Doctoral Degrees (Afrikaans and Dutch)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Afrikaans and Dutch) by Author "Burger, Barbara"

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    ’n Geokrities-vergelykende analise van Afrikaans- en Engelstalige Suid-Afrikaanse stedelike romans
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Burger, Barbara; Viljoen, Louise; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, “’n Geokrities-vergelykende analise van Afrikaans- en Engelstalige stedelike romans” (“A geocritical comparative analysis of Afrikaans and English urban novels”) I argue that Afrikaans and English novels set in South African cities are received in different ways by, respectively, Afrikaans and English literary theorists. Afrikaans literary theorists tend to focus on the ways these novels intertextually refer back to previous depictions of the city (especially in the genre of the plaasroman [the farm novel]). English literary theorists mainly focus on the implication of the urban representations for the interpretation of the agency of city dwellers, as well as on the representation of social issues. My aim is to determine whether a comparative approach leads to different insights on the representation of South African cities. I decided on a geocritical approach (as theorised by Bertrand Westphal) as it is i) comparative, ii) geocentric (in other words aimed at the comparison of spaces rather than the comparison of other aspects) and iii) compatible with my own new materialist-influenced view that text and context are inextricably connected. I use Westphal’s theory as a framework to compare the representation of urban spaces in six specific novels, namely Room 207 (2006) by Kgebetli Moele, Werfsonde (2012) by Kleinboer, Thirteen cents (2000) by K. Sello Duiker, Siegfried (2007) by Willem Anker, Nineveh (2011) by Henrietta Rose-Innes and Vlakwater (2015) by Ingrid Winterbach. My geocritical comparative approach does lead to a perspective that differs from previous studies of these specific novels, especially in my focus on the representation of characters’ movements and domesticity, the presence of non-human organisms and the natural environment within urban spaces and the influence of the past on the present of these spaces.