Thesis (MA (English Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This project seeks to analyze the representation of identities in Shiva
Naipaul's travel narrative North of South: An African Journey (1978) as
encoded in the binaries of primitive / traditional; civilized / modern; settler /
native; civic / tribal and neo-colonial / liberated. By analyzing this select series
of identities, this project aims to explore the fractured nature of identity as
constructed in the post-colony. It will argue that the identities are rendered
unstable by the ungrounded nature of the post-colonial space in which they
are located. Naipaul concludes his travel narrative by qualifying the postcolonial
situation as an abortion of Western civilization in the trope of
Conrad's Kurtz. Naipaul implies that any identity in Africa is a simulacrum, a
phantom double, a copy of something that was not there to begin with. He
attempts to articulate the diverse cultures that he encounters as though he
were apart from them without recognizing that he is essentially and
inextricably a part of the various cultural articulations themselves. It is easy to
criticize Naipaul, therefore, as a non-starter. With the advantages of hindsight,
however, it is possible for the contemporary reader to recognize these
instabilities as evidence of the post-modern phenomenon in which reality is
not an absolute. As a modernist writer, Naipaul's efforts to understand these
instabilities of identity as an articulation of culture are circumvented by a
Sisyphean struggle wherein he attempts to establish a sense of ontological
alterity in the narrative yet implicates himself, as well as his invocation of
archival literature and hence his ultimate position of disillusionment,
hopelessness and doom. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie projek poog om die verteenwoordiging van identiteite in Shiva Naipaul
se reisverhaal, North of South: An African Journey (1978), gekodeerd met die
binere van die primitiewe / tradisionele ; beskaafde / moderne; setlaars /
inheemse; staats / etniese; en neo-kolonialisme / vryheid, te analiseer. Deur
die analise van die gekose reeks identiteite, neig die studie om die gebroke
aard van identiteit in In post-koloniale omgewing te ondersoek, en te redeneer
dat die identiteite bemoeilik word deur die ongegronde natuur van die postkoloniale
ruimte waarin hulle voorkom. Naipaul omvat North of South om die
post-kolonialistiese situasie te kwalifiseer as In aborsie van die Westerse
beskawing in die metafoor van Conrad se Kurtz. Naipaul impliseer dat enige
identiteit in Afrika In simulacrum is, In spookbeeld, 'n kopie van iets wat nooit
was nie. Hy poog om die menigte kulture wat hy ondervind te omskryf asof hy
van hulle verwyder is, sonder om te besef dat hy volledig deel uitmaak van die
geleding van hierdie kulture, en dit is daarvolgens maklik om Naipaul as 'n
mislukking te kritiseer. Met die duidelikheid van In moderne leser se terugblik
is dit wei moontlik om hierdie onkonsekwenthede as bewyse te sien van die
post-modernistiese verskynsel waarin realiteit nie In absoluut is nie. As In
modernistiese skrywer is Naipaul se bemoeienis om hierdie onbestendigheid
van identiteit as 'n omskrywing van kultuur te verstaan belemmer deur 'n
Sisyphiesestryd waarin hy poog om In sin van die andersheid van die aard
van die werklikheid in die storielyn te vestig, maar tog impliseer hy homself
asook sy gebruik van argiefmateriaal, en vandaar sy uiteindelike posisie van
ontnugtering, hopeloosheid en verwoesting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/2016 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Coetsee, Jarryd |
| Contributors | Klopper, Dirk, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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