Triomf explores the distortion of the national Afrikaner identity as a result of apartheid. This dissertation aims to demonstrate how van Niekerk deconstructs the Afrikaner through myths, stories, symbols, intertextuality and Derridean deconstruction. The Benades represent the Afrikaner on three levels: the personal, the national and the primordial. Since the Benades are primordial, Van Niekerk is able to use the archetypes of Jung’s collective unconscious to deconstruct the archetypal mythological structures Afrikaner nationalists used to develop identity and unity. The archetypes deconstructed are Spirit, the Great Mother, Re-birth, the Trickster, the Physical Hearth and the Sacred Fire. Afrikaner myths deconstructed include the Great Trek, the family, the patriarch, the matriarch, the future of a white Afrikaner nation and the binding character of Afrikaans as white national language. Van Niekerk undermines the plaasroman of the 1920s and 1930s, as the Afrikaner’s national identity was constituted and deconstructed in literature. / English / M.A. (English)

Triomf explores the distortion of the national Afrikaner identity as a result of apartheid. This dissertation aims to demonstrate how van Niekerk deconstructs the Afrikaner through myths, stories, symbols, intertextuality and Derridean deconstruction. The Benades represent the Afrikaner on three levels: the personal, the national and the primordial. Since the Benades are primordial, Van Niekerk is able to use the archetypes of Jung’s collective unconscious to deconstruct the archetypal mythological structures Afrikaner nationalists used to develop identity and unity. The archetypes deconstructed are Spirit, the Great Mother, Re-birth, the Trickster, the Physical Hearth and the Sacred Fire. Afrikaner myths deconstructed include the Great Trek, the family, the patriarch, the matriarch, the future of a white Afrikaner nation and the binding character of Afrikaans as white national language. Van Niekerk undermines the plaasroman of the 1920s and 1930s, as the Afrikaner’s national identity was constituted and deconstructed in literature. / English / M.A. (English)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of this study will be on the unique way in which language is used in Marlene van Niekerk‟s collection of short stories, Die sneeuslaper (2010). When reading Die sneeuslaper it is impossible not noticing the number of Dutch words, as well as words and phrases from other foreign languages, as Bargoens, Rotwelsch, German, French, Italian, Hebrew, Greek and Maltese. Some of the characters‟ speech, as well as so called sound poems (or nonsense verses) are characterised by a number of newly invented words. However, the meaning of some of these words or phrases remains unclear. Other themes in the four short stories which will be analysed are the so called political responsibility of the artist, as well as music, rhythm and bird-noises. As a theoretical basis of this study, Deleuze and Guattari‟s Kafka Toward a Minor Literature will be used. In Kafka Toward a Minor Literature Deleuze en Guattari formulate their ideas regarding minor literature. They describe a major language as a language of dominance and power, while a minor language is a language without any power. According to them the three characteristics of minor literature are: the minor deterritorializes the major, minor literature is always political, and minor literature always has a collective function. Deleuze and Guattari‟s, as well as Bogue‟s writing regarding the territorialization and deterritorialization of the refrain, is also explored briefly. Deleuze en Guattari‟s theories regarding minor literature is used in this study to read Die sneeuslaper. In the end it is concluded that the unconventional use of language in this short story collection can be associated with the political nature of some of the stories. The unique usage of language in Die sneeuslaper, the way in which Afrikaans is transformed into a language that stammers, stutters and mumbles, can be seen as a subtle form of political protest. Therefore this collection of short stories can be seen as a form of minor literature. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die vreemde wyse waarop taal in Marlene van Niekerk se kortverhaalbundel, Die sneeuslaper (2010), aangewend word. Met die lees van Die sneeuslaper is die hoeveelheid Nederlandse woorde, asook enkele woorde en frases uit ander vreemde tale, soos Bargoens, Rotwelsch, Duits, Frans, Italiaans, Hebreeus, Grieks en Maltees, opvallend. Verder is daar in die karakters se spraak, sowel as in klankgedigte (of onsinverse), vele nuutskeppings waarvan die betekenis nie altyd so duidelik blyk nie, teenwoordig. Ander temas wat in die vier verhale figureer en ondersoek sal word is kunstenaarskap, die sogenaamde politieke verantwoordelikheid van die kunstenaar, asook musiek, ritme en voëlgeluide. As teoretiese vertrekpunt vir die studie word Deleuze en Guattari se Kafka Toward a Minor Literature, waarin hul idees oor mineurlettekunde geformuleer word, gebruik. Deleuze en Guattari onderskei tussen ‟n dominante majeurtaal en ‟n mineurtaal wat sonder mag is. Volgens Deleuze en Guattari is daar drie kenmerke van mineurletterkunde, naamlik dat die mineur die majeur deterritorialiseer, dat mineurletterkunde altyd polities is, en laastens dat mineurletterkunde altyd kollektief van aard is. Bykomend word daar ook kortliks gekyk na Deleuze en Guattari, sowel as Bogue, se skrywe oor territorialisering en deterritorialisering in die refrein. Deleuze en Guattari se teorie oor mineurletterkunde word in hierdie studie as ‟n agtergrond gebruik om Die sneeuslaper te lees. Daar word uiteindelik tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die onkonvensionele taalgebruik in die kortverhaalbundel wel geassosieer kan word met deterritorialisering en dat dit aansluit by die politieke aard van sommige van die verhale. Die wyse waarop Afrikaans in Die sneeuslaper getransformeer word na ‟n taal wat stamel, stotter en struikel, kan dus as subtiele, politieke protes gesien word en daarom kan dié kortverhaalbundel inderdaad as ‟n vorm van mineurletterkunde beskou word.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the ways in which white subjectivity is shaped by colonial and imperial spaces. Jean Rhys’s Voyage in the Dark (1934), Marguerite Duras’s The Sea Wall (1952/1967) and Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat (2004/2006) are vastly different novels from multifarious literary traditions, yet they join each other through their protagonists: white creole women. In this study, I engage most prominently with white creole female subjectivity, framing my study with theories of the subject proposed by Homi Bhabha and Judith Butler. In order to interrogate creolité, I draw on Bhabha’s concept of “thirdness” – a category signifying a position in-between binary categories of representation – and Butler’s conceptualisation of subjectivity/subjection, through which she highlights the ambivalences of the process of interpellation. I also read through lenses proposed by whiteness studies in the United States and South Africa, approaching creolité not as an indication of racial hybridity, but rather a term connoting cultural and political in-betweenness. As my discussions of the novels illustrate, white creole femininity in the (post)colony is a subject position through which intricate webs of “complicity and resistance” (Whitlock 349) have to be negotiated. Looking at the white creole women as textual constructs embedded in genres which advance a particular set of politics, I explore the ways in which the authors, through their novels and protagonists, navigate various political and cultural ambiguities and inconsistencies. Establishing the theoretical framework in the introductory first chapter, in Chapter 2 I read Rhys’s novel as a modernist text that elicits a particular postcolonial politics. I link the protagonist’s social alienation in London and the Caribbean to the experience of the middle passage; this is followed by an exploration of her sexuality with reference to the figures of the European prostitute and the ‘Hottentot’ Venus. In Chapter 3 I investigate Duras’s novel and trace the ways in which a family of impoverished “Colonial natives” (Duras 138) continually fail to establish themselves as ‘legitimate’ white colonials in (French colonial) Southeast Asia. Lastly, in Chapter 4, I approach Van Niekerk’s novel not only as a feminist re-writing of the plaasroman, but also as a “complicitous critique” (Warnes 121) that reflects nostalgically – yet critically – on Afrikaner nationalism. I show how the novel registers a vision of the quotidian that is uncomfortable and unhomely. Together, the three novels speak in highly comparable and complex ways about how white creole women experience (un)homeliness in the (post)colony. This thesis probes the extent to which the novels negotiate ‘home’ (or the lack thereof): displaced, alienated and often expressing forms of nostalgia, the protagonists struggle to establish forms of belonging in spaces within which they oscillate between opposed cultures, ideologies and politics. Ultimately, my study is crucially underscored by the question of displacement and estrangement (in various guises), and the way in which they inflect the establishment and performance of femininity. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die wyses waarop koloniale en imperiale ruimtes wit subjektiwiteit beïnvloed. Jean Rhys se Voyage in the Dark (1934), Marguerite Duras se The Sea Wall (1952/1967) en Marlene van Niekerk se Agaat (2004/2006) is uiteenlopende romans uit verskeie literêre tradisies: nietemin sluit hulle by mekaar aan deur hul hoofkarakters – wit kreoolse vroue. ‘n Bespreking van wit kreoolse vroulike subjektiwiteit vorm die grondslag van my studie, en ek struktureer dit rondom Homi Bhabha en Judith Butler se teorieë van subjektiwiteit. Ek benader kreoolsheid deur middel van Bhabha se konsep van “thirdness” – a kategorie wat ‘n plek tussen binêre opposisies aandui – asook Butler se teorie van “subjectivity/subjection” waarin sy the ambivalente proses van interpellasie belig. Verder lees ek die tekste met behulp van benaderings soos uiteengelê deur blankheid studies in die Verenigde State en Suid-Afrika. Ek beskou (wit) kreoolsheid dus nie as ‘n aanduiding van ras-hibrideit nie, maar eerder kulturele en politieke ambivalensie. My bespreking van die drie romans illustreer postkoloniale wit kreoolse vroulikheid as ‘n subjek-kategorie wat verwikkeld is in vorms van medepligtigheid én opstandigheid (Whitlock 349). Ek beskou die karakters as literêre konstrukte wat ingebed is in genres met spesifieke politieke standpunte. As sodanig, dink ek ook na oor die wyses waarop the outeurs, deur middel van hul romans en hoofkarakters, uiteenlopende politieke en kulturele teenstrydighede uitbeeld. In Hoofstuk 1 lê ek ‘n teoretiese raamwerk uiteen, en in Hoofstuk 2 beskou ek Rhys se roman as ‘n modernistiese teks wat terselfdertyd opvallende postkoloniale politieke temas bevat. Ek vergelyk die hoofkarakter se posisie as sosiale verstoteling in Londen en die Karibiese Eilande met die ervaring van die “middle passage”; daarna vergelyk ek haar seksualiteit met dié van die wit Europese prostituut en die ‘Hottentot’ Venus. In Hoofstuk 3 bespreek ek Duras se roman, en verken die wyses waarop ‘n gesin van “Koloniale inboorlinge” (Duras 138) in Suidoos Asië deurentyd misluk om rykdom en sosiale aansien te bekom. Laastens, in Hoofstuk 4, interpreteer ek Van Niekerk se roman nie net as ‘n feministiese herskrywing van die plaasroman nie, maar ook as ‘n “complicitous critique” (Warnes 121) wat nostalgies, maar ook op ‘n kritiese wyse, oor Afrikaner-nasionalisme nadink. Ek argumenteer verder dat die teks ‘n ongemaklike beeld van die alledaagse, asook die identifisering met die eie, skets. Wanneer die drie romans tesame beskou word, is dit duidelik dat hulle op hoogs vergelykbare en komplekse maniere nadink oor hoe wit kreoolse vroue hul sosiale en politieke posisies in (post)koloniale ruimtes ervaar. Hierdie tesis ondersoek die wyses waarop die romans tuisheid (of die gebrek daaraan) te bowe kom: die hoofkarakters is dikwels misplaas, vervreem en nostalgies, en is dikwels verwikkeld in ‘n stryd om te behoort, midde-in teenoorgestelde kulture, ideologieë en politieke standpunte. Ek baseer my tesis op die groter oorkoepelende problematiek van ontheemdheid en verveemding (in verskeie gedaantes), en hoe dit vorm gee aan die vestiging en beoefening van vroulike subjektiwiteit.