'n Dekonstruksie van 'n teks uit Die ongedanste dans van Breyten Breytenbach
- Authors: Vorster, Anton Ferreira
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Breytenbach, Breyten -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3572 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002095 , Breytenbach, Breyten -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: The thesis provides an interpretation of the poem ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ (Lewendood, p.143) by employing deconstruction theory, particularly as it has been developed by Jacques Derrida. The main assumption is that the text is not a self-sufficient entity, but finds itself in a continually changing relationship with other texts, a relationship described by deconstructionists as intertextuality. This relationship, as it has been described by Julia Kristeva, does not only involve literary works, but also the world-as- text. In chapter one this point of view is illustrated in a discussion around the title of the poem. It is postulated that the title is not a neutral description of a period in the history of the development of the Afrikaans language. Rather, it represents an ideological concept which can be interpreted in various ways. The poem clearly lends itself to an interpretation of "the struggle for the Taal" as a struggle which has manifested itself in many different areas and historical periods within the South African context. In chapter two the discussion of the relationship between language, history and ideology is continued. It is shown how the ʺofficialʺ history represents a one-sided view of Afrikaans as a ʺEuropeanʺ language, greatly ignoring its African component. This representation relies on a logocentric approach to the relationship between language and writing. Breytenbach's poetry, like the writings of Derrida, can be regarded as a "deconstruction" of this approach. The ʺdisseminationʺ of meaning in ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ is illustrated in terms of the poem's intertextual relationship with Breytenbachʾs ʺPlease don't feed the animalsʺ and Krigeʾs ʺLied van die Fascistiese bomwerpersʺ. Chapter three sets ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ within the current debate surrounding Afrikaner survival. It is shown how the Afrikaner power base has been established and strengthened by way of legislation, the system of Christian National Education, as well as the creation of a nationalist-orientated history. This power base is currently in a state of crisis, in which different political groupings are continuing the ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ
- Full Text:
- Authors: Vorster, Anton Ferreira
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Breytenbach, Breyten -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3572 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002095 , Breytenbach, Breyten -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: The thesis provides an interpretation of the poem ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ (Lewendood, p.143) by employing deconstruction theory, particularly as it has been developed by Jacques Derrida. The main assumption is that the text is not a self-sufficient entity, but finds itself in a continually changing relationship with other texts, a relationship described by deconstructionists as intertextuality. This relationship, as it has been described by Julia Kristeva, does not only involve literary works, but also the world-as- text. In chapter one this point of view is illustrated in a discussion around the title of the poem. It is postulated that the title is not a neutral description of a period in the history of the development of the Afrikaans language. Rather, it represents an ideological concept which can be interpreted in various ways. The poem clearly lends itself to an interpretation of "the struggle for the Taal" as a struggle which has manifested itself in many different areas and historical periods within the South African context. In chapter two the discussion of the relationship between language, history and ideology is continued. It is shown how the ʺofficialʺ history represents a one-sided view of Afrikaans as a ʺEuropeanʺ language, greatly ignoring its African component. This representation relies on a logocentric approach to the relationship between language and writing. Breytenbach's poetry, like the writings of Derrida, can be regarded as a "deconstruction" of this approach. The ʺdisseminationʺ of meaning in ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ is illustrated in terms of the poem's intertextual relationship with Breytenbachʾs ʺPlease don't feed the animalsʺ and Krigeʾs ʺLied van die Fascistiese bomwerpersʺ. Chapter three sets ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ within the current debate surrounding Afrikaner survival. It is shown how the Afrikaner power base has been established and strengthened by way of legislation, the system of Christian National Education, as well as the creation of a nationalist-orientated history. This power base is currently in a state of crisis, in which different political groupings are continuing the ʺ(Taalstryd)ʺ
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Aspekte van die Judaïes-Christelike en die Boeddhistiese in die poësie van Breyten Breytenbach
- Authors: Ferreira, Jeanette
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Breytenbach, Breyten Afrikaans poetry -- History and criticism , Breytenbach, Breyten -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3574 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002097
- Description: Concepts of life and death, time and self-denial are investigated in the poetry of Breyten Breytenbach, with specific reference to the similarities and differences between the Judeo-Christian and the Buddhist traditions. Biblical references in the poetry are examined, and their underlying concepts compared to related concepts in Tantric Buddhism and Zen-Buddhism. The conclusion is drawn that the biblical concepts are transposed in the poetry in order to create Buddhist concepts of life and death, time and a form of self-denial. De-sacralisation of the Christian. concepts is inevitable in this creative process. However, the primary intention of the author is not de-sacralisation, but the implementation 'of the Buddhist philosophy of life in which everything is experienced as "totally one". A comparison between the reconstructed intended reader of Breytenbach's poetry and elements of the Afrikaans reading public suggests that political comment on segregated South African society is intended. Breytenbach's poetry is compared to canonized Afrikaans poetry with respect to Buddhist influence, national protest, aspiration to holiness and transposed biblical concepts. The conclusion is that his poetry is highly innovative in these respects. In the broader spectrum of South African literature his poetry is compared, with reference to transposed biblical concepts and national protest, to the poetry of Black poets writing in English, and (where material is available) to those writing in Afrikaans. The conclusion is that Breytenbach's poetry is strongly linked to this poetry. However, the complexity of Breytenbach's poetry, and the advanced aesthetic level and linguistic code required of the intended reader determine his placing within the canon of Afrikaans poetry.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ferreira, Jeanette
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Breytenbach, Breyten Afrikaans poetry -- History and criticism , Breytenbach, Breyten -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3574 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002097
- Description: Concepts of life and death, time and self-denial are investigated in the poetry of Breyten Breytenbach, with specific reference to the similarities and differences between the Judeo-Christian and the Buddhist traditions. Biblical references in the poetry are examined, and their underlying concepts compared to related concepts in Tantric Buddhism and Zen-Buddhism. The conclusion is drawn that the biblical concepts are transposed in the poetry in order to create Buddhist concepts of life and death, time and a form of self-denial. De-sacralisation of the Christian. concepts is inevitable in this creative process. However, the primary intention of the author is not de-sacralisation, but the implementation 'of the Buddhist philosophy of life in which everything is experienced as "totally one". A comparison between the reconstructed intended reader of Breytenbach's poetry and elements of the Afrikaans reading public suggests that political comment on segregated South African society is intended. Breytenbach's poetry is compared to canonized Afrikaans poetry with respect to Buddhist influence, national protest, aspiration to holiness and transposed biblical concepts. The conclusion is that his poetry is highly innovative in these respects. In the broader spectrum of South African literature his poetry is compared, with reference to transposed biblical concepts and national protest, to the poetry of Black poets writing in English, and (where material is available) to those writing in Afrikaans. The conclusion is that Breytenbach's poetry is strongly linked to this poetry. However, the complexity of Breytenbach's poetry, and the advanced aesthetic level and linguistic code required of the intended reader determine his placing within the canon of Afrikaans poetry.
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Oor die kortkuns van John Miles
- Authors: De Beer, Marésa
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Miles, John, 1938- -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3569 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002092
- Description: This thesis involves intensive analyses of some of the short-short stories in John Miles's Liefs nie op straat nie, in order to reveal the narrative strategies employed in each. In other words, it is geared to "the rules that govern ... textual actualization and, consequently, those rules that govern the way literary discourse functions as communication" (Riffaterre 1983: 158). Subsequently, attention is given to the interrelationship among the texts, the way in which they act upon one another and interact with the title of the volume, in order to establish the function of such relations. The following texts are analysed in consecutive chapters: "Lucy", "Lappies, kan jy my hoor, Lappies?", "Voorgevoel", "Dom Nakkie, my Dom Nakkie" and "Wie het nog Dom Nakkie gesien?", "Hy staan by die deur en hy klop", "Gustav gaan speel", and "Liefs nie op straat nie". In a concluding chapter the implications of the title are discussed with reference to all the texts in the volume, including those not analysed individually. It is concluded that, on the one hand, the expectations raised by the title are ironicized because the title is never "completed" explicitly, and because that which, by implication, should not be seen in public ("op straat"), is specifically situated in the street and scrutinized in close-up. But on the other hand the title also evokes a peculiar mentality present in all the texts, either in the narrators, or in the characters, or in both. The discussion of "Lucy" is focussed mainly on the contrast and interaction between the world of the child and that of the adult and on the way in which this interaction is actualized within the text through the contrast in the experience of time, the use of "mémoire involontaire", "durée" and the contrasts between (and overlapping of) narrative perspective and focalization. In respect of "Lappies, kan jy my hoor, Lappies?" special attention is paid to similarities and contrasts between this text and the traditional suspense story, notably the way in which conventional techniques are employed to create suspense, as well as to generate an entire subtext which eventually "relocates" the text on the niveau of the murderer's psychological dilemma. In discussing "Voorgevoel" emphasis is not placed primarily on what is conveyed by the narrator, but on the way in which his intentions are subverted both by the window pane through which he is looking and by the narration as such. In this way he is foregrounded and revealed as narrator, just as the text is foregrounded and revealed as literature, with the emphasis, in both cases, not only on their defence mechanisms but also on their impotence. "Dom Nakkie, my Dom Nakkie" and "Wie het nog Dom Nakkie gesien?" are grouped together in one chapter in order to illuminate the interaction between the two narratives in the first text, as well as the interaction between the two texts. Ultimately, they may be seen as three narratives juxtaposed through irony and relativism. The "triumph" of the "preferably not in public" mentality, both in the text and in society, is also illustrated by the interaction between the three narratives. In chapter, 5, in which "Hy staan by die deur en hy klop" is discussed, attention is focussed on the ironic function of the Biblical references, the contrast between Jan and the rest of society, and the way in which the "climax" is located within the Iserian "blank" in the text, so that the entire process of decoding is based on a filling in of that "blank" and its implications. "Gustav gaan speel" is based loosely on Barthes's lexia model, in order to determine the signifying process in the text, and also to demonstrate the way in which the text presupposes rereading. In the discussion of the title text it is revealed how the text is centered in the basic dichotomy between the narrator-as-writer and the journalist, and the way in which this polarity is relativized by the text as such. The text is demonstrated to be the credo of the volume as a whole as well as of the fiction of the Seventies in Afrikaans.
- Full Text:
- Authors: De Beer, Marésa
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Miles, John, 1938- -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3569 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002092
- Description: This thesis involves intensive analyses of some of the short-short stories in John Miles's Liefs nie op straat nie, in order to reveal the narrative strategies employed in each. In other words, it is geared to "the rules that govern ... textual actualization and, consequently, those rules that govern the way literary discourse functions as communication" (Riffaterre 1983: 158). Subsequently, attention is given to the interrelationship among the texts, the way in which they act upon one another and interact with the title of the volume, in order to establish the function of such relations. The following texts are analysed in consecutive chapters: "Lucy", "Lappies, kan jy my hoor, Lappies?", "Voorgevoel", "Dom Nakkie, my Dom Nakkie" and "Wie het nog Dom Nakkie gesien?", "Hy staan by die deur en hy klop", "Gustav gaan speel", and "Liefs nie op straat nie". In a concluding chapter the implications of the title are discussed with reference to all the texts in the volume, including those not analysed individually. It is concluded that, on the one hand, the expectations raised by the title are ironicized because the title is never "completed" explicitly, and because that which, by implication, should not be seen in public ("op straat"), is specifically situated in the street and scrutinized in close-up. But on the other hand the title also evokes a peculiar mentality present in all the texts, either in the narrators, or in the characters, or in both. The discussion of "Lucy" is focussed mainly on the contrast and interaction between the world of the child and that of the adult and on the way in which this interaction is actualized within the text through the contrast in the experience of time, the use of "mémoire involontaire", "durée" and the contrasts between (and overlapping of) narrative perspective and focalization. In respect of "Lappies, kan jy my hoor, Lappies?" special attention is paid to similarities and contrasts between this text and the traditional suspense story, notably the way in which conventional techniques are employed to create suspense, as well as to generate an entire subtext which eventually "relocates" the text on the niveau of the murderer's psychological dilemma. In discussing "Voorgevoel" emphasis is not placed primarily on what is conveyed by the narrator, but on the way in which his intentions are subverted both by the window pane through which he is looking and by the narration as such. In this way he is foregrounded and revealed as narrator, just as the text is foregrounded and revealed as literature, with the emphasis, in both cases, not only on their defence mechanisms but also on their impotence. "Dom Nakkie, my Dom Nakkie" and "Wie het nog Dom Nakkie gesien?" are grouped together in one chapter in order to illuminate the interaction between the two narratives in the first text, as well as the interaction between the two texts. Ultimately, they may be seen as three narratives juxtaposed through irony and relativism. The "triumph" of the "preferably not in public" mentality, both in the text and in society, is also illustrated by the interaction between the three narratives. In chapter, 5, in which "Hy staan by die deur en hy klop" is discussed, attention is focussed on the ironic function of the Biblical references, the contrast between Jan and the rest of society, and the way in which the "climax" is located within the Iserian "blank" in the text, so that the entire process of decoding is based on a filling in of that "blank" and its implications. "Gustav gaan speel" is based loosely on Barthes's lexia model, in order to determine the signifying process in the text, and also to demonstrate the way in which the text presupposes rereading. In the discussion of the title text it is revealed how the text is centered in the basic dichotomy between the narrator-as-writer and the journalist, and the way in which this polarity is relativized by the text as such. The text is demonstrated to be the credo of the volume as a whole as well as of the fiction of the Seventies in Afrikaans.
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