Ivan Vladislavić’s fiction shows a preoccupation with the South African past in terms of both time
and space and with the influence of ideology on the interpretation of the past and of cultural
artefacts such as cityscapes, buildings, monuments, photographs, and fine art within the South
African context. No study has yet considered Vladislavić’s entire oeuvre in terms of the
interaction between time and space and their particular manifestation in concrete cultural
expressions that generate meaning that can only be recognized over time and within the limits
of different perspectives. In order to situate his work within such a paradigm, this thesis
discusses various theories on the representation of time and space and their application and
argues that Vladislavić represents concrete reality and abstract ideas about the past and
ideologies in an interrelated manner, in order to illuminate the ways in which concrete reality
influences perceptions of the past and its associated ideologies, but also how past and ideology,
in turn, influence how concrete reality is perceived. His fiction can thus be described as
exploring the complex dynamic between concrete and abstract.
Perspective plays an important role in his fiction in terms of both his representation of concrete
(city and artefacts) and abstract reality (past and ideology). Characters’ perspectives come into
play as they negotiate, create and interpret concrete and abstract reality, and in the light of how
they ‘see’ the world, their identities are shaped. Vladislavić shows that perspective is inevitably
blurred with ideological prejudice. He does so, in such a way, that a reader is often led to
reconsider her/his own way of perceiving both concrete and abstract.
Cultural artefacts, in particular, mediate perceptions of time and of place; they are (in)formed by
ideology and also have singular signifying possibilities and limitations. By drawing attention to
his own expression in language, by creating seemingly random lists, or focusing on the multiple
meanings of a word in a playful manner, Vladislavić shows that, like artefacts, language too is a
medium for mediation that is subject to and formative of ideology. / Thesis (PhD (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/7749 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Swanepoel, Aletta Catharina |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds