Madness and gender in contemporary diasporic life writing and fiction

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dc.contributor.advisorEllis, Jeanne, 1962-en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDe Villiers, Stephanieen_ZA
dc.contributor.otherStellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-12T08:20:29Z
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T22:12:12Z
dc.date.available2024-01-12T08:20:29Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T22:12:12Z
dc.date.issued2024-03
dc.descriptionThesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, I consider the roles that gender, migration, and diaspora play in the portrayal of madness in two contemporary life writing texts and four novels. The selected texts map a variety of diasporic journeys that encompass the variables of migration and emigration: I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying (2019) by Bassey Ikpi, The Icarus Girl (2005) by Helen Oyeyemi and Freshwater (2018) by Akwaeke Emezi all originate from Nigeria; Porochista Khakpour’s Sick: A Memoir (2018) from Iran; Sorry To Disrupt the Peace (2017) by Patrick Cottrell from South Korea; and Mira T. Lee’s Everything Here is Beautiful (2018) from China. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to examine how the triangular connection of madness, gender, and diaspora in these texts conveys the experiences of mental distress or madness caused by a sense of displacement or alienation that disrupts the lives of the protagonists. My specific interest is in their authors’ employment of metaphor and experiments with language and form to convey the interior worlds of the protagonists with a view to analysing the ways in which new definitions and vocabularies of madness emerge from the lived experience of diaspora portrayed. The key terms of the dissertation — ‘gender’, ‘madness’, and ‘diaspora’ — all raise important questions of definition and disciplinary specificity that emerge from substantive bodies of research and theory, which the dissertation engages within the context of literary criticism. The original contribution of this dissertation thus resides in the theoretical triangular connection of these terms in relation to a literary critical reading of examples of recent diasporic fiction and life writing which have in most cases not yet received extensive critical attention.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie ontleed ek tween lewensbeskrywende tekste en vier romans en ontleed die rol wat geslag, migrasie en diaspora speel in die uitbeelding van waansin. Die spesifieke tekste wys ’n verskydenheid van diasporiese ondervindings, wat al die veranderlikes van migrasie and diaspora insluit. Drie van die tekste se oorsprong is Nigerië, naamlik Bassey Ikpi se Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying (2019), Helen Oyeyemi se The Icarus Girl (2005) and Akwaeke Emezi se Freshwater (2018). Verder kom Sick: A Memoir (2018) se Porochista Khakpour van Iran, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace (2017) se Patrick Cottrell van Suid-Korea en Everything Here is Beautiful (2018) se Mira T. Lee van Sjina. In hierdie dissertasie mik ek om te ondersoek hoe die verhouding tussen waansin, geslag en diaspora in hierdie tekste die ervarings van geestelike nood of waansin, soos veroorsaak deur ’n gevoel van verplasing of vervreemding uitgebeeld word. Ek stel spesifiek belang in die manier hoe skrywers metafore gebruik, asook hoe hulle eksperimenteer met taal ne woordeskat om die hoofkaraters se innerlikehe uit te beeld. Deur die analise mik ek daarop om te wys hoe nuwe definisies van waansin nav ore kom in die uitbeelding van die geleefde ervarings van diaspora. Die toepassing van hierdie hoofterme — ‘geslag’, ‘waansin’ en ‘diaspora’ — in algemene definisies asook die gebruik daarvan in disiplinêre navorsing, waarmee hierdie studie betrokke raak binne die konteks van literêre kritiek, word bevraagteken. Hierdie studie voorsien ’n oorspronklike bydrae tot bestaande navorsing deur die trangulasie van hierdie terme deur middle van ’n kritiese literêre lesing van voorbeelde van onlangse diasporiese fiksie en lewensbeskrywende tekste, wat in meeste gevalle nog nie enige uitgebreide literêre kritieke aandag ontvang het nie.af_ZA
dc.description.versionDoctoralen_ZA
dc.format.extentvi, 168 pagesen_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttps://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/130564
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherStellenbosch : Stellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.rights.holderStellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.subjectDiasporaen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshMental illness in literatureen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshImmigrants in literatureen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshAfrican diasporaen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshGender identity in literatureen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshAutobiographical memoryen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshNarration (Rhetoric) -- Psychological aspectsen_ZA
dc.subject.nameUCTD
dc.titleMadness and gender in contemporary diasporic life writing and fictionen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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