Thesis (MPhil (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis represents an attempt to explore the use of metadiegetic film sound and its connection with qualities displayed by human physiology. Metadiegesis is chosen as the focus of this study, in order to point out the potential of film sound to be representative and not to slavishly imitate its visual counterpart. Therefore, because metadiegetic sound is deictic in nature, the first hurdle to clear was to navigate through a terminological minefield, allowing a clear glimpse of its true meaning and its connection with the filmic image. The researcher attempts to create hypothetical scenarios in order to analyse and discuss metadiegetic examples from films, convincingly utilised and less-convincingly so. The intention was to understand, clarify and disambiguate terminological uncertainties and inaccuracies. An exploration of asynchronous metadiegetic sound follows as refinement of the first step. This is done by resorting to existing examples in the form of extracts from films for demonstration purposes. As a result, the use of metadiegetic film sound is clearly defined and its use explained by attaching it to three concepts: a ‘story within a story’, external story space, and internal representation. It is argued that through these concepts, sound can be amalgamated with image to create a different realm, where sound and image tell more than an audio-visual story. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis poog die navorser om die gebruik van “metadiegetic” film-klank, en die verband wat dit met die menslike fisiologie hou, te verken. “Metadiegesis” vorm dus die fokuspunt van die navorsingstuk. Hierdie fokus beklemtoon film-klank se verteenwoordigende potensiaal, en die feit dat dit nie net ʼn slaafse nabootsing van die visuele aspek van film is nie. Aangesien “metadiegetic” klank dus deikties van aard is, is die eerste uitdaging om ʼn weg te vind deur ʼn terminologiese mynveld. Dit word gedoen in ʼn poging op ʼn duidelike begrip van die ware betekenis van “metadiegesis” te ontwikkel, en om die verband wat film-klank met die visuele aspek van film het, duidelik te maak. Die navorser poog in die eerste plek om hipotetiese scenario’s te skep om sodoende “metadiegetic” voorbeelde in films te analiseer en te bespreek. Die doel is om terminologiese onsekerhede en dubbelsinnighede te verstaan en te verklaar. Dan volg die verkenning van asinchroniese “metadiegetic” klank as verfyning van die eerste stap. Dit word gedoen deur gebruik te maak van film-uittreksels ter verduideliking van die bogenoemde stappe. Na aanleiding hiervan, is die gebruik van metadiegetiese film-klank duidelik gedefinieer, en die toepassing daarvan gekoppel aan drie konsepte: ʼn “storie binne-in ʼn storie”, “eksterne storie ruimte” en “interne verteenwoordiging”. Deur middel van hierdie konsepte kan klank saamsmelt met beeld om ʼn ander dimensie te betree, waar klank en beeld meer vertel as ʼn oudiovisuele storie.

Novel communication barriers, innovative obstacles to mutual understanding that deviate from the norms of the actual world, are a recurring yet understudied presence in aesthetic worlds of all kinds. Some examples of this are Dana’s twentieth-century way of speaking that travels back in time with her in Kindred, or Americans under Japanese occupation struggling to speak through cultural and linguistic barriers in an alternate historical timeline in The Man in the High Castle, or the unique obstructions to communication in the alien encounters of Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness or Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life.” In certain works, communication barriers carry such a novel character and occupy such a prominent place in the narrative that they call out for interpretation at a metadiegetic level. In previous scholarship, linguistic inventiveness has been studied primarily for the ways it speaks to science fiction genre distinctions. This essay aims to reveal how the recurrence of this foregrounded literary mechanism points to a transcultural and transhistorical tendency that goes beyond science fiction. With the aim of proving its usefulness in world literature studies, the goal is to analyze the presence of the novel barrier in seven different texts and how it projects a certain theory of the world. Using Darko Suvin’s concept of the novum and Eric Hayot’s metadiegetic structures I argue that novel communication barriers have in their nature a foregrounding effect that projects a kind of worldedness that accounts for the way communication is conceptualized and experienced. Using Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communication to substantiate this worldedness, I demonstrate how the motivation toward rational consensus on truth claims behind each act of communication has a world-creating effect which is articulated by the novel communication barrier in these texts.

Summary in English / The purpose of this research is to make a literary appreciation of the detective story in Tshivenda. Chapter 1 is the introductory chapter which discusses the aim of study, the definition of detective story, methodology, detective noels in Tshivenda, background information regarding the authors, summaries regarding selected novels and the scope of research. Chapter 2 is devoted to the plot structure of the two detective novels, and outlines the diegetic and meta-diegetic stories. The elements of mystery and dramatic irony are also discussed. Chapter 3 concentrates mainly on the setting of the two selected detective novels and its influence on the crimes committed, the lives of the characters and the tools that are used. Chapter 4 deals with the depiction of the victims, suspects and detectives in the selected detective stories. Chapter 5 concludes the study and summarises the main findings of the appraisal. / African Languages / M. A. (African Languages)