Doctoral Degrees (Afrikaans and Dutch)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Afrikaans and Dutch) by Author "Bezuidenhout, Zandra"

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    Sosio-literêre perspektiewe op die eietydse digkuns van vroue in die Afrikaanse en Nederlandse taalgebiede
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005-12) Bezuidenhout, Zandra; Van Zyl, D.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences . Dept. of Afrikaans & Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A study of poetry by six contemporary women in the Afrikaans and Dutch-speaking worlds points toward a multi-focal approach. While texts by poets of a marked diversity are presented as aesthetic objects, the scope of my research has been determined by considerations of gender, language and culture. The central line of investigation concerns the interplay between the poem as an artefact and the changing socio-cultural contexts by which the respective poets have been informed. My dissertation was inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's argument in favour of a fusion between the close reading practices of the New Critics (and in this case, their Dutch counterparts, the Merlinists) and the contextual approach advocated by literature sociologists. Concomitantly the art philosophical standpoint of Marcia Eaton and the views on the écriture féminine or "women's style of writing" held by Helene Cixous are applied to poetry. By incorporating insights from adjacent disciplines and thereby decentering the relative autonomy of the poetic text, I hope to demonstrate how the study of literature could acquire new relevance, either by expanding its own parameters, or by enriching the field of cultural and gender studies. In conclusion I regard the poetry written by contemporary women as a polyphonic discourse voicing women's newly-found position as subjects and challenging notions such as a monolithic "female identity" and the marginalization of "women's poetry". From this perspective, the aesthetic value of the poetic genre is paralleled by its function as a source of knowledge and a cultural agency.