It's my hand that wrote!
- Authors: Magade, Mncedi
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South African fiction (English) -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142551 , vital:38090
- Description: This collection of short stories experiments with the idea of the text as it constitutes the world just as much as it is constituted by the world. These short stories use the text as a way to respond to struggles faced by people whose identities do not conform to society’s standards. The stories in here navigate between fantastic and experiential writing which allows the text to speak in its own language. The writing is influenced by that of Mthuthuzeli Matshoba for the realist approach in telling the stories. Ayi Kwei Armah’s writing in Fragments for experientialism that focuses on the dead and the living and which makes specific references to the idea of home – particularly for those who always find it hard to belong. And that of Bruce Sterling’s creation of explosive imagery in science fiction that sticks in the reader’s mind as portrayed in his short story we see things differently. Angela Carter’s brilliance in writing short stories and her approach to magical realism has also been a powerful influence. In telling these stories using a hybrid/fluid approach, I hope to come to terms with being a different “being”. It is to find ways of telling myself that it is okay to be queer, that to be a misfit is no sin. To say this in a language that gives meaning to my own struggles of being. This work is a combination of three disjointed moments of the narrator’s life experiences which are exposed in three sections; It’s My Hand That Wrote, (Un)Tying The Knot and Thoughts. The aim of creating these three moments is to let the reader dive a variety of “truths” of the narrator’s life, instead of aiming to achieve a coherent single “Truth” about one’s life. It’s My Hand That Wrote explores both the unusual and inconsistency of life in a chaotic but explorative fashion.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Memory of a dead river
- Authors: Mayo, Thandokazi
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Short stories, South African (English) , South African (English)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92364 , vital:30716
- Description: My thesis is a collection of short stories that tap into cultural, literal references, both oral andvisual, and also draws on images I have seen and have struggled to get out of my head. The collection draws on Alissa Nutting’s distorted realism and Noy Holland’s evocative imagery to make even the most mundane things feel like something out of the ordinary. An unreal way of looking at real things. The stories are interrelated only insofar as they seek to normalise or neutralise the peculiarity of society’s seemingly outdated people who come from the rural areas. Their faces, their stories, their general mannerisms. To capture the tone of their emotions, their small plights, and to give an in-depth look into how where you are affects the very shape of your face.
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- Date Issued: 2019