“I won’t say I feel happy or sad”: experiences of siblings of young disabled people in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances
- Authors: Foote, Tamlyn Lou-Ann
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Mentally ill -- Family relationships , Mentally ill -- Care -- South Africa , Mentally ill children -- Care -- South Africa , Brothers and sisters of people with disabilities , Brothers and sisters of people with disabilities -- Psycnology , Brothers and sisters of people with disabilities -- Case studies -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7774 , vital:21296
- Description: The impact of having a disabled sibling has been well researched in first world countries, revealing complex and varied results. However, in disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts, where disability has been found to be more prevalent, and where arguably, the functioning and quality of life of a disabled person is more likely to be affected by an impairment, very little is known about how siblings of young disabled people are affected. In response, this qualitative study explores the experiences of five, isiXhosa speaking adolescents, living in Joza Township, Grahamstown, who have a brother or sister with an intellectual, physical or developmental impairment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and an interpretative phenomenological analytic approach was utilized to ascertain how the participants make sense of their worlds in relation to their sibling’s disability. Specifically, this research aimed at developing an understanding of how the participants experienced their family climate, self-concept, interpersonal relations and daily living in relation to their disabled sibling. The results of this study reveal a prevailing sense of incongruity experienced by the participants, although there are variances between their experiences. While family climate was largely experienced as warm, the participants were ambivalent about their relationship with their mothers who are experienced more as providers than nurturers. The participants described oscillating between feelings of protectiveness and alliance, and responsibility and sacrifice toward their sibling. A high incidence of incongruity pertaining to their sense of self was noted; this was described as impacting on their interpersonal relations where an underlying sense of negative public perception in relation to the disability is perceived. Although the participants expressed feeling supported within their homes, it was evident that they experienced little support from peers or the community at large. Four out of the five participants did not report experiencing a sense of deprivation, despite their socio-economic contexts and described a day-to-day existence that allows for their needs to be met. This included adequate time during their day to pursue personal interests as opposed to their time being spent taking care of their disabled sibling or assisting their parents, who may be overburdened due to the added care and responsibilities a disabled child might require. Furthermore, it is suggested that the incongruity experienced by the participants could be the result of various factors including age, gender, birth order and the nature of their sibling’s impairment. On the basis of the findings of this research, it can be concluded that the experiences of siblings of young, disabled people living in disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts cannot necessarily be described as being positive or negative, but are highly nuanced. In addition, the participants to some extent experience disability by association and are lacking in adequate support and opportunities to discuss their unique challenges. These insights serve to better inform disability studies in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances. These findings are in accordance with earlier research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Foote, Tamlyn Lou-Ann
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Mentally ill -- Family relationships , Mentally ill -- Care -- South Africa , Mentally ill children -- Care -- South Africa , Brothers and sisters of people with disabilities , Brothers and sisters of people with disabilities -- Psycnology , Brothers and sisters of people with disabilities -- Case studies -- South Africa -- Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/7774 , vital:21296
- Description: The impact of having a disabled sibling has been well researched in first world countries, revealing complex and varied results. However, in disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts, where disability has been found to be more prevalent, and where arguably, the functioning and quality of life of a disabled person is more likely to be affected by an impairment, very little is known about how siblings of young disabled people are affected. In response, this qualitative study explores the experiences of five, isiXhosa speaking adolescents, living in Joza Township, Grahamstown, who have a brother or sister with an intellectual, physical or developmental impairment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and an interpretative phenomenological analytic approach was utilized to ascertain how the participants make sense of their worlds in relation to their sibling’s disability. Specifically, this research aimed at developing an understanding of how the participants experienced their family climate, self-concept, interpersonal relations and daily living in relation to their disabled sibling. The results of this study reveal a prevailing sense of incongruity experienced by the participants, although there are variances between their experiences. While family climate was largely experienced as warm, the participants were ambivalent about their relationship with their mothers who are experienced more as providers than nurturers. The participants described oscillating between feelings of protectiveness and alliance, and responsibility and sacrifice toward their sibling. A high incidence of incongruity pertaining to their sense of self was noted; this was described as impacting on their interpersonal relations where an underlying sense of negative public perception in relation to the disability is perceived. Although the participants expressed feeling supported within their homes, it was evident that they experienced little support from peers or the community at large. Four out of the five participants did not report experiencing a sense of deprivation, despite their socio-economic contexts and described a day-to-day existence that allows for their needs to be met. This included adequate time during their day to pursue personal interests as opposed to their time being spent taking care of their disabled sibling or assisting their parents, who may be overburdened due to the added care and responsibilities a disabled child might require. Furthermore, it is suggested that the incongruity experienced by the participants could be the result of various factors including age, gender, birth order and the nature of their sibling’s impairment. On the basis of the findings of this research, it can be concluded that the experiences of siblings of young, disabled people living in disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts cannot necessarily be described as being positive or negative, but are highly nuanced. In addition, the participants to some extent experience disability by association and are lacking in adequate support and opportunities to discuss their unique challenges. These insights serve to better inform disability studies in disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances. These findings are in accordance with earlier research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Not the story you wanted to hear": reading chick-lit in JM Coetzee’s Summertime
- Moonsamy, Nedine, Spencer, Lynda G
- Authors: Moonsamy, Nedine , Spencer, Lynda G
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/138915 , vital:37685 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1390878
- Description: J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime has been widely explored – both for its controversy and merits – as engaging in “acts of genre” where the inscription of an autobiographical narrative simultaneously serves as a metatextual and ideological critique of its form. Similarly, this article is intrigued by generic instability, but our terrain lies further afield, exploring how the narrative lapses from the lofty ideals of romance to the baser “truth” of chick-lit. In Summertime, all the female characters besmirch Mr. Vincent, the biographer, for wanting to cast John Coetzee in the role of a romantic hero. Yet, their resistance results in a series of romantic failures which then situates Summertime in the generic ambit of chick-lit. In embodying a spirit that is as playful as it is critical, we suggest that Coetzee offers an opportunity to cast aside a literary critical tradition of suspicion and, in doing so, passes critical comment on how we approach a popular genre like chick-lit.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moonsamy, Nedine , Spencer, Lynda G
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/138915 , vital:37685 , https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1390878
- Description: J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime has been widely explored – both for its controversy and merits – as engaging in “acts of genre” where the inscription of an autobiographical narrative simultaneously serves as a metatextual and ideological critique of its form. Similarly, this article is intrigued by generic instability, but our terrain lies further afield, exploring how the narrative lapses from the lofty ideals of romance to the baser “truth” of chick-lit. In Summertime, all the female characters besmirch Mr. Vincent, the biographer, for wanting to cast John Coetzee in the role of a romantic hero. Yet, their resistance results in a series of romantic failures which then situates Summertime in the generic ambit of chick-lit. In embodying a spirit that is as playful as it is critical, we suggest that Coetzee offers an opportunity to cast aside a literary critical tradition of suspicion and, in doing so, passes critical comment on how we approach a popular genre like chick-lit.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Oh, you have a ‘she’?”: exploring the lived experiences of black same-sex females living in Grahamstown, South Africa
- Authors: Haihambo, Naem Patemoshela
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Lesbians, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Lesbians, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Psychology , Lesbians, Black -- South Africa -- Public opinion , Lesbianism -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Lesbianism -- South Africa -- Public opinion
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4304 , vital:20646
- Description: The South African Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of a variety of factors including race and gender and sexual orientation. This inclusion came in 1996 after an oppressive apartheid regime was overcome, also positioning the South African Constitution amongst the more liberal, especially in the wider African context. This inclusion and the contextual disparity has caused curiosity about the realities of same-sex sexualities, especially taking into consideration media reports on violence and perceived social opposition of same- sex sexualities in South Africa. Much of this attention has motivated research studies on same-sex sexualities. Within this research, however, black female same-sex sexualities have been positioned as vulnerable and victimised within the heteronormative context, with much of this research focusing on ‘corrective/curative’ rape. There has however been increasing efforts in moving away from this limiting position by a select few (e.g. Zanele Muholi and Zethu Matebeni) in a more explorative direction in attempts to investigate black female sexualities as complex and expressive rather than passive. This study is an interpretive phenomenological investigation of the lived experiences of black female same-sex sexualities and the plurality of identities that influence their everyday experiences. This took into account intersectionality, heteronormativity and queer theory, which provided a theoretical framework for this study. During the interview process, participants described their experiences as black same-sex females in a variety of contexts including their experiences and influences of external factors (such as family and university. From the results of this research, experiences and identities of participants are presented as complex, fluid, expressive and to some extent political. Participants also expressed the difficulties encountered with misinformed friends and families and describe ways in which they assert themselves within their social and personal contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Haihambo, Naem Patemoshela
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Lesbians, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Lesbians, Black -- South Africa -- Makhanda -- Psychology , Lesbians, Black -- South Africa -- Public opinion , Lesbianism -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Lesbianism -- South Africa -- Public opinion
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4304 , vital:20646
- Description: The South African Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of a variety of factors including race and gender and sexual orientation. This inclusion came in 1996 after an oppressive apartheid regime was overcome, also positioning the South African Constitution amongst the more liberal, especially in the wider African context. This inclusion and the contextual disparity has caused curiosity about the realities of same-sex sexualities, especially taking into consideration media reports on violence and perceived social opposition of same- sex sexualities in South Africa. Much of this attention has motivated research studies on same-sex sexualities. Within this research, however, black female same-sex sexualities have been positioned as vulnerable and victimised within the heteronormative context, with much of this research focusing on ‘corrective/curative’ rape. There has however been increasing efforts in moving away from this limiting position by a select few (e.g. Zanele Muholi and Zethu Matebeni) in a more explorative direction in attempts to investigate black female sexualities as complex and expressive rather than passive. This study is an interpretive phenomenological investigation of the lived experiences of black female same-sex sexualities and the plurality of identities that influence their everyday experiences. This took into account intersectionality, heteronormativity and queer theory, which provided a theoretical framework for this study. During the interview process, participants described their experiences as black same-sex females in a variety of contexts including their experiences and influences of external factors (such as family and university. From the results of this research, experiences and identities of participants are presented as complex, fluid, expressive and to some extent political. Participants also expressed the difficulties encountered with misinformed friends and families and describe ways in which they assert themselves within their social and personal contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“She is my sister although she’s got factory faults”: a psychosocial study of Xhosa women’s sister-sister relationships
- Authors: Moifo, Hunadi Senkoane
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Social life and customs , Sisters -- South Africa -- Case studies , Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology , Women, Black -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Psychology , Women, Black -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4443 , vital:20671
- Description: The current study examines the constructions that Black, Xhosa women from the working class and in middle adulthood draw on to make meaning of their sister-sister relationships. In addition to this, it aims to uncover their motivations for investing in these meanings. It makes use of a psychosocial theoretical framework that draws on discursive psychology and psychoanalysis. Discursive psychology is used to analyse the constructions the participants used to make meaning of their relationship, while psychoanalysis is used to interpret their investments in these constructions. Six participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The findings emphasise the psychosocial nature of the participants’ sisterly relationships, as caught between ‘inner’ world of feelings and emotions and the ‘outer’ world of social practices and expectations. Their narratives pointed to the obligatory nature of the sister-sister relationship, which drives participants to downplay the hatred or dislike that is present in their relationship and to emphasise traditional scripts of helping each other, promoting solidarity amongst sisters and other women. The analysis highlights the ways in which the participants negotiate and express their gender roles through sistering, reinforcing and challenging the traditional view of femininity and as a result providing for multiple femininities. In addition to these, the findings show that women may choose specific narratives to construct their sister-sister relationships as they allow them to feel safe and in control of their lives. Using psychoanalysis alongside discursive psychology enables the findings to illustrate how the participants invest in different constructions of their relationship in ways that are influenced by their values and life histories.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Moifo, Hunadi Senkoane
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies , Xhosa (African people) -- Social life and customs , Sisters -- South Africa -- Case studies , Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology , Women, Black -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Psychology , Women, Black -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4443 , vital:20671
- Description: The current study examines the constructions that Black, Xhosa women from the working class and in middle adulthood draw on to make meaning of their sister-sister relationships. In addition to this, it aims to uncover their motivations for investing in these meanings. It makes use of a psychosocial theoretical framework that draws on discursive psychology and psychoanalysis. Discursive psychology is used to analyse the constructions the participants used to make meaning of their relationship, while psychoanalysis is used to interpret their investments in these constructions. Six participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The findings emphasise the psychosocial nature of the participants’ sisterly relationships, as caught between ‘inner’ world of feelings and emotions and the ‘outer’ world of social practices and expectations. Their narratives pointed to the obligatory nature of the sister-sister relationship, which drives participants to downplay the hatred or dislike that is present in their relationship and to emphasise traditional scripts of helping each other, promoting solidarity amongst sisters and other women. The analysis highlights the ways in which the participants negotiate and express their gender roles through sistering, reinforcing and challenging the traditional view of femininity and as a result providing for multiple femininities. In addition to these, the findings show that women may choose specific narratives to construct their sister-sister relationships as they allow them to feel safe and in control of their lives. Using psychoanalysis alongside discursive psychology enables the findings to illustrate how the participants invest in different constructions of their relationship in ways that are influenced by their values and life histories.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Something past provoked by something to come”: the dystopian complex in selected texts by Lauren Beukes
- Authors: Forrest, Catherine
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Beukes, Lauren -- Moxyland , Beukes, Lauren -- Zoo City , Dystopias in literature , Science fiction -- History and criticism , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/18604 , vital:22360
- Description: This thesis examines Lauren Beukes’s novels, Moxyland and Zoo City, in relation to spectral theory, a tool of critique which enables an inspection of the author’s fictional societies, by looking at the return of that which has previously been repressed. It will be argued that, by portraying the country’s future imaginaries in a dystopian light, Beukes predicts the dissatisfaction that continues to be felt in the urbanised present as having extended into the near-future. Such discontent results not solely from the country’s history of apartheid and the poverty-stricken period of recovery that has followed, but in the lack of agency found in the future subject. The concerns of this thesis lie with the programmed conditions placed on the societies depicted in Beukes’s novels and the citizens that are made to inhabit these predetermined spaces. Arising from these fixed conditions are spectral subjectivities, protagonists who, having been denied recognition by the hegemonic powers at hand, are made inherently aware of the discourse of othering imposed upon them. Constructed from the writings of Jacques Derrida and contemporary spectral theorists, I present a framework capable of dealing with the popularity of ghosts/spectres, and the propensity for haunting, within post-transitional literature. Spectrality, then, is understood as a conceptual metaphor and a mode of characterisation that Beukes employs in her writing to highlight various inconsistencies about the spectralised subject and the future. By working with a theory capable of blurring the divide between the living and the dead, the self and other, it is possible to read Beukes’s fiction as possessing the potential to destabilise supposedly secure positions on otherness and alterity. Furthermore, it will be argued that, by tracking the spectre’s capacity to haunt and the multiplicity of responses which it invokes, it is possible to conceive of alterity, and the response which it generates, as responsible for determining the conditions for the coming of a radically unknowable and therefore open future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Forrest, Catherine
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Beukes, Lauren -- Moxyland , Beukes, Lauren -- Zoo City , Dystopias in literature , Science fiction -- History and criticism , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/18604 , vital:22360
- Description: This thesis examines Lauren Beukes’s novels, Moxyland and Zoo City, in relation to spectral theory, a tool of critique which enables an inspection of the author’s fictional societies, by looking at the return of that which has previously been repressed. It will be argued that, by portraying the country’s future imaginaries in a dystopian light, Beukes predicts the dissatisfaction that continues to be felt in the urbanised present as having extended into the near-future. Such discontent results not solely from the country’s history of apartheid and the poverty-stricken period of recovery that has followed, but in the lack of agency found in the future subject. The concerns of this thesis lie with the programmed conditions placed on the societies depicted in Beukes’s novels and the citizens that are made to inhabit these predetermined spaces. Arising from these fixed conditions are spectral subjectivities, protagonists who, having been denied recognition by the hegemonic powers at hand, are made inherently aware of the discourse of othering imposed upon them. Constructed from the writings of Jacques Derrida and contemporary spectral theorists, I present a framework capable of dealing with the popularity of ghosts/spectres, and the propensity for haunting, within post-transitional literature. Spectrality, then, is understood as a conceptual metaphor and a mode of characterisation that Beukes employs in her writing to highlight various inconsistencies about the spectralised subject and the future. By working with a theory capable of blurring the divide between the living and the dead, the self and other, it is possible to read Beukes’s fiction as possessing the potential to destabilise supposedly secure positions on otherness and alterity. Furthermore, it will be argued that, by tracking the spectre’s capacity to haunt and the multiplicity of responses which it invokes, it is possible to conceive of alterity, and the response which it generates, as responsible for determining the conditions for the coming of a radically unknowable and therefore open future.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“The Hellenistic ruler cult and Ptolemy I’s quest for legitimacy”
- Authors: Ntuli, Sihle
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6097 , vital:21031
- Description: Alexander III died suddenly in Babylon in 323 BC. With Philip III Arrhidaeus in a mentally deficient state and Alexander IV not being of age, Alexander died without a suitable heir. The task of succeeding one of the most storied legacies in the ancient world was left to the generals of Alexander III. On his deathbed, Alexander was asked who should lead the Macedonians, of which he allegedly replied “the strongest”. Thus began the process of selecting the individual who would succeed Alexander the Great, which ended up becoming a contentious task due to Macedonian succession customs. Subsequently the ‘Successors’ quarrelled over who should succeed Alexander as the true successor. The wars of the Successors are founded on an issue of legitimacy that qualifies the notion of the strongest. Being deemed the true successor of Alexander the Great meant the opportunity to continue a period of Macedonian dominance following the reigns of Philip II and Alexander III. Alexander III is hailed as one of the most extraordinary individuals of the ancient world with his imperial campaigns being widely documented, political stability being pinpointed as one of the Macedonian strong points during the period of their dominance. The ruler cult is a point of reference for the explaining the relative political stability throughout the reign of Alexander the Great. The ruler cult can be understood as a sociopolitical construct that hybridized the notion of the ruler with that of a religious leader. The oriental influence of Alexander’s campaigns in Asia would inform the customs and practices of the divine ruler. The Macedonians’ ability to establish a presence in foreign territories made such a social construct a necessity in the task of centralizing of minds for political stability. Alexander’s rendition of the cult informed the formalized Ptolemaic ruler cult. The similarities and differences of the renditions help us to understand this political tool that Ptolemy I required in order to be deemed the true successor of Alexander the Great. The following will be an investigation into whether Ptolemy I is able to attain legitimacy, firstly as a successor to Alexander the Great, secondly as Pharaoh of Egypt.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Ntuli, Sihle
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6097 , vital:21031
- Description: Alexander III died suddenly in Babylon in 323 BC. With Philip III Arrhidaeus in a mentally deficient state and Alexander IV not being of age, Alexander died without a suitable heir. The task of succeeding one of the most storied legacies in the ancient world was left to the generals of Alexander III. On his deathbed, Alexander was asked who should lead the Macedonians, of which he allegedly replied “the strongest”. Thus began the process of selecting the individual who would succeed Alexander the Great, which ended up becoming a contentious task due to Macedonian succession customs. Subsequently the ‘Successors’ quarrelled over who should succeed Alexander as the true successor. The wars of the Successors are founded on an issue of legitimacy that qualifies the notion of the strongest. Being deemed the true successor of Alexander the Great meant the opportunity to continue a period of Macedonian dominance following the reigns of Philip II and Alexander III. Alexander III is hailed as one of the most extraordinary individuals of the ancient world with his imperial campaigns being widely documented, political stability being pinpointed as one of the Macedonian strong points during the period of their dominance. The ruler cult is a point of reference for the explaining the relative political stability throughout the reign of Alexander the Great. The ruler cult can be understood as a sociopolitical construct that hybridized the notion of the ruler with that of a religious leader. The oriental influence of Alexander’s campaigns in Asia would inform the customs and practices of the divine ruler. The Macedonians’ ability to establish a presence in foreign territories made such a social construct a necessity in the task of centralizing of minds for political stability. Alexander’s rendition of the cult informed the formalized Ptolemaic ruler cult. The similarities and differences of the renditions help us to understand this political tool that Ptolemy I required in order to be deemed the true successor of Alexander the Great. The following will be an investigation into whether Ptolemy I is able to attain legitimacy, firstly as a successor to Alexander the Great, secondly as Pharaoh of Egypt.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“The surprising involvement of the outsider”: an examination of pessimism and Schopenhauerian ethics in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes
- Authors: Bosman, Sean James
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Coetzee, J. M., 1940- -- Waiting for the barbarians , Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Under Western eyes , Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860 , Ethics in literature , Outsiders in literature , Svenska akademien
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36105 , vital:24479
- Description: When the Swedish Academy lauded J. M. Coetzee for portraying situations in which “the distinction between right and wrong, while crystal clear, can be seen to serve no end” (“PR” para. 3), it presented an interpretation of his texts that considers ethics to be legislative and imperative (see Cartwright, NS 255). The Swedish Academy’s assertions are worth exploring, given that this highly respected body’s statements are indicative of the critical debates generated by Coetzee’s work. It identified a common metaphysical malaise between Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Conrad’s Under Western Eyes, and offered pessimism as a dubious explanation for this apparent lack of value in choosing between right and wrong action. This thesis takes exception to the logical inconsistencies of this opinion and offers a sustained and systematic counterargument with the aim of suggesting an alternative interpretation of the value of ethical action in the two works. My counterargument uses interpretive and methodological models that draw on the works of Gabriele Helms, cultural narratology and Bakhtinian theory in order to investigate the texts, using the philosophy of one of the foremost German pessimists, Arthur Schopenhauer, as an ideological point of reference. The affinity between Schopenhauerian philosophy and Eastern religions (particularly Brahmanism and Buddhism) suggests, contrary to the implications of the Swedish Academy’s statements, that there is value in ethical and moral choices in systems other than those that posit Judeo-Christian rewards and punishments in an afterlife, and that pessimism cannot legitimately be used to nullify this value. Rather, UWE and WB present an alternative set of ethics - one that is voluntary and virtue-based, valuing acts of compassion above all else. But basing my arguments on the novels’ textual affinities with Schopenhauerian ethics, I maintain that neither Conrad nor Coetzee offers strictly uncomplicated presentations of the value of compassion. Yet the sustained thematic and authorial considerations of compassionate deeds suggest that there is indeed value in deciding between morally right and morally wrong action - even if the ‘rewards’ are not guaranteed and may only - at best - be temporary.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Bosman, Sean James
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Coetzee, J. M., 1940- -- Waiting for the barbarians , Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Under Western eyes , Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860 , Ethics in literature , Outsiders in literature , Svenska akademien
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36105 , vital:24479
- Description: When the Swedish Academy lauded J. M. Coetzee for portraying situations in which “the distinction between right and wrong, while crystal clear, can be seen to serve no end” (“PR” para. 3), it presented an interpretation of his texts that considers ethics to be legislative and imperative (see Cartwright, NS 255). The Swedish Academy’s assertions are worth exploring, given that this highly respected body’s statements are indicative of the critical debates generated by Coetzee’s work. It identified a common metaphysical malaise between Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and Conrad’s Under Western Eyes, and offered pessimism as a dubious explanation for this apparent lack of value in choosing between right and wrong action. This thesis takes exception to the logical inconsistencies of this opinion and offers a sustained and systematic counterargument with the aim of suggesting an alternative interpretation of the value of ethical action in the two works. My counterargument uses interpretive and methodological models that draw on the works of Gabriele Helms, cultural narratology and Bakhtinian theory in order to investigate the texts, using the philosophy of one of the foremost German pessimists, Arthur Schopenhauer, as an ideological point of reference. The affinity between Schopenhauerian philosophy and Eastern religions (particularly Brahmanism and Buddhism) suggests, contrary to the implications of the Swedish Academy’s statements, that there is value in ethical and moral choices in systems other than those that posit Judeo-Christian rewards and punishments in an afterlife, and that pessimism cannot legitimately be used to nullify this value. Rather, UWE and WB present an alternative set of ethics - one that is voluntary and virtue-based, valuing acts of compassion above all else. But basing my arguments on the novels’ textual affinities with Schopenhauerian ethics, I maintain that neither Conrad nor Coetzee offers strictly uncomplicated presentations of the value of compassion. Yet the sustained thematic and authorial considerations of compassionate deeds suggest that there is indeed value in deciding between morally right and morally wrong action - even if the ‘rewards’ are not guaranteed and may only - at best - be temporary.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Unexpected vicissitudes”: a discursive biography of Noni Jabavu
- Authors: Erskog, Mikaela Nhondo
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Jabavu, Noni , Jabavu, Noni. The ochre people , Jabavu, Noni. Drawn in colour: African contrasts , Authors, South African , Woman authors, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/46259 , vital:25594
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Erskog, Mikaela Nhondo
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Jabavu, Noni , Jabavu, Noni. The ochre people , Jabavu, Noni. Drawn in colour: African contrasts , Authors, South African , Woman authors, Black -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/46259 , vital:25594
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“War of the worldly codes”: articulating the gap between legal academia and practice
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66972 , vital:29007
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Clarence, Sherran
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , conference publication
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66972 , vital:29007
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“We’ve Tamed the World by Framing It”: Islam, ‘Justifiable Warfare,’ and situational responses to the war on terror in selected post-9/11 novels, films and television
- Authors: Sulter, Philip Eric John
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5544 , vital:20940
- Description: This thesis explores geopolitically diverse fictional responses to 9/11 and the War on Terror. Drawing on Judith Butler’s (2009) notion of the “frames of war,” Jacques Derrida’s (2005) conception of the ‘friend’/‘enemy’ binary, and Mahmood Mamdani’s (2004) critique of the ‘good’ Muslim, ‘bad’ Muslim dichotomy (delineated in 2001 by President George W. Bush) I examine how selected examples of contemporary literature, as well as a popular television series, depict the War on Terror; and analyse how these differently situated texts structure their respective depictions of Islam and Muslims. In the first chapter, I focus on how The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), a novel by the Pakistani author, Mohsin Hamid, problematises the ‘good’ Muslim, ‘bad’ Muslim binary, and argue that the protagonist’s decision to leave the United States in the wake of 9/11 represents an important political comment on global perceptions of American foreign policy and the human cost of millennial capitalism. Chapter 2 is an investigation of two novels: The Silent Minaret (2005) and I See You (2014), by the South African writer, Ishtiyaq Shukri. By situating his characters in a variety of geopolitical spaces and temporal realities, Shukri encourages the reader to discard the structuring frames of nation, race, and religion, and links the vulnerability and violence implicit in the War on Terror to a longer history of conquest, colonialism, and apartheid. In the process, Shukri illustrates the importance of understanding repressive local contexts as interwoven with global and historical power dynamics. Chapter 3 is a study of the popular American television series, Homeland (2011—), created by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, and focuses on the manner in which the Central Intelligence Agency’s “Overseas Contingency Operations” are portrayed by the show. I argue that Homeland initially problematises the ‘friend’/‘enemy’ binary, but subsequently collapses into a narrative in which these two polarities are construed by prevailing American attitudes towards Islam and the notion of the War on Terror as a necessity. This thesis concludes that texts that characterise the War on Terror as a global phenomenon, and situate it within a broad historical discourse, are able to subvert the singularity ascribed to the 9/11 attacks, as well as the epochal connotations of the ‘post-9/11 ’ literary genre. I argue that the novels I have chosen scrutinise the ways in which perceptions are framed by dominant forms of media, historiography, and political rhetoric, and not only offer unique insights on the repercussions of the global War on Terror but attempt to conceive of humanity in its totality, and therefore destabilise the ontological and reductive operation of the frame itself.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Sulter, Philip Eric John
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5544 , vital:20940
- Description: This thesis explores geopolitically diverse fictional responses to 9/11 and the War on Terror. Drawing on Judith Butler’s (2009) notion of the “frames of war,” Jacques Derrida’s (2005) conception of the ‘friend’/‘enemy’ binary, and Mahmood Mamdani’s (2004) critique of the ‘good’ Muslim, ‘bad’ Muslim dichotomy (delineated in 2001 by President George W. Bush) I examine how selected examples of contemporary literature, as well as a popular television series, depict the War on Terror; and analyse how these differently situated texts structure their respective depictions of Islam and Muslims. In the first chapter, I focus on how The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), a novel by the Pakistani author, Mohsin Hamid, problematises the ‘good’ Muslim, ‘bad’ Muslim binary, and argue that the protagonist’s decision to leave the United States in the wake of 9/11 represents an important political comment on global perceptions of American foreign policy and the human cost of millennial capitalism. Chapter 2 is an investigation of two novels: The Silent Minaret (2005) and I See You (2014), by the South African writer, Ishtiyaq Shukri. By situating his characters in a variety of geopolitical spaces and temporal realities, Shukri encourages the reader to discard the structuring frames of nation, race, and religion, and links the vulnerability and violence implicit in the War on Terror to a longer history of conquest, colonialism, and apartheid. In the process, Shukri illustrates the importance of understanding repressive local contexts as interwoven with global and historical power dynamics. Chapter 3 is a study of the popular American television series, Homeland (2011—), created by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, and focuses on the manner in which the Central Intelligence Agency’s “Overseas Contingency Operations” are portrayed by the show. I argue that Homeland initially problematises the ‘friend’/‘enemy’ binary, but subsequently collapses into a narrative in which these two polarities are construed by prevailing American attitudes towards Islam and the notion of the War on Terror as a necessity. This thesis concludes that texts that characterise the War on Terror as a global phenomenon, and situate it within a broad historical discourse, are able to subvert the singularity ascribed to the 9/11 attacks, as well as the epochal connotations of the ‘post-9/11 ’ literary genre. I argue that the novels I have chosen scrutinise the ways in which perceptions are framed by dominant forms of media, historiography, and political rhetoric, and not only offer unique insights on the repercussions of the global War on Terror but attempt to conceive of humanity in its totality, and therefore destabilise the ontological and reductive operation of the frame itself.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“Wishy-washy liberalism” and “the art of getting lost” in Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative:
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142633 , vital:38097 , DOI: 10.4314/eia.v44i3.1
- Description: The politics of the protagonist of Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative, Neville Lister, are broadly liberal during apartheid, but show signs of becoming more conservative during the post-apartheid era. In this article, I argue that this development is unsurprising because bourgeois white liberals and conservatives in South Africa continue to cling to the privileges afforded them as the propertied class. For this reason, acknowledgements of privilege and quests for discomfort, while not necessarily dishonest, do not in and of themselves constitute progressive politics. Rather, one can, as Neville does, become comfortable with discomfort so long as it allows one to enjoy a privileged lifestyle. I therefore draw a distinction between the unease argued for in much of what constitutes whiteness studies, and a sense of being lost that seems to demand the loss of the home and its attendant association with control. This sense of lostness emerges in two ways in the novel: in a description of a photograph that contains the spectral presence of a dead child, and in a game that Neville played when he was a young boy. Both of these sections of the text also deal with the limits of art – of writing and of photography in particular. I propose that these self-reflexive episodes suggest the novel’s own limits, and gesture beyond them in ways that are worth consideration by its middle-class readership.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Dass, Minesh
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142633 , vital:38097 , DOI: 10.4314/eia.v44i3.1
- Description: The politics of the protagonist of Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative, Neville Lister, are broadly liberal during apartheid, but show signs of becoming more conservative during the post-apartheid era. In this article, I argue that this development is unsurprising because bourgeois white liberals and conservatives in South Africa continue to cling to the privileges afforded them as the propertied class. For this reason, acknowledgements of privilege and quests for discomfort, while not necessarily dishonest, do not in and of themselves constitute progressive politics. Rather, one can, as Neville does, become comfortable with discomfort so long as it allows one to enjoy a privileged lifestyle. I therefore draw a distinction between the unease argued for in much of what constitutes whiteness studies, and a sense of being lost that seems to demand the loss of the home and its attendant association with control. This sense of lostness emerges in two ways in the novel: in a description of a photograph that contains the spectral presence of a dead child, and in a game that Neville played when he was a young boy. Both of these sections of the text also deal with the limits of art – of writing and of photography in particular. I propose that these self-reflexive episodes suggest the novel’s own limits, and gesture beyond them in ways that are worth consideration by its middle-class readership.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
“You whore; you are so dirty, bitch”: the justification of and resistance to violence in the intimate relationships of female sex workers
- Authors: Bartlett, Elretha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Women -- Violence against -- South Africa , Sex workers -- Violence against -- South Africa , Women, Black -- Abuse of -- South Africa , Women -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Case studies , Sex workers -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Case studies , Women, Black -- Abuse of -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5082 , vital:20764
- Description: The objective of the study is to examine discourses of gender and dimensions of social difference implicated in female sex workers’ (FSWs) justifications of, and resistances to, intimate partner violence (IPV). Individual narrative interviews were conducted with FSWs (n=11) who were affiliated with the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). The participants were mostly women of colour (n=10), with a low socio-economic status, and between 31 and 51 years of age. Intersectionality and features of Foucauldian discourse analysis, as described by Parker (1992), informed the analysis of the interview data. In personal interviews, participants interrogated aspects of their own and their partners’ lives that they viewed as playing a significant role in the aetiology and experience of IPV. They drew on a discourse of violent black masculinity, developmental discourses, and patriarchal ideology to justify and resist their partners’ violent behaviour. They also positioned themselves and their ‘spoiled’ identities as playing a role in the experience of violence. Participants pointed to the construction of sex work as ‘dirty work’ and the role that this played in legitimising the violence that was directed at them by intimate partners. In relation to this positioning and its consequences in terms of justifications for violence, my analysis highlights occasions in which gender ideology is re-appropriated for the purpose of challenging the legitimacy of these interpretative frames. While gender politics is central to my analytic observations, my analysis demonstrates how intersections with race and class shape the specificities of FSWs experiences of IPV. In doing so, this study aims to broaden current insights into the phenomenon of IPV, as it does not only focus on gender discrimination, but on the complex interaction between various systems of oppression.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Bartlett, Elretha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Women -- Violence against -- South Africa , Sex workers -- Violence against -- South Africa , Women, Black -- Abuse of -- South Africa , Women -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Case studies , Sex workers -- Violence against -- South Africa -- Case studies , Women, Black -- Abuse of -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5082 , vital:20764
- Description: The objective of the study is to examine discourses of gender and dimensions of social difference implicated in female sex workers’ (FSWs) justifications of, and resistances to, intimate partner violence (IPV). Individual narrative interviews were conducted with FSWs (n=11) who were affiliated with the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). The participants were mostly women of colour (n=10), with a low socio-economic status, and between 31 and 51 years of age. Intersectionality and features of Foucauldian discourse analysis, as described by Parker (1992), informed the analysis of the interview data. In personal interviews, participants interrogated aspects of their own and their partners’ lives that they viewed as playing a significant role in the aetiology and experience of IPV. They drew on a discourse of violent black masculinity, developmental discourses, and patriarchal ideology to justify and resist their partners’ violent behaviour. They also positioned themselves and their ‘spoiled’ identities as playing a role in the experience of violence. Participants pointed to the construction of sex work as ‘dirty work’ and the role that this played in legitimising the violence that was directed at them by intimate partners. In relation to this positioning and its consequences in terms of justifications for violence, my analysis highlights occasions in which gender ideology is re-appropriated for the purpose of challenging the legitimacy of these interpretative frames. While gender politics is central to my analytic observations, my analysis demonstrates how intersections with race and class shape the specificities of FSWs experiences of IPV. In doing so, this study aims to broaden current insights into the phenomenon of IPV, as it does not only focus on gender discrimination, but on the complex interaction between various systems of oppression.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017