Includes bibliographical references.

The retrospective story of a white middle-aged woman in South Africa born in the late 1950s, the novel traces, amongst other things, the development of her political consciousness from her early years as the daughter of a farmer in the Kalahari. Being a so-called 'little history' the story relates her exposure to other races during a time of strict division, important incidents such as a visit by the notorious Hendrik Verwoerd, the deaths of family members, a move to the Western Cape and the effects of growing up in a sternly Nationalist and Calvinistic household. The novel strives to portray the life of a woman locked into the constraints of a society burdened with restrictions, but who always keeps a keen and wary eye on 'homeland' policies, the expat generation, motherhood and life in Africa, etc., always filtered through the precarious discourse of whiteness.

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No description available.

The novel is divided into three sections, a few days at a three times in an 18-year relationship. Part One is set in June 1976. A dissolute couple is flying home from Europe to Johannesburg. Elsa, who has concealed sexual contraband, is nervous. Her irascible husband, Derk, is drunk; plagued by impotence, shortness of breath, existential angst and a creeping sense of failure. Despite his success as a creative director for an international advertising agency, his overweening ambition – to become an immortal poet – will at best be realised posthumously. Home is an apartment in the tallest residential building in the world. The couple has a 16-year-old son, Paul whose daily routine and whereabouts go largely unnoticed by his parents. Each of the characters is essentially lonely. The discovery of a long-lost uncle produces a period of self-reflection for Derk. He briefly pauses his dogged search for sexual gratification, but any realisation is distorted through the prism of his narcissism. Elsa, seeking companionship and a home, is increasingly reluctant to service Derk’s voyeuristic demands; the barrenness of life in the concrete jungle of Hillbrow is mirrored in their relationship. Paul’s ability to develop deep or loyal relationships is stunted by their emotional neglect. Within the myopia of this dysfunctional white South African family, the catastrophic events unfolding in South Africa are incidental. In Part Two, set in more sedate 1960, we meet recently wedded Elsa and Derk. Derk is deeply in love with Elsa, and both are ecstatic with the promise of life together. They fly to Cape Town for a reunion dinner with Derk’s brother, Gabriel, his wife, Alice and Elsa’s parents. The weekend is an unmitigated disaster; the seeds of their future discontent sown within the same time period in which the Sharpeville massacre took place. In the final section, set in 1978, Elsa has finally found the courage to leave Derk and started her own business venture. A chronically angry Paul is enrolled in the army that is making cross-border raids into Angola. Having cynically destroyed all the relationships that were dear to him, Derk tries one last time to salvage the one he feels is worth living for. The insidious nature of abuse that leaves no physical trace is a central theme. The cycle that allows it to take root and how it flourishes in isolation – of a nation, a community, a family – and leads to dysfunction. The dawning economic emancipation of women in the second half of the 20th century, as seen in the growing independence of the main character, Elsa, is another trope. Set within times of historic change in South Africa to which the characters – so wrapped up in their personal dramas – seem bizarrely inured, it seeks to show that an oppressive society harms even those individuals it prefers and privileges. And that love and hope, as always, redeem

The main purpose of this dissertation was to create a series of short stories based on a feminine point of view. STOORNIS, a collection of eighteen widely diverse stories, concentrates on making women the focal point in a diverse discourse and thematic register. The emphasis is placed on the role of esotericism (compare NAKENNIS and DIE BESOEKER), the influence of modern technology and computers (DIE MEESTER and STAATSGREEP), the juxtaposition of criminal modus operandi and the creative muses (BLOEDGELD and DIE SMOKKELROETE), the role of women in a military environment (MYNVELD and DIE GENERAAL EN DIE SIENER) as well as the occurrence of psychological aberration in women (LeERS and STOORNIS). Many facets of women's sexual identity, such as abortion (DIE SLAGDING) and lesbianism (WAG OP DIE KONINGIN), are scrutinized. No formal distinction was made between theory and criticism in the feminist discussion of STOORNIS. Theory and criticism were mutually regenerated and applied in the individual texts. Based on an assumption, the main point of feminism centres around the destruction of the phallus: through decontruction, men in the texts are "unmasked" on many levels. Theoretical feminist terms, such as stereotyping, prejudice, patriarchalism, sexism, chauvinism, phallocentrism and androcentrism were used to execute the "unmasking" process. · Through the use of metaphoric destruction of the phallus it was attempted to deconstruct the authorative manipulation of men (which women are succumb to) and to strive towards a reconciliation process between man and woman, in other words, the androgynous ideal of feminism.

No description available.

No description available.

|Bibliography : leaves 76.

Set in Paris in the late 1980s, Paris On a Shoestring is narrated progressively by the two main teenage protagonists, who, through a series of events, find themselves living on the streets of Paris and begging for money. The two narrators, Vicki and Sage, flee to France after deliberately vandalising their art college. Penniless, homeless and lost in an unfamiliar environment, they're easy prey for various opportunistic chancers. Although predominantly a character driven novel, it also explores the protagonists' relatively seamless acceptance of radically different norms and values, as the girls go from living a fairly benign British middle-class existence to a way of life dependent on other people for survival.