The purpose of this document is to explore the domain by which architecture can be interpreted through symbolism and emotional allegory. It deals with the notion that a building can become a vocabulary of historical references, and the product of many cultures through epochs of history, alien to one another but come together by manipulating elements within the architecture. / Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Architecture / unrestricted

I propose that dominant discourses on veiling objectify Muslim women and do not engage with Muslim women dialogically as subjects capable of agency and selfdefinition. In this thesis I explore this problem critically within two different contexts, namely in selected Muslim minority contexts of Europe and America, and in the particular Muslim majority context of Iran. I illustrate that these highly politicized discourses often instrumentalise representations of Muslim women for their respective ideological agendas. I then present an alternative mode of engagement with the issue of veiling by examining the varying, marginalized voices, subjectivities and agency of Muslim women in their understandings of this phenomenon. It is imperative to question stereotypes and universalistic assumptions concerning Muslim women's bodies, modesty, dressing and agency in order to advocate a new gender consciousness which sees women as subjects. The various discourses of the veil reflect that Muslim women's choices and opinions are divided. As such, it is important to listen to Muslim women's voices to be able to create a discourse that is based on dialogue, authentic representations, mutual understanding and respect.

In this thesis two interralted tasks are undertaken. First, this thesis is an attempt to gain mastery of an interpretive methodology, namely, socio-rhetorical analysis. Second, by looking at a crucial text that has major implications for the contemporary church, I have applied this method of analysis to a particularly Scriptural text, namely, 1 Timothy 2:8-15. In this thesis I demonstrate using socio-rhetorical analysis that the discourse contained in 1 Timothy 2:8-15 constitutes baptised patriarchal cultural practices and traditions from the dominant Greco-Roman culture of the first century. I demonstrate, therefore, that the portrayal of women in the text reflects a cultural imperative, and not a theological imperative, that was co-opted from the ""secular"" Greco-Roman culture of the day and transposed, using Scriptural texts as authentication, into the Christian community at Ephesus. Thus the text is simply re-enforcing normative Greco-Roman cultural values upon Christian women and camouflaging it as a Christian norm in order to persuade women to conform to patriarchal cultural standards. Such persuasion, however, is hardly required unless one has already accepted cultural assumptions about the subordination and silencing (objectification) of women in an androcentric hegemonic culture.

It is becoming widely recognised that those at the centres of power are also responsible for social transformation. In South Africa, white men still dominate these centres. Some white men have recognised this and have taken on the task of confronting their prejudice and acknowledging their privilege, in order to forge more transformative ways of being a white man in South Africa. These ways of being, however, remain marginal. Hegemonic masculinities and whiteness continue to dominate South African society, hampering transformation. In order to counter these hegemonic ways of being, alternatives need to be actively engaged and emboldened. This can be achieved partly by disaggregating narratives of masculinity and whiteness, as neither are homogenous. In so doing, dominant discourse is challenged and a more robust discursive space for alternative ways of being is allowed to emerge.

One of the notable features of JM Coetzee's work is the portrayal in his novels, particularly in his 1999 Booker Prize-winning novel, Disgrace, of worlds that often seem bleak and bereft of redemption. In this dissertation I will argue that there is a resonance in Coetzee's writing that goes beyond the political and historical and that adds another dimension to his work. The focus of my dissertation will be an attempt to account for this other 'dimension' within the broader socio-political-historical nexus that informs much of his work. I will argue that this other dimension represents an ongoing conccrn with the questions of redemption and salvation, particularly as they are manifested in his latcr works, Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello. These concerns, however, are not just a consequence of Coetzee's evolving thought. As I will show, they are present in his earlier texts as well. To this end, I will consider the ways in which the themes of redemption and salvation, in the specifically religious and Christian sense of these words, also resonate in In the Heart of the Country (1977) and Life and Times of Michael K (1983).

The genesis of this thesis was the observation that water played a role in many Murdoch novels as did accounts of the wanton destruction of valuable possessions. Study of the works of AS Byatt revealed a similar interest in the human impulse to destroy and in the Byatt tetralogy published over a period of more than two decades fire is often the means of destruction. My academic training to date has taught me to attempt to account for such observations. I concluded that Murdoch's obsession with the imagery and activity of water and Byatt's with that of fire reflect their awareness that, despite the wide acceptance of the death of the idea of God, humans as individuals and in community still need a religious life - ritual, ceremony, nurture, blessing and a moral order to control the human impulse to destruction.

This study has set out to highlight and investigate the contributions, to the Afrikaans literature, by writers of ""Colour"", as marginalized writers, especially after 1990. It must be indicated that a special place in the thesis, chapter five, has been devoted to the female writer of ""Colour"", EKM Dido, and the invaluable contributions she has made to Afrikaans literature. This chapter deals exclusively with all Dido's novels to date, and includes detailed discussions and analysis of important issues and aspects in the said novels. The thesis has focused on various ""Coloured"" writers, both male and female, and their contributions. The fact that naming and terms denoted to and used for various racial groupings are such thorny in South African society, terminology used to refer to these writers of ""Colour"" in this thesis initially seemed to pose a problem, but motivating the use of certain terms, to highlight and not relegate to the margins, solved this problem I believe.

Deixis has had a useful, yet fairly one-dimensional history in Linguistics. The core of traditional deixis is essentially the manner that the utterance reflects the spatial and temporal position of the narrator. The aim of this study has been to pursue a paradigmatic application of deixis to literature, much as Snyman (1983), Anker (1987) and Fludernik (1997) have utilised deixis as a stylistic tool in the analysis of poetry, short stories and shorter novels. What this dissertation proposes is that deixis could also be a viewed as a literary paradigm in the analysis of literary texts. The deictic paradigm can also be especially important, as a narrative structural principle, in the evaluation of literary texts where space and time causes particular difficulty. In order to develop deixis as a paradigm, a spatial and temporal deictic analysis, is emphasized.

This research offers a view of an aspect of life of Luba people who inhabit the Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attempt to compare and evaluate the healing system of co-existent groupings influenced by Bambuki and Balombi. This thesis seeks to compare and evaluate the theology and healing practices of Bambuki and Balombi in order to establish differences and similarities. The study contributes to the liberation of Luba people from western alienation, which considers the Bambuki as demonic.

Research into the art of duo piano playing has been severely neglected. Repertoire is generally incorporated into books on solo piano playing and is often omitted from chamber work listings. With the exception of one outdated, out-of-print book by Hans Moldenhauer, I no author has attempted to submit a recent repertoire listing or a complete examination of the complications of duo pianism. The growth in the number of duos and the increasing number of concerts devoted to their repertoire indicates a previously unmatched public interest in the genre. The aim of this thesis is to serve as a reference guide for educators and pianists, in understanding the classification problems of the duo piano genre and how it relates to other pianistic combinations, an examination of the history of two-piano works until 1950, a look at professional and artistic challenges of duo piano playing, and a catalogue of works written for the medium. Confusion exists about the meaning of the word duet. At issue is whether the genre refers to two pianists at one keyboard exclusively, or whether it incorporates two pianists at two keyboards. Various sources were consulted to show that no uniform definition is available. In this initial chapter background to the study is given, available literature is reviewed and research methodology is explained.