In Anglophone postcolonial fiction of the twentieth century, myth is used as a framing device that contains and interrogates historical event, thereby functioning as a form of alternative history. Despite the prevalence of cross-cultural symbolic systems and radically hybrid forms of narration, the dominant method of reading myth in postcolonial literary criticism remains dependent on conceptual models that construct myth as originary racial narrative. This particular approach fosters readings of contemporary secular myths of “nation”, “land” or “identity” within culturally monolithic frames. I scrutinize the intersections between early structuralist approaches to myth, and later post-structuralist deconstruction of myth and suggest a postcolonial reading of myth as the ideological coded middle space between sacred and secular narrative. Focusing on four novels from Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Caribbean, I demonstrate the continued influence and adaptability of myth to narrate vastly different historical and socio-cultural contexts. Taking into account several major shifts in the conceptualization of twentieth-century myth criticism , I develop a critical vocabulary for comparative readings of myth which interrogates existing discourses on the categories of “archetype”, “ideology” and “symbol”. My approach is comparativist, and foregrounds the importance of locating myth within literary and socio-cultural context. The introduction to this study defines the field of myth criticism in relation to postcolonial fiction. I provide outlines of the theoretical positions drawn from Carl Gustav Jung, Roland Barthes, Northrop Frye and Bruce Lincoln and demonstrate the relevance of each in relation to reading myth in the four novels under survey. The first chapter looks at the way Alfred Yuson exposes mythic constructions of Filipino identity in The Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café (1987). The second chapter provides a comparative study of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992) and Allan Sealy's The Everest Hotel A Calender (1998). This chapter analyzes Ondaatje and Sealy's employment of the Fisher King myth as a device for narrating radically different visions of postcolonial community. The third chapter analyzes the function of archetype as a vehicle for ideology in Wilson Harris's Jonestown (1996). The conclusion of this study suggests the way this method of analysis can provoke further critical inquiry in the field of postcolonial myth criticism.

In Anglophone postcolonial fiction of the twentieth century, myth is used as a framing device that contains and interrogates historical event, thereby functioning as a form of alternative history. Despite the prevalence of cross-cultural symbolic systems and radically hybrid forms of narration, the dominant method of reading myth in postcolonial literary criticism remains dependent on conceptual models that construct myth as originary racial narrative. This particular approach fosters readings of contemporary secular myths of “nation”, “land” or “identity” within culturally monolithic frames. I scrutinize the intersections between early structuralist approaches to myth, and later post-structuralist deconstruction of myth and suggest a postcolonial reading of myth as the ideological coded middle space between sacred and secular narrative. Focusing on four novels from Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Caribbean, I demonstrate the continued influence and adaptability of myth to narrate vastly different historical and socio-cultural contexts. Taking into account several major shifts in the conceptualization of twentieth-century myth criticism , I develop a critical vocabulary for comparative readings of myth which interrogates existing discourses on the categories of “archetype”, “ideology” and “symbol”. My approach is comparativist, and foregrounds the importance of locating myth within literary and socio-cultural context. The introduction to this study defines the field of myth criticism in relation to postcolonial fiction. I provide outlines of the theoretical positions drawn from Carl Gustav Jung, Roland Barthes, Northrop Frye and Bruce Lincoln and demonstrate the relevance of each in relation to reading myth in the four novels under survey. The first chapter looks at the way Alfred Yuson exposes mythic constructions of Filipino identity in The Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café (1987). The second chapter provides a comparative study of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992) and Allan Sealy's The Everest Hotel A Calender (1998). This chapter analyzes Ondaatje and Sealy's employment of the Fisher King myth as a device for narrating radically different visions of postcolonial community. The third chapter analyzes the function of archetype as a vehicle for ideology in Wilson Harris's Jonestown (1996). The conclusion of this study suggests the way this method of analysis can provoke further critical inquiry in the field of postcolonial myth criticism.

Ivan Vladislavić’s fiction shows a preoccupation with the South African past in terms of both time and space and with the influence of ideology on the interpretation of the past and of cultural artefacts such as cityscapes, buildings, monuments, photographs, and fine art within the South African context. No study has yet considered Vladislavić’s entire oeuvre in terms of the interaction between time and space and their particular manifestation in concrete cultural expressions that generate meaning that can only be recognized over time and within the limits of different perspectives. In order to situate his work within such a paradigm, this thesis discusses various theories on the representation of time and space and their application and argues that Vladislavić represents concrete reality and abstract ideas about the past and ideologies in an interrelated manner, in order to illuminate the ways in which concrete reality influences perceptions of the past and its associated ideologies, but also how past and ideology, in turn, influence how concrete reality is perceived. His fiction can thus be described as exploring the complex dynamic between concrete and abstract. Perspective plays an important role in his fiction in terms of both his representation of concrete (city and artefacts) and abstract reality (past and ideology). Characters’ perspectives come into play as they negotiate, create and interpret concrete and abstract reality, and in the light of how they ‘see’ the world, their identities are shaped. Vladislavić shows that perspective is inevitably blurred with ideological prejudice. He does so, in such a way, that a reader is often led to reconsider her/his own way of perceiving both concrete and abstract. Cultural artefacts, in particular, mediate perceptions of time and of place; they are (in)formed by ideology and also have singular signifying possibilities and limitations. By drawing attention to his own expression in language, by creating seemingly random lists, or focusing on the multiple meanings of a word in a playful manner, Vladislavić shows that, like artefacts, language too is a medium for mediation that is subject to and formative of ideology. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Ivan Vladislavić’s fiction shows a preoccupation with the South African past in terms of both time and space and with the influence of ideology on the interpretation of the past and of cultural artefacts such as cityscapes, buildings, monuments, photographs, and fine art within the South African context. No study has yet considered Vladislavić’s entire oeuvre in terms of the interaction between time and space and their particular manifestation in concrete cultural expressions that generate meaning that can only be recognized over time and within the limits of different perspectives. In order to situate his work within such a paradigm, this thesis discusses various theories on the representation of time and space and their application and argues that Vladislavić represents concrete reality and abstract ideas about the past and ideologies in an interrelated manner, in order to illuminate the ways in which concrete reality influences perceptions of the past and its associated ideologies, but also how past and ideology, in turn, influence how concrete reality is perceived. His fiction can thus be described as exploring the complex dynamic between concrete and abstract. Perspective plays an important role in his fiction in terms of both his representation of concrete (city and artefacts) and abstract reality (past and ideology). Characters’ perspectives come into play as they negotiate, create and interpret concrete and abstract reality, and in the light of how they ‘see’ the world, their identities are shaped. Vladislavić shows that perspective is inevitably blurred with ideological prejudice. He does so, in such a way, that a reader is often led to reconsider her/his own way of perceiving both concrete and abstract. Cultural artefacts, in particular, mediate perceptions of time and of place; they are (in)formed by ideology and also have singular signifying possibilities and limitations. By drawing attention to his own expression in language, by creating seemingly random lists, or focusing on the multiple meanings of a word in a playful manner, Vladislavić shows that, like artefacts, language too is a medium for mediation that is subject to and formative of ideology. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

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