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The movement of transition: trends in the post-apartheid South African novels of English expressionEzeliora, Nathan Osita 04 March 2009 (has links)
Abstract
The period of South Africa’s political transition in the late 1980s and 1990s also saw
a number of interesting developments in the field of cultural production, especially
within the province of literature. A number of literary scholars, critics of all realms,
writers, some enthusiasts and adventurers all showed interest in the direction of
literature after the repressive years of apartheid. The dominant academic question at
the time centred on the possible transition in the thematic and formalistic dimension
of the literature of the new South Africa. Scholars and cultural commentators that
include Es’kia Mphahlele, Njabulo Ndebele, Albie Sachs, Guy Butler, Elleke
Boehmer, Michael Chapman, Mbulelo Mzamane, Andries Walter Oliphant, amongst
others, all contributed immensely in the debates that attempted to define the possible
direction of the literature after apartheid. This research is concerned with the
developments in the Post-Apartheid South African Novels of English expression. Its
focus is on how temporal mobility has impacted on cultural production especially as
witnessed in the many transformations in the field of literature, particularly the novel
as a genre. Using the tropes of memory, violence, and otherness, it examines the
novels of writers as varying as André Brink, J.M. Coetzee, Zakes Mda, Zoë Wicomb,
and Jo-Anne Richards. At the level of form, the fantastical and the confessional
modes of narration are discussed as significant manifestations of the post-apartheid
narratives using the novels of André Brink and Jo-Anne Richards respectively. It
suggests that, among other things, the post-apartheid novels of English expression are
marked by some interesting thematic blocs that include the fascination with land, the
artistic display of remorse through the confessional mode, the rekindling of memory
and its representation in narrative, the peculiar interest in violence and alterity, the
continuing reportage of the urban space and the implications of urbanity on the
ordinary citizenry, the recourse to gangsterism, miscegenation and the dilemma of a
humankind confined to the psychological spaces of the interstices. Efforts were made
in this research to avoid the ‘intellectual apartheid’ often associated with the
hermeneutic engagements of the literati previously devoted to South Africa’s literary
scholarship. It is for this reason that a more elaborate introductory chapter highlights
aspects of the contributions of novelists and scholars that include Nadine Gordimer,
Mongane Wally Serote, Lewis Nkosi, Njabulo Ndebele, and the ‘emergent’ ones such
as Phaswane Mpe, K. Sello Duiker, Pamela Jooste, among others. An important
dimension to this study is that it situates the Post-Apartheid narratives not only within
relevant historical contexts, but also develops its argument by drawing immensely
from the intellectual culture dominant in South Africa before, during, and after the
notorious era of racial separatism. It concludes on the suggestive note that South
African writers and literary scholars should attempt to demonstrate a more rigorous
interest in locating the creative points of convergence between the aesthetic and social
ideals.
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Esthétique et éthique du témoignage dans le nouveau roman africain d'expression française: Emmanuel Dongala, Tierno Monénembo et Ahmadou KouroumaSACKEY, DONALD E 01 March 2012 (has links)
Cette thèse étudie l’esthétique et l’éthique du témoignage dans le nouveau africain d’expression française voire le roman de la guerre. Au centre est l’enfant comme une catégorie sociale menacée et menaçante.
L’enfant africain reste « l’arme » et le « soldat » de choix dans la littérature postcoloniale tout comme il était à l’époque coloniale. Cependant, sa mission est devenue encore plus meurtrière car il est maintenant recruté pour mener des combats militaires soutenus par des idéologies dépourvues de logique.
Nous examinons donc les enjeux esthétiques et éthiques du choix de donner la parole à l’enfant pour témoigner de la violence postcoloniale dans les romans d’Emmanuel Dongala, de Tierno Monénembo, et d’Ahmadou Kourouma. Que ce soit par le biais d’une confrontation qui imite la scène judiciaire (Dongala), un débat philosophique, religieux et socio-politique autours du sujet de génocide (Monénembo), ou encore de l’emploi du rire carnavalesque pour témoigner de la tragédie personnelle et collective (Kourouma), nos auteurs font de l’enfant le point de référence à partir duquel l’Afrique pense le présent et l’avenir. Ce faisant, ils démontrent une diversité conceptuelle du témoignage littéraire tant sur le plan esthétique qu’éthique, que nous qualifions de changement paradigmatique dans la littérature d’Afrique noire d’expression française.
Ce qui émerge est un double témoignage, d’une part, de l’auteur en tant que témoin des traces, d’autre part, de l’enfant (personnage) comme témoin-victime et/ou comme témoin-bourreau de la violence dans la « postcolonie ». / Thesis (Ph.D, French) -- Queen's University, 2012-03-01 12:40:14.865
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