Résumé Cette étude élargit le champ de la recherche sur l'écriture féminine algérienne contemporaine au moyen de la théorie de l'agentivité révisée au contact d'un corpus polymorphologique composé d'essais, de recueils de nouvelles et de romans. Si les études sur la francophonie et les littératures francophones ont suscité récemment un intérêt croissant, il n'existait guère jusqu'à aujourd'hui d'étude d'une ampleur significative sur les stratégies employées par les écrivaines algériennes depuis les premiers écrits d'Assia Djebar jusqu'aux récits récents de Nina Bouraoui. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de mettre au grand jour les stratégies que Djebar, Sebbar, Bey et Bouraoui déploient pour positionner la femme comme agent et sujet de son discours. En outre, l'étude cherche à cerner la manière dont elles se démarquent à l'intérieur du champ littéraire algérien. Pour ce faire, l'approche agentiviste proposée par Havercroft a été revisitée. Alors que Havercroft propose une analyse à deux volets (l'agentivité extratextuelle et intratextuelle), cette étude s'appuie sur une approche quadryptique permettant de mieux examiner la relation étroite entre les écrivaines, le milieu socioculturel et le champ littéraire. Les quatre volets consistent en une étude de l'agentivité extratextuelle, transtextuelle, interdiscursive et intratextuelle . Le premier volet traite des conditions de publication, des effets de la publication, et du lien entre le vécu, l'autobiographie et le texte. Le deuxième volet, dans une optique genettienne, examine les occurrences textuelles telles que le paratexte, l'architexte et l'intertexte. Le role de l'Histoire/histoire et le reversement des discours dominants, notamment la subversion du discours colonial contemporain et la remise en question du discours patriarcal, font l'objet d'un troisième volet. Enfin, le dernier volet met en relief des choix thématiques, l'onomastique des personnages féminins, le choix de vocabulaire et la voix narrative. L'analyse textuelle renforce l'aspect théorique de la thèse en ce qui concerne la constitution d'un sous-champ littéraire algérien au féminin. En tenant compte des théories de Bourdieu quant à la capacité des agents sociaux à avoir un impact sur la production culturelle ainsi qu'à sa définition du concept de l'habitus, et de celles d'Isabelle Boisclair (2004) sur le processus constitutif d'un sous-champ au féminin, il est possible de proposer l'existence d'un sous-champ algérien au féminin. Cette thèse ouvre ainsi une nouvelle perspective sur l'histoire litteraire algérienne contemporaine. D'une part, elle montre que la naissance de la femme-sujet a eu lieu bien avant l'Indépendance algérienne et, d'autre part, elle définit les paramètres perméables et changeants dans lesquels s'épanouit la femme algérienne agente.

Longtemps considerees comme les grandes absentes de la scene litteraire africaine, les ecrivaines africaines s'imposent de plus en plus et veulent faire entendre leurs voix. Apres une presence-absence de trois decennies, elles revendiquent la place qui leur revient et s'insurgent contre le silence qui regne autour de leur travail de creation dans un contexte socio-culturel fait de tabous, de traditions et de pratiques hostiles. Nous nous proposons dans cette these d'examiner les voies qu'empruntent des poetesses de trois pays africains francophones au sud du Sahara et de faire ressortir les grandes tendances de leurs ecritures rebelles. La sociocritique, au moyen de la notion du discours social, est une methode tout indiquee pour apprehender une telle ecriture dont le fondement principal est une lutte permanente: lutte identitaire, lutte de reconnaissance de leur creation, lutte de survie dans un monde d'hommes. Comment le social s'articule-t-il dans !es textes de ces poetesses? Quelle est la portee sociale de ces textes? Telle est la double question a laquelle nous essaierons de repondre a travers l'etude de quelques uns de leurs recueils. Nous degagerons les caracteristiques essentielles de I'ecriture poetique de ces femmes africaines qui ont du briser des tabous considerables pour acceder a l'ecriture. L'ecriture apparai t aux yeux de ces femmes comme une veritable arme de combat. Elle leur permet de reduire un peu plus chaque fois l'espace infernal et sournois du silence. Leur parole se fait demiurgique et l'echo de leurs voix, percutant. C'est a la decouverte de ces Promethees nouvelles venues d'afrique que nous vous convions a travers cette these.

L'oeuvre de Tchicaya U Tam'Si, ecrivain congolais contemporain (1931-1988) et figure marquante de la litterature negro-africaine d'expression francaise, s'illustre par sa richesse, sa diversite et sa longevite. En effet, cette oeuvre, riche de l'experience de l'ecrivain dans la pratique des genres constitutifs de la litterature africaine, la poesie, le theatre, les recits, la nouvelle et le roman, traverse l'histoire coloniale et post-coloniale de l'Afrique en reactualisant les rapports esthetiques et ideologiques de la litterature africaine francophone a ses univers de production. La these, d'inspiration sociocritique, procede a une analyse socio-semiotique et historique des quatre romans de cette oeuvre, romans eux-memes constitues en totalite signifiante par l'ecrivain: Les Cancrelats (1980), Les Medures ou les orties de mer (1982), Les Phalenes (1984) et Ces fruits si doux de l'arbre a pain (1987). Elle identifie ainsi, dans l'organisation narrative et discursive des textes, les modalites de fonctionnement d'un discours progressiste proche de celui de la bourgeoisie nationaliste des independances, et d'un discours neo-intellectualiste identifiable a celui de l'intelligentsia africaine post-coloniale; des discours definis, toutefois, dans les termes de l'histoire personnelle de l'ecrivain. Dans son articulation, l'etude s'organise en trois parties consacrees respectivement a l'univers de signification des textes, a l'organisation des personnages, et a l'organisation des recits. La premiere partie pose les conditions de production et de signification des textes a travers l'histoire de l'ecrivain et des mouvements d'idees qui ont marque son parcours litteraire: la vie socio-politique et culturelle de la France des annees 1940-1950, les "Negritudes", le surrealisme, le marxisme et l'existentialisme. Elle pose egalement les conditions de signification des textes a partir du cadre esthetique et discursif de la litterature negro-africaine d'expression francaise: la naissance de cette derniere et son evolution suivant les mutations de la societe africaine coloniale et post-coloniale. Elle presente, enfin, le fondement semantique des textes. La deuxieme partie analyse le systeme des personnages dans sa representativite socio-historique et politique: la mise en texte conjointe de personnages historiques referentiels et de personnages purement fictifs dont le symbolisme narratif se veut representatif des nouvelles hierarchies de la societe africaine en mutation. La troisieme partie analyse, pour sa part, la portee ideologique des formes prises par le discours romanesque de Tchicaya U Tam'Si. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This study explores the modernist subjectivity in Africa by revisiting two major poets, Christopher Okigbo and Dambudzo Marechera. It argues that the modernist self is created in the form of melancholy and mourning. The main question is to see how the African modernist subjectivity is constructed through poetry. As subjects of colonialism, both Okigbo and Marechera sought to establish new links combining them with the mainstream Euromodernist movement along with their own spiritual roots. In the sense of the construction of a modernist self, the main predicament they have to challenge is the Western knowledge system which infiltrated into mindsets through colonial dominion. Thus, Okigbo and Marechera enact a certain type of positionality strategy to claim their own poetic utterance. By invoking natural and spiritual images the poets demonstrate their affiliation to their roots. The process of mourning, here, becomes a passage through which the poets claim their strong allegiances to their roots. The sense of absence leads the poets to mourn their remote past or culture. The poets' relation with the past determines the dynamics of subjectivity. The idea of the past is so tempting and tantalising in many ways.

From the early years of the Nineteenth Century, language investigation had been undertaken to show what the relationship was between the languages of Africa, and in particular, Southern Africa. Perhaps one of the earliest informed investigators who postulated the concept of distinctive language "types" among the languages of Southern Africa and particularly with the Southern Bantu languages, was Heinrich » Lichtenstein. Writing in 1 808, he divided the peoples and languages of Southern Africa into two distinctive groups: the "Hottentots" and the Hottentot class, of languages, and the "Kaffirs", and the "Kaffir" class of languages. He clarified this relationship by stating, "All linguistic types of the South African aborigines must be classified as dialects of 2 either one or the other of these two principal classes." Implied in this statement is the concept that within the group composed of all the languages of his "Kaffir" class, as indeed of his "Hottentot" class, distinctive dialectical qualities came about through dialectical divergence. Despite this implication he did not attempt to analyse the relational aspects of each of the dialects composing his "principal ("Kaffir") class". 1 .0.01 It was not until twenty-seven years later, in 1837» that William Boyce, in his introduction to Archbell’s "Grammar of the Bechuana Language", enlarged upon Lichtenstein's division by stating, "....(that) the second division or family, of his South African languages....(is composed of) the sister dialects spoken by the Kafir and Bechuana tribes." The linguistic boundaries were now enlarged to include two distinctive linguistic families, rather than "types", viz. the Hottentot family and the Nguni ("Kafir") and Sotho (Bechuana) families. In 18 5O, J. W.Appleyard, produced his "The Kafir Language; comprising a sketch of its History; remarks upon its Nature and a Grammar". In this work he postulates four groups within our future Bantu family, those of Congo, Damara (i.e. Herero), Sechuana and "Kafir" It is noteworthy that in this work he classified Sotho under the "Sechuana"^ group, from which it could be implied that Sotho was either a dialect or a separate Cluster of the Tswana group. This is the first discernible effort to note that under the main families of the Southern Africa geographical areas there could be dialects that were affiliated to larger groups.

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-69).

Includes bibliographical references. / The history of educational archaeology in South Africa and the intersection of the discipline and the South African school curriculum informed the choice of the research question for this project. This question is "What happens when an archaeologist develops educational programmes and curriculum materials for schools in order that the teachers' and learners have access to the archaeological knowledge and archaeological research skills?" The following assumptions were made at the beginning of the project and it was investigated whether they were valid or not, during the research process: 1. That the curriculum materials produced for an archaeological education programme should be able to be used by teachers without the intervention of an archaeologist. 2. That the teachers could be relied on to develop assessment exercises, which would satisfactorily test whether the learners had achieved the outcomes of the particular programme. 3. That the teachers would be willing to participate as critical partners throughout the research process by providing evaluations of the educational material and the particular programme in general. Three Cape Town schools were selected to participate in the project, which follows an action research paradigm, with each programme at each school being one action research cycle. Reflections on each programme informed the decisions made in the following one. Educational materials were developed for each school, with the assistance of educational editors and trialled in schools with assistance of teachers. Attention was paid to lesson structure, the pitching of questions and the sources of information used. The materials and the three programmes in general were evaluated with the use of questionnaires, which comprised open-ended and direct questions, formal interviews with teachers, which were recorded and transcribed, observation of classes and detailed note taking. The knowledge and skills learners developed as a result of their participation in the programmes was assessed in a variety of ways. Personal Meaning Maps (PMMs) were used by the researcher at Schools B and C in order to develop an understanding of the breadth of the learners' knowledge and opinion on the subjects of slavery and history. The teachers designed assessment exercises in the form of creative writing essays, a comprehension test and an assessment essay. It was found that the teachers at the three schools needed guidance in order to use the curriculum materials in their classrooms for the main aim of this research project to be achieved. The teachers understood the archaeological knowledge but not the archaeological research methods that were used to produce it, because of this it was also found that the teachers could not be relied on to produce satisfactory methods of assessment. In the process of undertaking research in the three schools in question, the teachers were willing to participate as critical partners if they felt that they were well informed enough about the discipline of archaeology.

This dissertation examines representations of women and children in South African films about HIV and AIDS, paying particular attention to issues relating to the advancement and empowerment of the two groups. The dissertation focuses on two films: Yesterday (Darrell Roodt, 2004) and Life Above All (Oliver Schmitz, 2010). These two films represent marginalised communities and identities. Yesterday focuses on the experiences of rural women, while Life Above All focuses on women and children living in a small town on the urban periphery. In order to contextualise the two films as well as the textual and theoretical analysis found in the body of the dissertation, the first chapter provides a brief outline of some of the concerns regarding the representations of women and children in South African films about HIV and AIDS. These concerns include the debate surrounding the authenticity of the representations of poor, black women by male, middle-class, white filmmakers, as well as the authenticity of the representations of children by adult filmmakers. Chapter 2 provides additional contextual information by defining and considering the various concepts and theories on which the study is built. These include the naturalist, humanist and pluralist methods of representing HIV/AIDS, as well as the semiotic and discursive approaches to analysing audio-visual texts. Chapter 3 consists of a close textual analysis of Yesterday. The chapter problematises representations that place too much emphasis on marginal communities‘ need for external help. It argues that the film‘s focus on generating sympathy from external viewers with the 2 hope that they might be persuaded to help women like the film‘s main character, Yesterday, hinders the promotion of empowerment. Chapter 4 critically analyses the representation of children in Life Above All, with special attention paid to self-development and agency. This chapter argues that the film neglects children‘s self-development and long-term empowerment by placing too much value on the virtues of selfless sacrifice. Chapter 5 concludes that the use of stereotypes and the prioritisation of easy to understand educational information and narratives in South African films about HIV/AIDS hinder a deeper understanding of identities as well as the promotion of women‘s and children‘s empowerment. Effective collaboration between filmmakers and the represented groups would lead to representations of identities that are more truthful to the complexities of the experiences of those infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS. In addition, I argue that increased participation of female filmmakers would lead to more diversified representations of women‘s and children‘s identities and experiences.

This thesis offers an exploration of the construction of female power amongst the Lozi people of the western province of Zambia, also known as Barotseland. Colonial empirical texts, contemporary literature on Lozi social history, heritage and public culture gloss over the matriarchal roots of Lozi society, leading to the collective, individual and intellectual imperative of this study. Insights necessary for engagement point to the dynamic role of gender in the origin, enactment and preservation of the Lozi royal kinship structure. Building on existing work on the origins of the Lozi royal kinship and the shifts of power through the (post)colonial political periods, the main objective of this research project is to conduct qualitative research into the dynamic role of gender in Lozi society. Data was based on a review of literature on the Lozi people and semi-structured interviews with nine Key Informants in Barotseland who bear embodied knowledge on the ideology of the Lozi royal kinship structure and the sociocultural systems apparent in Lozi society. A qualitative thematic network data analysis demonstrated political motherhood as a mechanism to act as a balancing check on the patrilineal system. The cross-cutting theme of political motherhood across generations and gender is manifested in the roles of Natamoyo and Mukwae Ngula, who are the respective male and female Ministers of Justice. In addition to these roles which emerge from an operative ethic of communalism are the council of women known as Anatambumu. The findings of this research indicate that there are cohesive interacting sociocultural systems that are focused on the mother figure (matrifocal) and also endorsing descent through the male line (patrilineal). Moreover, analysis of the responses shows that there is a strong correlation between the physical geography of Barotseland and the divine ancestresses, Mbuyu and her mother Mwambwa. On this basis it is recommend that the effects of the integration of Barotseland into the postcolonial state of Zambia be studied further, especially as it pertains to political motherhood, marriage and systems of descent amongst the Lozi.

Bibliography: leaves 75-78. / Language is a primary medium through which members of society construct a social reality in which they may meaningfully conduct day-to-day lives. The choices speakers make in language encode experiences and notions of the world in particular ways but may be constrained by context. In this study, I analyze the life history interviews of two gay black HIV-positive South African men to explore how speakers use contextually-available linguistic resources to negotiate meaning. Linguistic resources of speech genre, story type, and transitivity offer structural options to speakers but also introduce constraints. Using Fairclough's Foucauldian conception of 'orders of discourse', I establish that life history interviews are a unique hybrid of genre types that draw on conventions of casual conversation and interview genres, providing speakers with new resources for articulating their social world. Generic analysis, incorporating insights from Fairclough (1995), Eggins and Slade (1997), and systemic functionalism, is used to examine the story types that speakers may draw upon to structure their experiences. Given structural and functional constraints within story types, I look at the transitivity choices that speakers make to represent their social realities. Transitivity analysis, also based on systemic functionalism, is used to investigate choices of process (verbs) and their associated participants (nouns) that encode speakers' experiential meanings. The purpose of this study is threefold: to establish that the genre of life history interviews offers speakers opportunities to negotiate power relations and influence genre conventions; to demonstrate that generic analysis may be usefully applied to oral texts to understand speakers' deeper systems of life order; and to describe through generic and transitivity analysis the individual social realities of two gay HIV -positive men. Results include a structural analysis of life history interviews, a structural argument for including Observation and Reminiscence texts within the 'story' typology, and an in-depth analysis of two unrepresented voices of South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic.