Department of English

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https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/45

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Browsing Department of English by browse.metadata.advisor "Gagiano, A. H."

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    A poetry of remembrance : a study of Tatamkhulu Afrika's Nine Lives, Dark Rider and Maqabane
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-12) Radloff, Adeline; Gagiano, A. H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis looks closely at three volumes of Tatamkhulu Afrika's poetry (Nine Lives, Dark Rider and Maqabane), to find that his work reflects a deep understanding of South African society and the different forces and conflicts inherent therein. I argue that although Afrika's poetry is presented as a recount of personal experience through the voice of a first person participant and observer, it is more than mere autobiography. This is because his poems resonate further (by means of vividly detailed descriptions, powerful metaphoric images and a mix of varied perspectives) to encompass not only his own life but also the lives and experience of many ordinary South Africans. In particular, his political poetry humanizes the abstractions of political discourse to show the impact that the greater political situation has had on the lives of ordinary South Africans. I conclude by arguing that although Tatarnkulu Afrika's insights are filtered through a moral perspective based on his religious views and his belief in a basic humanity shared by all people, his work cannot be described as "traditionalist" as he constantly unsettles and recasts settled beliefs in an imaginary way.
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    Presentations of masculinity in a selection of male-authored post-apartheid novels
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005-12) Crous, Matthys Lourens; Gagiano, A. H.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    In this thesis I examine the presentations of masculinity in several novels published in the post-apartheid period in South Africa, that is, the period after 1994. The novels under discussion are all male-authored texts and include novels by J M Coetzee (1999), André Brink (2000), Phaswane Mpe (2001), K Sello Duiker (2001), Zakes Mda (2002) and Damon Galgut (2003). In the introduction theoretical issues regarding masculinity are discussed on the basis of Morrell (2001) and a broad framework for the thesis is outlined. Subsequently the presentation of masculinity is analysed in each of the respective novels under discussion. Issues such as a definition of masculinity (or rather, masculinities), the interaction between men as friends, as colleagues; as well as issues such as heterosexuality and homosexuality are discussed. What perspectives does the author provide on masculinity? How do the male characters experience the new South Africa? What is the nature of their interaction with the female characters in the novels? Another aspect dealt with is the repression of homosexual desire for another man and the way in which it is suppressed beneath a macho façade. In the conclusion the different perspectives are compared and similarities and differences are briefly pointed out. In the end, an important question that comes to mind is: Do these men present a different type of masculinity emerging in the period after liberation, or do they merely (as depicted by their authors) perpetuate the patriarchal masculinities associated with the period before 1994?
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    The representation of African humanism in the narrative writings of Es'kia Mphahlele
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005-12) Rafapa, Lesibana Jacobus; Gagiano, A. H.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    The introductory chapter of this thesis – in which I place Mphahlele's works within the Afrocentric, postcolonial theoretical context within which he wrote – consists of three sections that explain the three different ways in which I contextualise my investigation of the ways in which Mphahlele represents his concept of African humanism in his narrative writings. In section 1.1 I detail the historical background and context within which Mphahlele's philosophy of African humanism will be shown to have evolved, alongside my analysis of a selected few of his poems and all of his narrative writings, articulated in the main body of the thesis. I approach this introductory sketching of the historical context by tracing the development over time of antecedent concepts articulated by other writers, followed by a chronological tracing of the progressive, successive articulations of the idea of African humanism in Mphahlele’s own discursive writing . This is followed in section 1.2 by an outline of the theoretical notions or concepts from various sources by means of which the analysis is executed, some of which are Edward Said's notion of "the integrated vision", Fanon's idea of "national culture" and Bhabha's metonymic notion of "mimicry". Section 1.3 dwells on a description of the conceptual approach I use throughout the thesis – that of viewing literature as anchored in the empirical milieu constituting the referential framework of its subject matter. In this section I also highlight the analytical method of scrutinising Mphahlele's works from the sociolinguistic point of view that links dialogue and the symbols yielded by fiction to the local cultural orientation of the people for whom artefacts were composed. The organisation of the later chapters of this thesis according to literary genre is also explained and rationalised in section 1.3.
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    Third World' female experience in Africa and the USA as represented in four novels by Yvonne Vera and Toni Morrison
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003-04) Wellmann, Julie Gail; Gagiano, A. H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following thesis aims to place black, female experience at the centre of an analysis of four main texts. These texts are Yvonne Vera's Nehanda and Without a Name as well as Toni Morrison' s Song of Solomon and Beloved. By comparing and analysing these four novels, also utilising selected works from various theorists such as bell hooks and Chandra Mohanty, "mainstream" feminist theory is interrogated. Different political and social contexts are examined from the perspectives of writers and theorists that have conventionally been relegated to the margins of literary theory. The experiences of black people all over the world are marginalised and this thesis attempts to examine these texts without assuming that the experiences of the characters are "different" or "other". The first chapter focuses mainly on Morrison' s Song of Solomon but used Vera's Nehanda to comment on some spiritual similarities between an African female character and an African American female character. Chapter two focuses more strongly on African, specifically Zimbabwean, female experience during the second war of independence (or Chimurenga) in Zimbabwe.