Drawing upon the author's experiences of growing up white and gay in apartheid South Africa, this collection of personal essays explores themes of kitsch, displacement, love, sexuality, and forgiveness. A central question posed by the work is whether virtues such as love and forgiveness are worth the cost they frequently exact. These costs include, but are not limited to, denial of the self and individual perception in order to make possible a sense of profound union with other persons. In the end the dissertation concludes that it is best to accept a level of permanent and irrevocable yearning for connection and healing which human life will never entirely fulfill. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2005. / January 24, 2005. / Homosexuality, Apartheid, Kitsch, South Africa, Creative Nonfiction / Includes bibliographical references. / Mark Winegardner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Neil Jumonville, Outside Committee Member; Robert Olen Butler, Committee Member; Hunt Hawkins, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_176370 |
| Contributors | Retief, Glen (authoraut), Winegardner, Mark (professor directing dissertation), Jumonville, Neil (outside committee member), Butler, Robert Olen (committee member), Hawkins, Hunt (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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