as Post-liberation South African Gangster Film This chapter examines Hijack Stories as a South African example of the gangster film by firstly situating it within the genre and then examining how it functions as a post-liberation South African gangster film around the period of its release. The gangster figure here is linked to ideas of authenticity and black experience. Chapter 4: Jerusalema as recent Post-liberation South African Gangster Film This chapter examines how Jerusalema uses the conventions of the gangster genre to explore current South African issues in particular, the tension between the ideology of capitalist entrepeneurship and that of restitution and social justice. It goes on to then study how it works as a post-liberation recent gangster film exploration of modern day South African society. Conclusion This chapter briefly examines how the gangster film genre has survived in South Africa over a long and shifting period of time and how it has spoken to different periods in South Africa’s history through the films discussed in this research. The gangster figure starts as a resistant figure in Mapantsula who slowly moves away from material pursuits and becomes politicized. Thereafter in Hijack Stories, the gangster figure is used to explore issues of black identity in the post-liberation period and to explore the growing divide between the recently advantaged and the still disadvantaged black South African. Finally, Jerusalema uses the gangster genre to stage the contradictions of the “South African Dream” and the lack of a firm direction for South Africa as the ideologies of capitalism and social justice clash while the period after the fall of an order leaves much in question as a nation finds its identity. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This project argues that there is a 'lacuna' in the representation of the demographic understood as 'young, white, urban, gay men' in contemporary South Africa. Whilst mediated popular representations of this demographic exist, these representations perpetuate a transnationalised, commercialised sense of identity – which in turn masks authentically local experiences. There are no literary representations of this demographic which speak to local experiences of support structures, community, identity, and ethics in a post-apartheid context. By deconstructing the label of 'gay' this project maps the problems of interpreting this demographic under a marker of 'gayness'. Using Alex Sanchez's American Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, and Rainbow Road it traces the history and meaning of 'gay'. It relates this meaning to a South African context by using André Carl van der Merwe's Moffie, Malan and Johaardien's Yes, I am! and mediated representations of the popular Mr Gay South Africa competition. These cultural sources point toward the need for a new framework of understanding in South Africa – one which shifts away from an overreliance on Western discourses. This framework is provided in relation to five local narratives gathered through ethnographic research, where the experiences of these five men are interpreted under a paradigm of 'pomosexuality' rather than 'gayness'. The project argues that pomosexuality, as a perspective, appreciates liminality but does not rely on it for identity. Rather, it focuses on the unrepresented shift from a Western ethic of the politicisation of identity to a local ethic of the politicisation of values. It ultimately argues that the lacuna of representation can be filled by adopting this pomosexual framework and breaking free of assumptions of homogeneity and assimilation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This research project is aimed at investigating the reading programmes, in four schools in KwaZulu- Natal, which serve to encourage learners to read. The schools involved in this research project were single- sex schools that were either private or government funded. My research involved interviewing the Librarians and English Heads of Department (HoDs) at each school to establish their experiences and perceptions of the reading programmes that are run at each school. I also interviewed a group of Grade 10 learners at each school in an effort to gauge their experiences and perceptions of the reading programmes at each particular school. The reading programmes at each school are also described and critiqued within my investigation and offered as examples of what successful reading programmes entail. These reading programmes were defined as successful by the Librarians and English HoDs who collaboratively run these programmes. Many learners who participated in these programmes did not deem them a success and offered suggestions for the Librarians and English teachers to amend these programmes. The qualitative components of my research (interviews) were complemented by the use of a questionnaire that was randomly distributed to 50 Grade 10 learners at each school. This questionnaire constituted the quantitative aspect of my research as the results were statistically analysed in a bid to validate the results of the interviews. Other strategies employed by the Librarians and English HoDs were also assessed and are offered as suggestions to other teachers or librarians who are struggling to encourage a positive attitude towards reading amongst their learners. Through my research I was able to conclude that the reading programmes that were investigated are generally a successful means of motivating adolescents to read because all the learners involved read more than they normally would. These programmes do not, however, always instil lifelong reading habits in learners because they do not facilitate the promotion of reading as a pleasurable activity that can be enjoyed in one’s leisure time. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal,1980.

The research presented in this dissertation examines South African queer autobiography. The primary texts that I have chosen to analyse are four recent collections of autobiographical accounts by queer-identifying individuals, which I believe to represent a current trend in queer life writing in the South African context. These four texts are Hijab: Unveiling Queer Muslim Lives (Hendricks 2009), which is a collection of short pieces of writing by queer Muslims; Yes I Am! Writing by South African Gay Men (Malan & Johaardien 2010), a collection of writing by gay men; Reclaiming the L-Word: Sappho’s Daughters Out in Africa (Diesel 2011), a collection of lesbian writing; and Trans: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa (Morgan, Marais & Wellbeloved 2011 [2009]), a collection of writing by transgender individuals. I have isolated a number of chosen narratives from each collection and engaged in a critical exploration of the construction of autobiographical selfhood through the theoretical lens of collective identity and the African humanist concept of ubuntu. I begin by individually examining the major concepts relating to queer theory, ubuntu, collective identity and autobiography, and then charting the manner in which they intersect in the primary texts. I illustrate the relational nature of autobiographical self-construction by examining how it is constructed in various social locations and the interactions in these locations, including: community spaces, family spaces and spiritual/religious spaces. I foreground how the community is represented as shaping the family structure, and how each of these two institutions contributes to the manner in which the autobiographical subject views and presents the self textually. In terms of ubuntu and spirituality/religion I explore the Ubuntu Theology of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. I consider how it offers new modes and progressive ways of positioning the queer autobiographical self in terms of spirituality/religion, especially when one considers the often discriminatory manner in which monotheistic religion views the position of queer-identifying individuals. I conduct my analysis in this dissertation in a manner that not only seeks to engage with the literariness of each of the primary texts, but also highlights the socio-political value inherent in the texts, as well as how they function as vital tools in the struggle for equality that the queer minority is currently engaged in. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This thesis will examine the trope of the outsider figure in Lewis Nkosi's two novels, Mating Birds (1986) and Underground People (2002). Since both novels are set in South Africa and are informed by the political context of this country at particular junctures, the thesis will focus on the. effects of apartheid on the two black protagonists - central characters yet 'outsider figures' - in these novels. This thesis will argue that Lewis Nkosi's own position as an 'outsider figure' in South African letters plays an important function in his writing. In support of this point, I will therefore also refer to his non fictional books, Home and Exile and Other Selections (1965) and Tasks and Masks: themes and styles of African Literature (1981). These books are particularly important because they document Nkosi's comments on South African literature and his position as the 'outsider' acerbic critic. Nkosi can be seen as an outsider figure being a young, black South African living in an apartheid South Africa, and also, later, as a writer in exile. I have chosen Mating Birds and Underground People to illustrate my argument because they are not simply 'protest' novels, (in the sense Nkosi argued in Home and Exile and Tasks and Masks that so much black South African literature of a certain era was), but rather they examine the complex effects of exclusion, with regard to race and politics, on the individual. As the 'outsider' figure found full expression in French existentialist writing, I will also look at constructions of the outsider figure from an existentialist perspective. In his preface to the 2002 edition of Mating Birds, Nkosi reveals that the novel was to a large extent influenced by Albert Camus' The Outsider (1942). In writing The Outsider, Camus explores questions raised by the philosophy of existentialism. Similarly, Nkosi looks at black existence in a hostile apartheid environment, the absurdity of Sibiya's predicament and how he came to be there. He also explores the harshness of the physical environment which is a literal representation of Sibiya's anguish. Postcolonial analysis of 'othering', a logical extension of existentialism's 'outsider' figure will be used to support my argument. Mating Birds (1986), among other accolades, won the prestigious Macmillan International Pen Prize. Set between the 1950's and 1960's, it explores the divisions and prejudices that were experienced between white and black in a country steeped in racism and division. It deals primarily with the obsession an educated, young, black man, Ndi Sibiya, has for a white woman, Veronica Slater. Their illicit sexual relationship results in Sibiya being tried and convicted, by a white court, for rape. Underground People (2002), Nkosi's second novel, set in the late 1980's and early 1990's, takes the reader into the world of politics and underground resistance during the apartheid regime in South Africa. It narrates the adventures of Cornelius Molapo, an awkward member of the "National Liberation Movement", the fictional name of the African National Congress. Chapter One of this mini-dissertation will focus on a definition and exploration of the outsider figure in selected literary and theoretical works. Chapter Two will focus on the life and works of Lewis Nkosi in an effort to link the trope of the outsider figure to Nkosi's own life experience. His books, Tasks and Masks and Home and Exile, both collections of essays, help the reader to develop a picture of Nkosi, not only as a writer but also as a literary critic whose writing developed while in exile. Chapter Three and Four will provide a literary analysis of Mating Birds and Underground People, respectively. The analysis will deal with the outsider figure as a prominent feature of both these novels. Post-colonial analyses such as forwarded by Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha will be used to advance the thesis. The conclusion (Chapter Five) will refer briefly to Nkosi's current writing projects and situate them in the post-apartheid South African context. An assessment of the on-going potential for the 'outsider' figure in Nkosi's contemporary work will be made. / Thesis (M.A)-University of Durban Westville, 2005.

This mini-dissertation aims to examine the way in which Breyten Breytenbach explores the concepts of home and exile in his novel Memory of Snow and of Dust. The author captures and conveys the experience of exile, and envisages through the exile’s double vision a more complicated conception of home. Through the novel one is able to observe the exilic condition and gain access to new insights. The narrative structure comprises of various discourses and illustrates the restless nature of an unsettling and unstable existence. In the Introduction the theoretical framework for this study is outlined: recent developments in postcolonial and postmodern theories, Breytenbach’s oeuvre and literary criticism devoted to his work are discussed. Chapter One examines the distressing journey into a new awareness of what constitutes home. Chapter Two inspects the restless, yet regenerative condition of exile. Chapter Three considers a more fluid response to spatiality and the concept of home through an exploration of fresh perspectives that may emerge from extreme mental suffering. This study concludes with an affirmation of the relevance of Memory of Snow and of Dust, in times in which the overlapping boundaries of home and exile are becoming a global condition. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.