The broad aim of this study is to show, through a comparative and contrasting analysis
of three thematically related texts - namely Peter Abrahams's Mine Boy; Alan Patan's
Cry, the Beloved Country and Phyllis Altman's The Law of the Vultures - the
ideologically mediated nature of the relationship between the 'real' history which
constituted their context, and the representations of it in the historical realist form. An
examination afthe texts' characters and events; political formulations, and formal
devices reveals three very different representations of the same object. This diversity is
significant in so far as it supports a Marxist conceptualisation of the [historical] realist
text as a production of ideology as opposed to a portrayal of reality. The study
considers the nature of the relationship between each text and ideology in terms of
three aspects of this relationship: the 'objectively determinable' relation between
history, ideology and text; the ideology of the text itself, and the mode of a text's
insertion into an 'ideological sub-ensemble.' In relation to the modes of a text's
insertion into an ideological sub-ensemble, my specific aim is to assess the extent to
which each text actually challenges the political dispensation to which it was
addressed. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/5792 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Mowat, Sharon. |
| Contributors | Kearney, John Anthony. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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