This study aims to compare British war poetry of the First World War with Iraqi poetry from the mid-20th century with special reference to Iraqi war poetry of the 1980’s Iraq-Iran War and the period that followed it. It will also investigate the influence of the designated British war poetry on the chosen body of Iraqi poetry. Through the comparison of sample poems the study presents, firstly, the direct influence of the British poetry of the Great War and its translation which formed the seeds of a more radical movement in Iraqi poetry during the 1980’s Iran/Iraq War and the period that followed it. The study also presents a comparison of the works of British and Iraqi civilian poets during and after the war time and their contribution in setting the ground for the younger generation to create more subversive poetic forms with special reference to women as influential characters and inspirations in their works. The moment of the 1980’s war marks the break with the clear direct influence of British war poetry and starts another phase of the comparison of a universal bond of similar reactions, conscious and unconscious expression reflecting the lives of the combatant group of men first and then of poets sharing a devastating war reality. The study reveals a remarkable, more radical change of poetic forms in Iraqi poetry between the time of the first seeds planted by the influence of translations from European poetry until the time of the Iran/Iraq war and the Gulf War in 1991 and the rise of the new nihilistic generation of the 1990s subverting war, politics and cultural life through their innovation in prose poem writing and its significance as an alternative space for their political and social subversion.

In-depth study reveals that the period 1971 to 1991 is a crucially important period is Sepedi poetry, because in these years the greatest proportion of the volumes of poetry currently available was published. This study discusses the characteristics of modern Sepedi poetry, focusing on selected poems by certain Sepedi poets. The poems examined are shown to be well organized in terms of content, structure, stanza form and rhyme. This study uses two research methodologies, namely definition and description of pertinent aspects of the poems related to the topic of study, modern Sepedi poetry. The model used examines the structure of the texts in terms of the three layers, namely content, plot and style, which provides a useful framework for the study of the structure of this modern poetry. Poetry is discussed in general, and defined, and the types and structure of modern poetry in particular are explored. The stanza forms of modern poetry are analyzed, according to Ntuli’s classification of regular, expanding, diminishing and bulging stanzas (1984: 232-245). Rhyme is known to be an important aspect of Sepedi poetry. Rhyme is defined as the repetition of words with the same or similar sound (homophones) and similar length, at the beginning, middle or end of lines, to form beginning, middle and end rhyme respectively. The function of rhyme is to make the reading of the poems more enjoyable, and to bring coherence to the stanzas of the poem. The sonnet is also discussed, and Spanish and English sonnets analyzed and compared with Sepedi sonnets. Sepedi sonnets are shown by this comparison to be governed to a greater extent by grammatical rules than their European counterparts, which affects the Sepedi poems’ rhyme, tone, poetic meter and length of words. Modern Sepedi poems are thus shown to draw on traditional Sepedi poetic techniques, in which the poetic meter is governed not by length of syllable but by two metrical laws, the law of separation and the law of agreement. The role of the caesura is also discussed, as it functions both to separate and join together metrical parts of the poem. Enjambment is described as the extension of a concept in a poem beyond a single line. That extension of poetical line in this fashion emphasizes the concept and also accelerates the tempo of the poem. Also important in tempo is the poetic meter, which can be altered by tone or pronouncement of particular words. The study is concluded by discussing the repetition of sounds, word stems, whole words or phrases. Various types of repetition are discussed, namely repetition of consonants, repetition of vowels, repetition of initial, middle and final sounds, mixed repetition, linking and refrains. / Dissertation (MA (African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / African Languages / unrestricted

This mini-dissertatation is aimed at critically analysing the importance of Setswana culture in relation to problems experienced today due to adaptation to Western culture. The mini-dissertation is discussed within the framework of the formalist approach. The proponents of this theory focus on treating literature as a special use of language that achieves its distinctiveness by deviating from distorting practical language. The concept of western culture and its influences on Setswana culture pertaining to love and marriage is strongly emphasised because it is the crux of this research study. Concepts such as acculturation, culture and influence as well as types of poems, also receive attention. Throughout the centuries, in Setswana poetry, love and marriage have been defined, analysed and portrayed in a positive manner. While in Western literature, the positive and the negative sides of love and marriage have been dealt with interchangeably on an ongoing basis. It is in this context that this research attempts to show how authors like Motlhake broke the cultural taboos, and wrote about the pains, miseries,disappointsments and conflict in love and marriage in particular. The investigation critically analyses the impact Western civilization has on the characters portrayed in motlhake’s poems which dwell much on the sorrows, bitterness and eventually divorce that are caused by marriage as portrayed in four of his poems. The content of these poems are analysed in the following chronological order that shows progression of: <ol> <li> Falling in love as portrayed in the poem : Noka ya lerato <li> Rejection asportrayed in the poem: A o a ntlogela <li> Reasons for celibacy: Goreng ke sanyale <li> Aspects of marriage in the poem:Lenyalo</ol> The discussion of the style of the poems deals with the mood and intention of the poet. In this discussion, diction as style markers and stylistic techniques, are examined. It is clear that the poet Motlhake has used quiet a number of techniques, the most frequently used being repetition, elision, opposition, rhythm, figures of speech and imagery. These techniques have been used to highlight the bitterness, the anger as well as the themes of the poems which are: frustration in love and marriage and to go back to cultural practices in Setswana to avoid divorce. / Dissertation (MA(African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / African Languages / unrestricted

This study focuses on Opland’s (1993) argument that praise poetry must have a particular structure. He argues that a traditional praise poetry needs to have a structure similar to that of poetry written in one of the languages of the West, such as English. According to Opland, the various theorists who have looked at praise poetry have not yet solved the problem of structure in a praise poem. A related problem mentioned by Opland is the use of formula in poetry. The formula that Opland mentions is related to the concept of parallelism. His main concern is that if there is no parallelism, there can be no meter. This is a very important point, because in Setswana poerty, parallelism helps to facilitate the performance of a poem, where the poet’s actions and tone are part of the content of the poem. Some Setswana praise poems take the form of a narrative poem, for example, ‘Motata’ written by Serobatse (1987), and published in the anthology Motswako wa Puo. Other authors write metrical poems, such as ‘Masupatsela’ by Raditladi (1975) which appears in the Sefalana sa Menate. When one scrutinizes these two poems, one notes that they differ in terms of structure and style. This causes problems for the reader who may not be able to tell which one of the two is the real poem. He/she does not know whether a poem should take the form of a narrative or of a metrical poem. This leads to problems regarding the classification of these genres. In order to solve this problems three strategies have been used: (a) the description, (b) the interpretation and (c) the comparison of poems according to an adapted narratological model. Western poetry, African poetry, modern poetry, narrative poetry, performance and meter are described, interpreted and compared. Groenewald (1993) suggests that, because traditional African poetry is not written, listeners have to be able to identify meter simply by listening when the poet recites a poem. Essential metrical features are arranged in terms of sound, rhythm and ending. There are two metrical laws that govern this arrangement, and meter is discussed on the basis of these two rules. The first law is called the law of separation, which describes the separation of the clauses of a sentence. The second law is called the law of agreement, which has to do with the repetition of the stems. This shows a distinction between Western poetry and African poetry, in that African poetical meter relies on these two laws, while Western poetry does not. African poems also have an element of performance, which Opland (1998: 5-6) maintains is another distinguishing characteristic. Metrical principles might therefore be an aspect of performance that an examination of the written text alone cannot reveal. These two points help to distinguish between Western poetry and traditional Setswana poetry. This investigation has shown that a well-planned Setswana poem has a meter which differs from that of an English poem. Opland’s problems concerning the arrangement of praise poetry have been solved by showing a differnce between meter in Western poetry and meter in African poetry. / Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / African Languages / unrestricted

The dissertation includes a critical essay on Jorie Graham's "The Guardian Angel of the Little Utopia and a full-length collection of poetry entitled Moonlight in Quota. The essay is a critical examination which argues that Graham's poems question Western anthropocentric thought through her constant arrangement of particular images (flowers, yellow sky, leaves) and her subsequent questioning of such intellectual and linguistic arrangements. Graham grapples with ideas of perception, questions the historical concepts of truth and knowledge, and engages in linguistic play both musically and imagistically. Each section is tied together by some overriding theme or persistent image: 1.) forgetting, Mexican-American border scenes 2.) poverty and faith shown through images of marginalized characters 3.) Artistic creation as a means for the survival for the "other."

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Ce mémoire examine les poétiques de trois poètes très différentes, mais dont les œuvres peuvent être qualifiées d'indéterminées et de radicales : Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) et Caroline Bergvall (née en 1962). Dickinson et Stein sont anglo-américaines, tandis que Bergvall est d’origine franco-norvégienne, bien qu'elle choisisse d’écrire en anglais. Toutes les trois rompent la structure syntaxique conventionnelle de l’anglais par leurs poétiques, ce qui comporte des implications esthétiques et politiques. Dans ce qui suit, j’analyse l’indétermination de leurs poétiques à partir de la notion, décrite par Lyn Hejinian, de la description comme appréhension qui présente l’écriture comme un mode de connaissance plutôt qu'un moyen d’enregistrer ce que le poète sait déjà. La temporalité de cette activité épistémologique est donc celle du présent de l’écriture, elle lui est concomitante. J'affirme que c'est cette temporalité qui, en ouvrant l’écriture aux événements imprévus, aux vicissitudes, aux hésitations, aux erreurs et torsions de l’affect, cause l'indétermination de la poésie. Dans le premier chapitre, j'envisage l'appréhension chez Gertrude Stein à travers son engagement, tout au long de sa carrière, envers « le présent continu » de l’écriture. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur le sens angoissé de l’appréhension dans la poésie de Dickinson, où le malaise, en empêchant ou en refoulant une pensée, suspend la connaissance. Le langage, sollicité par une expérience qu'il ne peut lui-même exprimer, donne forme à l'indétermination. Un dernier chapitre considère l’indétermination linguistique du texte et de l’exposition Say Parsley, dans lesquels Bergvall met en scène l’appréhension du langage : une appréhension qui survient plutôt chez le lecteur ou spectateur que chez la poète. / This thesis investigates the poetics of three very different female poets, whose works nevertheless are characterized as both indeterminate and radical: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), and Caroline Bergvall (b. 1962). Dickinson and Stein are Anglo-American, while Bergvall is of French-Norwegian descent yet writes in English, but all three fracture the conventional syntactic structures of the English language in their poetics. This move bears both aesthetic and political implications. In this thesis, I read the indeterminacies of their poetics through Lyn Hejinian’s notion of description as apprehension, which figures writing as a mode of knowing rather than a means of recording something the poet already knows. The temporality of epistemology in their work is thus the present tense of writing; thinking is concomitant with it. Following Hejinian, I contend that it is this temporality that, in making writing open to the vicissitudes, hesitations, reprisals, unexpected events, errors, and the torsions of affect, perturbs determination. The first chapter explores apprehension in Gertrude Stein’s work through her career-long commitment to the present tense of writing: perception occurs concurrently with composition. The second chapter, on Dickinson, hinges on the anxious dimension of apprehension, in which unease, in thwarting or repressing a thought, suspends its understanding. Indeterminacy figures as language claimed by an experience it can’t itself claim. Finally, the last chapter considers the linguistic indeterminacies of Say Parsley, where Bergvall stages the apprehension of language itself in using indeterminacy as a poetic strategy to determinate ends, placing the possibilities, uncertainties and responsibilities of apprehension onto the reader or spectator.

Ce mémoire examine les poétiques de trois poètes très différentes, mais dont les œuvres peuvent être qualifiées d'indéterminées et de radicales : Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) et Caroline Bergvall (née en 1962). Dickinson et Stein sont anglo-américaines, tandis que Bergvall est d’origine franco-norvégienne, bien qu'elle choisisse d’écrire en anglais. Toutes les trois rompent la structure syntaxique conventionnelle de l’anglais par leurs poétiques, ce qui comporte des implications esthétiques et politiques. Dans ce qui suit, j’analyse l’indétermination de leurs poétiques à partir de la notion, décrite par Lyn Hejinian, de la description comme appréhension qui présente l’écriture comme un mode de connaissance plutôt qu'un moyen d’enregistrer ce que le poète sait déjà. La temporalité de cette activité épistémologique est donc celle du présent de l’écriture, elle lui est concomitante. J'affirme que c'est cette temporalité qui, en ouvrant l’écriture aux événements imprévus, aux vicissitudes, aux hésitations, aux erreurs et torsions de l’affect, cause l'indétermination de la poésie. Dans le premier chapitre, j'envisage l'appréhension chez Gertrude Stein à travers son engagement, tout au long de sa carrière, envers « le présent continu » de l’écriture. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur le sens angoissé de l’appréhension dans la poésie de Dickinson, où le malaise, en empêchant ou en refoulant une pensée, suspend la connaissance. Le langage, sollicité par une expérience qu'il ne peut lui-même exprimer, donne forme à l'indétermination. Un dernier chapitre considère l’indétermination linguistique du texte et de l’exposition Say Parsley, dans lesquels Bergvall met en scène l’appréhension du langage : une appréhension qui survient plutôt chez le lecteur ou spectateur que chez la poète. / This thesis investigates the poetics of three very different female poets, whose works nevertheless are characterized as both indeterminate and radical: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), and Caroline Bergvall (b. 1962). Dickinson and Stein are Anglo-American, while Bergvall is of French-Norwegian descent yet writes in English, but all three fracture the conventional syntactic structures of the English language in their poetics. This move bears both aesthetic and political implications. In this thesis, I read the indeterminacies of their poetics through Lyn Hejinian’s notion of description as apprehension, which figures writing as a mode of knowing rather than a means of recording something the poet already knows. The temporality of epistemology in their work is thus the present tense of writing; thinking is concomitant with it. Following Hejinian, I contend that it is this temporality that, in making writing open to the vicissitudes, hesitations, reprisals, unexpected events, errors, and the torsions of affect, perturbs determination. The first chapter explores apprehension in Gertrude Stein’s work through her career-long commitment to the present tense of writing: perception occurs concurrently with composition. The second chapter, on Dickinson, hinges on the anxious dimension of apprehension, in which unease, in thwarting or repressing a thought, suspends its understanding. Indeterminacy figures as language claimed by an experience it can’t itself claim. Finally, the last chapter considers the linguistic indeterminacies of Say Parsley, where Bergvall stages the apprehension of language itself in using indeterminacy as a poetic strategy to determinate ends, placing the possibilities, uncertainties and responsibilities of apprehension onto the reader or spectator.