Department of Afrikaans and Dutch

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Browsing Department of Afrikaans and Dutch by browse.metadata.advisor "Anker, W. P. P."

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    Die liminaliteitsmotief in twee grootwordromans : Jeanne Goosen se o.a. Daantjie dromer (1993) en Dominique Botha se Valsrivier (2013) en Roet (Roman)
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Grobler, Marthinus Jacobus (Kobus); Van Niekerk, M.; Anker, W. P. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Two separate texts are submitted towards the degree MA in Kreatiewe Skryfkunde. Firstly, a thesis with the title 'Die liminaliteitsmotief in twee grootwordromans: Jeanne Goosen se o.a. Daantjie Dromer (1993) en Dominique Botha se Valsrivier (2013)', and secondly, a novel called Roet. The novel and the thesis are thematically related. The coming-of-age novel describes the transition of the child to adulthood and is presented by characters' in-between or liminal experiences. This thesis is a study of liminality as embodied in Jeanne Goosen's o.a. Daantjie Dromer (1993) and Dominique Botha's Valsrivier (2013) with reference to the characters' transition to adulthood described in these novels. The theory of liminality by Arnold van Gennep (1908) and Victor Turner (1969) is the theoretical lens used to describe and compare the liminal experience of the sister and brother characters. In this study the focus is on the sister characters as focalizers and their interpretation of transitions as well as their roles as guides to their brothers through these transitions. Unlike the sister characters, the brother characters do not perform the reintegration after the liminal experience. They remain dreamers with "unfinished" transitions. The perverted liminality motif in these narratives, with sisters acting as intermediaries or mediators, was investigated. It is argued that the brother character chooses to stay in the in-between transitional state and that the choice is determined by socio-political backgrounds that surface in these stories. The novel is set in the 1970s: a thirteen-year-old boy, Jaco, feels trapped in a little town surrounded by sugar cane fields and with mountains watching over him. He likes to sit on the roof of his house to look for Maria's elocashini on the outskirts of town, the place where his father forbids them to go. He is a sensitive boy who struggles to relate to his father, who should be the hero he desperately needs. His father's abusive behaviour towards his mother, his intolerance towards blacks, 'nancy boys' and the pastor with the soft hands, make them drift apart. He escapes his suppressive reality by building a doll’s house, a present for his three-year-old sister, Elsa. He has issues with his younger brother, Henk, who calls him kafferboetie and moffie. Jaco becomes friends with so-called outcasts like Maria, their house maid; Manuel, their garden boy who has never met his Portuguese father; Christo, the boy with dancing legs and the Indian girl, Lila, who teaches him about Indian food and fabrics.