LD2668 .T4 1947 G75 / Master of Science

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: No abstract / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming

published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

Illegal Immigration: Six Stories from an American Family is a collection of stories derived from and inspired by the author's personal life experiences, dreams, and family history, as a Mexican American woman. The stories also hold distinct archetypal patterns, images, storylines and symbolism due to the author's connection to the collective unconscious through meditation. The stories tell character driven stories of adversity, and the search for home, and identity by linking main characters to their family members in each story. The collection as a whole reveals generational patterns, histories and connections not only present in the matriarchal bloodline of the collection, but from one human to another. The stories beckon the reader into an alternate reality created by these archetypal patterns inherent in all humans, in an attempt to transcend genres and find a place within the psyche where anything is possible. / Illegal immigration -- Marco and Margarita -- La muerte de mi padre -- Together again -- Vivi and Ricardo -- The healer. / Department of English

Male or female, young or old, the characters of this collection inhabit a liminal space of trauma and social dislocation in which elements of the real and fabulous coexist in equal measure. The ghosts that populate the stories are as much the ghosts of the living, as they are the ghosts of the dead. They represent individual conscience and an inescapable connection to the past.

Chesnutt's short stories collection The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899). Charles Chesnutt wrote two short stories which are "The Sheriff's Children" and "Her Virginia Mammy." He wrote them with white audiences in mind. In “The Sheriff’s Children,” Chesnutt presents Tom as a protagonist, his father Sheriff Campbell, and his half-sister Polly. In “Her Virginia Mammy,” he mentions Clara as a protagonist, her love Dr. Winthrop, and her mother Mrs. Harper. Chesnutt records their struggles in Post-Reconstruction North Carolina. He romanticized his characters’ difficult ethical decisions related to racial identity to illustrate more dramatically the consequences of their oppression. “The Sheriff’s Children” and “Her Virginia Mammy” both illustrate the ethical dilemmas of their protagonists, demonstrating to Chesnutt’s white readers the struggles and losses of black and biracial families.

Ce travail de recherche vise à montrer en quoi l'ironie investit toutes les nouvelles de Mérimée et en modifie le sens à réception. Nous abordons l'ironie dans les domaines de la stylistique, de l'énonciation et de la thématique. Sur le plan stylistique, l'ironie marque les nouvelles du sceau du jeu, s'exprime en des lieux déterminés, notamment dans les descriptions, et peut avoir une incidence sur la structure du récit. Mais l'ironie joue aussi à faire entendre le sérieux qui traverse les récits, s'alliant à la violence à travers l'ironie du sort. Sur le plan énonciatif, l'ironie brouille les repères traditionnels dans la répartition des postes d'actants de niveau 1, de narrateur et d'auteur abstrait. Sur le plan thématique, l'ironie marque les récits exotiques par la distance qu'elle instaure dans la quête ethnographique et archéologique. Elle travaille également les récits fantastiques, dont l'interprétation incertaine est présentée comme un jeu ouvrant vers la découverte de l'interdit. Enfin, plus classiquement dans les nouvelles mondaines, elle passe par la satire. Nous démontrons que la temporalité met en scène une forme de discours ironique, investissant la représentation spatio-temporelle du récit. Nous dégageons ensuite les contours de l'ethos de l'ironiste, en le comparant à celui du rieur. Nous prolongeons l'étude par des questionnements : l'ironie peut-elle êtrte considérée comme un stylème, peut-elle s'exprimer à travers les non-dits ? Enfin, nous montrons que l'ironie est un marqueur de littérarité, et nous proposons de la percevoir comme un registre ainsi qu'un marqueur intemporel de modernité. / This research aims at showing how irony pervades Merimee’s short stories and how irony alters the meaning for the reader. Irony is tackled through the fields of stylistics, linguistics and themes. Stylistically, irony permeates the short stories in the guise of playfulness, it mostly crops up in descriptions, and it often has an impact on the structure of narratives. But irony is also used to underscore the widespread seriousness of the narratives and it merges with violence -in the shape of irony of fate. Linguistically, irony blurs the traditional lines in the way "second level" agentsʼ parts are handed out. Thematically, irony roots itself in the exotic stories by creating a distance in the ethnographic and archaeological quest. It is also at work in the fantastic stories, whose problematic interpretation is presented as a game leading to the discovery of a forbidden world. Lastly, in the "society" short stories, it is more commonly expressed through satire. We strive to demonstrate that temporality contrives to create an ironic discourse, which permeates the narratives, temporal and spatial frameworks. Then, we endeavor to delineate the ethos of the "ironist" by comparing it with the figure of the "laugher". After this, we ask ourselves whether irony can be considered a stylistic marker, whether it can be expressed through the unspoken. Finally, we attempt to show that irony is a marker of literariness and that it can be regarded as a speech register, as well as a timeless marker of modernity.

The thesis presents an analysis of the selected themes of D. H. Lawrence's aesthetics and philosophy in relation to his short stories. The main focus of the presented argument is the notion of language (Chapter 2), knowledge (Chapter 3) and the Self (Chapter 4). These chapters form and constitute a coherent thematic unity of the Lawrentian "triptych". The above mentioned phenomena are demonstrated to form the foundation of Lawrence's aesthetical and philosophical thought as it is put into practice in his short fiction. The argument aims to introduce these as applied and integrated in the substance of Lawrence's shortest prose. The structure of the thesis is based on a concept in which the next chapter develops and relies on the previous one chapter, while extending and augmenting the original argument. In addition to this, all of the three notions are unified under the key concept of Lawrence's philosophy, i.e. the notion or the theory of the "idea" and "idealism". The discussion of these three phenomena is followed by a brief appendix chapter (Chapter 5). This chapter does not add any new topic, however, supplies the text and deepens the existing argument with what might be understood as a diachronic supplement and summary of an otherwise prevailingly synchronic study. Key Words: D. H. Lawrence,...

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The following collection of short stories explores the notion of being caught between two worlds, of straddling physical, emotional, linguistic and metaphorical borders. I have chosen these characters in order to give voice to those who are often voiceless. The collection has been divided in two parts in order to challenge ideas of what is "real." I argue that the emotional truth of a story is paramount, and this reality can sometimes be best achieved through unconventional means.