Please read the abstract in the thesis. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

In this dissertation the boundaries between normality and disability are investigated, as well as how these boundaries can be represented and changed through literary works. The purpose of this study is to examine the representation of disabled characters according to the theoretical insights of cognitive narratology. In order to analyse the boundary between normality and disability, this study focuses on focalisation and the narration as narrative techniques. The representation of disabled characters is a well-known phenomenon in literature in general but this dissertation analyses and discusses four novels which have been identified as texts in which the representation of disabled characters plays a significant role. These novels are: Is Sagie (1987) by Jan van Tonder, Raaiselkind (2001) by Annelie Botes, Siegfried (2007) by Willem Anker en Een vir Azazel (1964) by Etienne Leroux. Disablility, as a deviation from normality, is represented in different ways in literature, and has different functions. The theoretical argument is that the investigation and interpretation of the representation of disablilty in literature will provide insight in disability as a social phenomenon, as a literary act and as an act of understanding. Cognitive narratology uses the theoretical concepts of frames and scripts to describe the way in which human perceptions are structured and may even become fossilised in the human mind. Subsequent expreriences and information are therefore determined by existing codes and rules. The understanding or negotiation of new information is based on preferences that evolve from prior knowledge and programming. Cognitive choices are made on the basis of existing frames and scripts and determine whether a concept is new, standard, stereotypical, unusual, indefinite or ambiguous. This study shows how frames and scripts on disability are undermined within the novels and how disability is used as a functional novel element. / Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

In this dissertation the boundaries between normality and disability are investigated, as well as how these boundaries can be represented and changed through literary works. The purpose of this study is to examine the representation of disabled characters according to the theoretical insights of cognitive narratology. In order to analyse the boundary between normality and disability, this study focuses on focalisation and the narration as narrative techniques. The representation of disabled characters is a well-known phenomenon in literature in general but this dissertation analyses and discusses four novels which have been identified as texts in which the representation of disabled characters plays a significant role. These novels are: Is Sagie (1987) by Jan van Tonder, Raaiselkind (2001) by Annelie Botes, Siegfried (2007) by Willem Anker en Een vir Azazel (1964) by Etienne Leroux. Disablility, as a deviation from normality, is represented in different ways in literature, and has different functions. The theoretical argument is that the investigation and interpretation of the representation of disablilty in literature will provide insight in disability as a social phenomenon, as a literary act and as an act of understanding. Cognitive narratology uses the theoretical concepts of frames and scripts to describe the way in which human perceptions are structured and may even become fossilised in the human mind. Subsequent expreriences and information are therefore determined by existing codes and rules. The understanding or negotiation of new information is based on preferences that evolve from prior knowledge and programming. Cognitive choices are made on the basis of existing frames and scripts and determine whether a concept is new, standard, stereotypical, unusual, indefinite or ambiguous. This study shows how frames and scripts on disability are undermined within the novels and how disability is used as a functional novel element. / Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Boris Akunin’s historical detective novels have sold more than eight million copies in Russia, and have been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Boris Akunin is the pen name of literary critic and translator Grigory Chkhartishvili. Born in 1956 in the republic of Georgia, he published his first detective stories in 1998. His first series of novels, beginning with Azazel’ and followed by Turetskii gambit, feature a dashing young police inspector, Erast Fandorin. Fandorin’s adventures take place in the Russian Empire of the late nineteenth century, and he regularly finds himself at the center of key historic events. The first book takes place over one summer, May to September 1876, as the intrepid Fandorin, on his first case, unveils an international organization of conspirators—Azazel’—bent on changing the course of world events. The second takes place two years later from July 1877 to March 1878 during Russia’s war with the Ottoman Empire. The young detective again clashes with Azazel’, as he unravels a Turkish agent’s intricate plan to weaken and destroy the Russian state. Both adventures have proven wildly popular and entertaining, while maintaining a certain literary value. The exploration of time and space in Russian literature was once a popular subject of discourse, but since the 1970s it has been somewhat ignored, rarely applied to contemporary works, and even less to works of popular culture. Akunin’s treatment of time and space, however, especially given the historical setting of his works, is unique. Azazel’, for example, maintains a lightning pace with a tight chronology and a rapidly changing series of locales. Turetskii gambit presents a more laconic pace, and, though set in the vast Caucasus region, seems more claustrophobic as it methodically works towards its conclusion. Both works employ a seemingly impersonal narrator, who, nonetheless, speaks in a distinctly 19th century tone, and both works cast their adventures within the framework of actual historical events and locations. This thesis analyzes core theories in literary time and space, applying them then to Akunin’s historical detective literature.

Boris Akunin’s historical detective novels have sold more than eight million copies in Russia, and have been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Boris Akunin is the pen name of literary critic and translator Grigory Chkhartishvili. Born in 1956 in the republic of Georgia, he published his first detective stories in 1998. His first series of novels, beginning with Azazel’ and followed by Turetskii gambit, feature a dashing young police inspector, Erast Fandorin. Fandorin’s adventures take place in the Russian Empire of the late nineteenth century, and he regularly finds himself at the center of key historic events. The first book takes place over one summer, May to September 1876, as the intrepid Fandorin, on his first case, unveils an international organization of conspirators—Azazel’—bent on changing the course of world events. The second takes place two years later from July 1877 to March 1878 during Russia’s war with the Ottoman Empire. The young detective again clashes with Azazel’, as he unravels a Turkish agent’s intricate plan to weaken and destroy the Russian state. Both adventures have proven wildly popular and entertaining, while maintaining a certain literary value. The exploration of time and space in Russian literature was once a popular subject of discourse, but since the 1970s it has been somewhat ignored, rarely applied to contemporary works, and even less to works of popular culture. Akunin’s treatment of time and space, however, especially given the historical setting of his works, is unique. Azazel’, for example, maintains a lightning pace with a tight chronology and a rapidly changing series of locales. Turetskii gambit presents a more laconic pace, and, though set in the vast Caucasus region, seems more claustrophobic as it methodically works towards its conclusion. Both works employ a seemingly impersonal narrator, who, nonetheless, speaks in a distinctly 19th century tone, and both works cast their adventures within the framework of actual historical events and locations. This thesis analyzes core theories in literary time and space, applying them then to Akunin’s historical detective literature.