Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2006.

The dissertation presents and explores a mode of literary studies, which bypasses the question of literary value, and instead aims to assess how and where creative writing challenges hegemonic norms (that is, its political value). In so doing, it reflects on the practice of literary studies per se, and the mechanism(s) by which discourse can impact on subjecthood. The exploration entails the application of certain theoretical tools (concepts) in a reading of a literary work. The primary concepts employed are: performativity, subjectivity and gender. The dissertation seeks to read Muriel at Metropolitan (Tlali 1994) as a performative act, that is, a discursive event which re-enacts the practice of fictional writing and thereby extends (and possibly changes} the convention of crealive writing. If it is true that creative writing is performative, that it partake in the making of the individual, then it is important to study such writing in order to discover the consequences for the subject / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Thesis (MA) -- Stellenbosch University, 1986. / No Abstract Avcailable

<p>This study is the first one devoted solely to the writings of the South African black novelist Miriam Tlali. It argues that her works constitute literary resistance not only to apartheid, noted by previous scholars, but also to South African patriarchies. Examining Tlali’s novels <i>Muriel at Metropolita</i>n (1975) and <i>Amandla!</i> (1980), and several short stories from <i>Mihloti</i> (1984) and <i>Footprints in the Quag</i> (1989), the study pits these texts against the black literary tradition dominated by men and also reads them within the social context of South African patriarchies, with its social restrictions on women and its taboos concerning sexualities. To distance herself from the patriarchal values inherent in the male literary tradition and to negotiate social and sexual restrictions on women, I argue, Tlali deploys narrative strategies like generic difference, generic dialogism, a double-voiced discourse, “whispering,” and “distancing.”</p><p>Drawing on the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Julia Kristeva, this study first explores “novelistic” traits in <i>Muriel</i> which function both to resist male literary conventions, like the epic mode of narrative, and to criticise their patriarchal ideology. Second, relying on Bakhtin, it analyses the generic dialogism and double-voicedness in <i>Amandla!</i>. Finally, making use of Kristeva’s semiotics and her theory of sacrifice, the study traces the development of a sacrificial discourse of gendered violence from <i>Amandla!</i> to some of Tlali’s short stories. Supported by Martha J. Reinecke’s explication of Kristeva, I show that Tlali’s texts insist that gendered violence upholds the sacrificial economies of both patriarchal apartheid and African patriarchy. The strategies of “whispering” and “distancing,” I claim, surface in Tlali’s addressing of the sensitive issues of black women’s victimisation and gendered violence. “Whispering” entails muting the criticism of the perpetrators of gendered violence, whereas “distancing” results in dis/placing gendered violence on the margins of the community. This study also examines the literary/social context of Tlali’s oeuvre: it explores specific traits of the South African black literary tradition, how the issue of rape has been addressed there, and the depiction of African patriarchy in autobiographies by South African black women.</p>

This study is the first one devoted solely to the writings of the South African black novelist Miriam Tlali. It argues that her works constitute literary resistance not only to apartheid, noted by previous scholars, but also to South African patriarchies. Examining Tlali’s novels Muriel at Metropolitan (1975) and Amandla! (1980), and several short stories from Mihloti (1984) and Footprints in the Quag (1989), the study pits these texts against the black literary tradition dominated by men and also reads them within the social context of South African patriarchies, with its social restrictions on women and its taboos concerning sexualities. To distance herself from the patriarchal values inherent in the male literary tradition and to negotiate social and sexual restrictions on women, I argue, Tlali deploys narrative strategies like generic difference, generic dialogism, a double-voiced discourse, “whispering,” and “distancing.” Drawing on the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Julia Kristeva, this study first explores “novelistic” traits in Muriel which function both to resist male literary conventions, like the epic mode of narrative, and to criticise their patriarchal ideology. Second, relying on Bakhtin, it analyses the generic dialogism and double-voicedness in Amandla!. Finally, making use of Kristeva’s semiotics and her theory of sacrifice, the study traces the development of a sacrificial discourse of gendered violence from Amandla! to some of Tlali’s short stories. Supported by Martha J. Reinecke’s explication of Kristeva, I show that Tlali’s texts insist that gendered violence upholds the sacrificial economies of both patriarchal apartheid and African patriarchy. The strategies of “whispering” and “distancing,” I claim, surface in Tlali’s addressing of the sensitive issues of black women’s victimisation and gendered violence. “Whispering” entails muting the criticism of the perpetrators of gendered violence, whereas “distancing” results in dis/placing gendered violence on the margins of the community. This study also examines the literary/social context of Tlali’s oeuvre: it explores specific traits of the South African black literary tradition, how the issue of rape has been addressed there, and the depiction of African patriarchy in autobiographies by South African black women.

The dissertation presents and explores a mode of literary studies, which bypasses the question of literary value, and instead aims to assess how and where creative writing challenges hegemonic norms (that is, its political value). In so doing, it reflects on the practice of literary studies per se, and the mechanism(s) by which discourse can impact on subjecthood. The exploration entails the application of certain theoretical tools (concepts) in a reading of a literary work. The primary concepts employed are: performativity, subjectivity and gender. The dissertation seeks to read Muriel at Metropolitan (Tlali 1994) as a performative act, that is, a discursive event which re-enacts the practice of fictional writing and thereby extends (and possibly changes} the convention of crealive writing. If it is true that creative writing is performative, that it partake in the making of the individual, then it is important to study such writing in order to discover the consequences for the subject / English Studies / M.A. (English)