"The wings of whipped butterflies" : trauma, silence and representation of the suffering child in selected contemporary African short fiction
- Authors: Njovane, Thandokazi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Children in literature Psychic trauma in literature Short stories, African (English) -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2253 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004214
- Description: This dissertation, which examines the literary representation of childhood trauma, is held together by three threads of inquiry. Firstly, I examine the stylistic devices through which three contemporary African writers – NoViolet Bulawayo, Uwem Akpan, and Mia Couto – engage with the subject of childhood trauma in five of their short stories: “Hitting Budapest”; “My Parents’ Bedroom” and “Fattening for Gabon”; and “The Day Mabata-bata Exploded” and “The Bird-Dreaming Baobab,” respectively. In each of these narratives, the use of ingén(u)s in the form of child narrators and/or focalisers instantiates a degree of structural irony, premised on the cognitive discrepancy between the protagonists’ perceptions and those of the implied reader. This structural irony then serves to underscore the reality that, though in a general sense the precise nature of traumatic experience cannot be directly communicated in language, this is exacerbated in the case of children, because children’s physical and psychological frameworks are underdeveloped. Consequently, children’s exposure to trauma and atrocity results in disruptions of both personal and communal notions of safety and security which are even more severe than those experienced by adults. Secondly, I analyse the political, cultural and economic factors which give rise to the traumatic incidents depicted in the stories, and the child characters’ interpretations and responses to these exigencies. Notions of subjectivity and intersubjectivity, identity and community, victimhood and survival, agency and disempowerment are discussed here in relation to the context of postcolonial Africa and the contemporary realities of chronic poverty, genocide, child-trafficking, the aftermath of civil war, and the legacies of colonialism and racism. Thirdly, this dissertation inspects the areas of congruence and divergence between trauma theory, literary scholarship on trauma narratives, and literary attempts to represent atrocity and trauma despite what is widely held to be the inadequacy of language – and therefore representation – to this task. There are certain differences between the three authors’ depictions of children’s experiences of trauma, despite the fact that the texts all grapple with the aporetic nature of trauma and the paradox of representing the unrepresentable. To this end, they utilise various strategies – temporal disjunctions and fragmentations, silences and lacunae, elements of the fantastical and surreal, magical realism, and instances of abjection and dissociation – to gesture towards the inexpressible, or that which is incommensurable with language. I argue that, ultimately, it is the endings of these stories which suggest the unrepresentable nature of trauma. Traumatic experience poses a challenge to representational conventions and, in its resistance, encourages a realisation that new ways of writing and speaking about trauma in the African continent, particularly with regards to children, are needed. , Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
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"Too tired to speak?": investigating the reception of Radio Grahamstown's Lunchtime Live show as a means of linking local communities to power
- Authors: Tsarwe, Stanley Zvinaiye
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Community radio -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Radio broadcasting -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Radio journalism -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Mass media -- Political aspects -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions -- 21st century Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 21st century Civil society -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Political participation -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3488 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002943
- Description: This study sets out to investigate Lunchtime Live, a twice-weekly, one-hour long current affairs show broadcast on a small community radio station, Radio Grahamstown, to understand its role in the local public sphere, and its value in helping civil society’s understanding of and involvement in the power structures and political activities in Grahamstown. Lunchtime Live seeks to cultivate a collective identity and promote public participation in the public affairs of Grahamstown. As a key avenue of investigation, this study seeks to test theory against practice, by evaluating Lunchtime Live’s aspirations against the audiences’ perception of it. This investigation uses qualitative content analysis of selected episodes of recorded transcripts of the shows that aired between August 2010 and March 2011, together with the audiences’ verbalised experiences of this programme through focus group discussions. The study principally uses qualitative research informed by reception theory. The research reveals three key findings. First, that resonance rather than resistance is the more dominant ‘stance’ or ‘attitude’ towards the content of Lunchtime Live. Residents interviewed agreed that the programme is able to give a “realistic” representation of their worldview, and thus is able to articulate issues that affect their lives. Second, that whilst the programme is helping establish links between members of the civil society as well as between civil society and their political representatives, residents feel that local democracy is failing to bring qualitative improvements to their everyday lives and that more ‘participation’ is unlikely to change this. Most respondents blame this on a lack of political will, incompetence, corruption and populist rhetoric by politicians who fail to deliver on the mantra of ‘a better life for all’ in the socioeconomic sphere. The study finds a scepticism and even cynicism that participatory media seems to be able to do little to dilute. Thirdly, in spite of the largely positive view about Lunchtime Live’s capacity to be a platform for public engagement, its participatory potential is structurally constrained by the material privations of most of its listeners. Given that in order to participate in talk shows and discussions audience members have to phone in, economic deprivation often precludes this. It is clear from this research that despite shows such as Lunchtime Live that are exploring new techniques of popular involvement, the voice of the ordinary people still struggles to be heard.
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"Totally unacceptable" : representations of homosexuality in South African public discourse
- Authors: Mutambanengwe, Simbarashe Abel
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Independent Online , Homosexuality -- South Africa , Sexual minorities in mass media -- South Africa , Mass media and gays -- South Africa , Homophobia -- Press coverage -- South Africa , Electronic newspapers -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2882 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013259
- Description: The 1996 Constitution of South Africa is ranked as one of the most liberal and democratic constitutions in the world. The right to freedom of sexual orientation, equality and the freedom of association amongst other rights is in its Bill of Rights and are thus inherently assured and protected in post- apartheid, democratic South Africa. However, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community continue to face discrimination and prejudice despite this newly established constitutional order. The present study is interested in how, in the light of the equality clause in the South African constitution, homosexuality is represented and constructed in the South African media. The thesis examines representations of homosexuality between the years 1999-2013 in articles collected from the Independent Online media site which incorporates 30 newspapers. The approach focuses on the topics, overall news report schemata, local meanings, style and rhetoric of the news reports. The results of the study show that negative attitudes towards homosexuality are framed in three main ways: homosexuality is represented as "unAfrican"; "ungodly" and "unnatural". I argue that rather than extreme forms of violence (such as "corrective rape" and murder) directed against LGBT citizens being interpreted as the aberrant behaviour of a few, these need to be understood in the context of the circulation of the above justificatory narratives.
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"Ufunda de ufe" : the story of a village psychologist in a rural, South African school setting
- Authors: Theunissen, Maureen Ezelle
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Participant observation , Rural children -- Education -- South Africa , Life skills -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:689 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004538 , Participant observation , Rural children -- Education -- South Africa , Life skills -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
- Description: In 2001, participatory research, incorporating various participatory rural appraisal techniques, was conducted in five, rural, primary schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The participatory research was aimed at identifying and addressing schools' needs in terms of lifeskills education in a changing South Africa and educational environment. This whole process has been written up as a case study and further analysed in an attempt to describe the emerging role of the psychologist, working in participation with educators, in this kind of setting. Going beyond description, the researcher reflects upon the function and nature of the role of the psychologist within the developmental participatory process. In doing so, the article addresses the need for participatory research results to be further analysed in generating theory, particularly within Psychology. The article highlights some of the strengths of qualitative research, and the primacy of the personal in that endeavour.
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"Us" and "them": disagreement over the meanings of terms, ambiguity, contestability and strategy in the Zimbabwean House of Assembly
- Authors: Hasler, Arthur Richard Patrick
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Politicians -- Zimbabwe -- Language , Zimbabwe -- Politics and government -- 1980- |xLanguage
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2083 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001600
- Description: This is a study of how certain value loaded political terms are used in Zimbabwean Parliamentary debate. Before 1980 it is argued that aspects of lexical choice and an individual's sociopolitical position were extremely closely related, especially in the case of "white Rhodesians". There was also a marked lack of ambiguity in the use of value loaded terms at this time. In contemporary Zimbabwean House of Assembly, however, terms which became popularized when the new government came to power in 1980 are used with considerable ambiguity and contestability in order to further specific strategies. Though correlations between the choice of lexical units and individuals' positions in the social structure have been identified as "sociolinguistic variables" (Downes 1984, 75), it is argued that an analysis of this type of correlation should lead us to an analysis of how these lexical units or "terms" are used by individual speakers in a micro-political process. I hypothesize that the ambiguity and contestability which encompass certain key terms used in the Zimbabwean House contribute to their being used as strategies to achieve individual or party goals. I show that the terms are manipulated by individuals in various contexts, and that the normative connotations of terms, that is what the terms "ought" to mean, is not consistent with the ways in which they are used. This, in turn, has an effect on how people think the terms should be used. This process of language change exposes the interface between language usage and social life. Though not reducible to a single "correct" interpretation, it does provide rich material for the analysis of culture.
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"Why I like history ...": Ciskeian secondary school pupils' attitudes towards history
- Authors: Atuahene-Sarpong, Boateng Kofi
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: History -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa--Ciskei -- Attitudes , History -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Ciskei
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1824 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003710 , History -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa--Ciskei -- Attitudes , History -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Ciskei
- Description: This dissertation was motivated by the decline in percentage of the number of Standard 10 pupils who offered History for the National Senior Certificate (Matriculation) Examination in the Mathole Directorate in the Ciskei from 1987 - 1990. The research revealed that the decrease in the number of pupils doing History in Standard 10 did not indicate loss of interest in the subject. Instead, the multiplicity of new subjects introduced in the school curriculum and some peculiar subject combinations in some schools forced some pupils (reluctantly) to reject History as a school subject. Those who chose to do History in Standard 10 showed their liking for the subject and expressed their interest in it. The study took the form of a survey through the use of questionnaire and informal chats with pupils and teachers on their views about History as a school subject. A questionnaire was designed for pupils offering History in Standard 10 and administered in four of the eight Senior Secondary Schools in the Mathole Directorate in Ciskei. Generally, work on pupils' interest in and attitude towards History as a school subject is very rare. Some of the few available works merely compare pupils' liking for History as opposed to other school subjects and when the response is not favourable; conclude that pupils in Senior Secondary Schools do not enjoy studying History. Pupils' interest in and attitudes towards the subject, the extent of their interest, the causes of their attitude and the internal and external influences on their interest in and attitudes towards the subject were neglected by earlier works, but have been given attention in this study. As a result of very little available work and material, pupils' responses to the questionnaire formed the basis of the material used in this work. A large number of pupils' responses was put in tables according to sex instead of schools. Where applicable, X2 tests were administered to see if there were any appreciable statistically significant differences between the responses of the boys and girls. In most cases where the X2 tests were applied, no statistically difference was noticed. The study showed more boys than girls showing interest in and positive attitudes towards History. The general picture of the study showed a deviation from the view commonly expressed by other studies that pupils in modern Senior Secondary Schools do not like History. As this study revealed, it is not the subject itself that pupils did not like, but the way it is handled by some teachers and lack of teaching aids to concretise events. This leads to the role of Teacher Training Institutions: which must be to produce the versatile, duty-conscious and innovating History teacher to revolutionise History teaching to make History alive to pupils.
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"Why Persephone?" investigating the unique position of Persephone as a dying god(dess) offering hope for the afterlife
- Authors: Goodwin, Grant
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Mythology, Greek , Gods, Greek , Future life , Greece -- Religious life and customs , Persephone -- (Greek deity)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3655 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017896
- Description: Persephone’s myth is unique, as it was the central narrative of one of the most prominent ancient mystery religions, and remains one of the few (certainly the most prominent) ancient Greek myths to focus on the relationship of a mother and her daughter. This unique focus must have offered her worshippers something important that they perhaps could not find elsewhere, especially as a complex and elaborate cult grew around it, transforming the divine allegory of the changing seasons or the storage of the grain beneath the earth, into a narrative offering hope for a better place in the afterlife. To understand the appeal of this myth, two aspects of her worship and mythic significance require study: the expectations of her worshippers for their own lives, to which the goddess may have been seen as a forerunner; and the mythic frameworks operating which would characterise the goddess for her worshippers. The myth, as described in The Hymn to Demeter, is initially interpreted for its literary meaning, and then set within its cultural milieu to uncover what meaning it may have had for Persephone’s worshippers, particularly in terms of marriage and death, which form the initial motivating action of the myth. From this socio-anthropological study we turn to the mythic patterns and motifs the story offers, particularly the figure of the goddess of the Underworld (primarily in the influential Mesopotamian literature), and the Dying-Rising God figure (similarly derived from the Near East). These figures, when compared to the Greek goddess, may both reveal her unique appeal, and highlight the common attractions that lie in the figures generally. By this two-part investigation, on the particular culture’s expectations and the general mythic framework she exists in, Persephone’s meaning in her native land may be uncovered and understood.
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"Working in the grave" the development of a health and safety system on the Witwatersrand gold mines, 1900-1939
- Authors: Smith, Matthew John
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Gold mines and mining -- South Africa -- Witwatersrand -- Safety measures -- History -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2557 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002410 , Gold mines and mining -- South Africa -- Witwatersrand -- Safety measures -- History -- 20th century
- Description: This thesis analyses the establishment of a health and safety system on the Witwatersrand gold mines in the period between the end of the South African War and the eve of World War Two. The period has been chosen, firstly, because the South African War had seriously disrupted production and the industry virtually had to start up again from scratch; secondly, because it was during this period that mine and state officials began to seriously investigate the reasons for the appalling mortality and morbidity rates on these mines; and, thirdly, because during this period some improvements did occur which were significant enough to enable the industry to warrant the lifting, in the latter part of the 1930s, of the ban on tropicals, enforced since 1913 as a result of their extremely high mortality rate. In the first thirty years of the twentieth century about 93 000 African miners died disease-related deaths and in the same period some 15000 African miners were killed in work-related deaths. In attempting to establish why so many African miners died, the thesis attempts to identify the diseases and accidents that caused these deaths and considers what attempts were made to bring mortality and morbidity rates down. Whilst the thesis is neither a history of gold mining in South Africa nor an economic history of South Africa in the period 1901 to 1939, it nevertheless, as detailed in the first chapter, places the health and safety system within the context of the wider political and economic forces that shaped the mining industry in this period. The need for a productive and efficient labour force, vital for the industry'S survival during a number of profitability crises in this period, forced the industry to reassess compound structures, nutrition and eventually the health of its work force. These issues of compounds, work and diet are discussed in chapters two, three and four. Appalling living and working conditions led to a high incidence of pulmonary diseases - TB, silicosis and pneumonia - which were the principal killers on the mines. Attempts to cure or prevent their occurrence are discussed in chapter five. Fear of disruptions to production ensured that the mining industry eventually also devoted considerable resources to accident prevention, a theme which is discussed in chapter six. The thesis concludes that the mining industry for much of this period was able to determine the pace of change; neither state officials nor African miners were able to significantly alter the tempo. In fact the industry was so successful that it was able to convince a number of government commissions in the 1940s that the migrant system had to stay, to ensure the wellbeing of the miner. This meant that despite considerable time, money and effort being spent on establishing a health and safety system on the gold mines, the mining industry was still of the opinion that the health of their workers was best served if they were sent home.
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#KeepItReal: discursive constructions of authenticity in South African consumer culture
- Authors: Plüg, Simóne Nikki
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Consumer behavior Consumers' preferences -- South Africa Brand choice -- South Africa Marketing -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/64973 , vital:28641
- Description: Writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde (1915), Matthew Arnold (1960), Erich Fromm (1997) and a proliferation of contemporary self-help gurus, variously assert that it is preferable for people to focus on “being”, or to value “who you are”, instead of emphasising “having” or the material possessions you have acquired. These discourses assert that individuals content with “being” are happier and more fulfilled than those involved in the constant (and alienating) motion of acquiring material goods as representations of themselves (de Botton, 2004; Fromm, 1997; James, 2007). This thesis provides an in-depth critical exploration of one of these ideal “ways of being”: authenticity. It does not seek to discover what authenticity is in an empirical sense, nor to define what it should be in a normative sense, but to map the cultural work done by changing and often contradictory discourses of personal authenticity. More specifically, this study uses a qualitative research design, social constructionist theoretical framework, and discourse analytic method to critically discuss the discursive constructions of subject authenticity in South African brand culture. The sample consisted of (1.) ten marketing campaigns of several large, mainstream brands, which were popular in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, and (2.) fifteen smaller South African “craft” brands popular in the “artisanal” context. The analysis is presented in two distinct, but interrelated, sections (namely, Selling Stories and Crafting Authenticity), where the relevant discourses of authenticity for each data set are explored in depth. Through this analysis the thesis provides a critical discussion of the ways in which these discourses of authenticity work to produce and maintain, (or challenge and subvert), subject positions, ideologies, and power relations that structure contemporary South African society.
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'A search for educational relevance' : an investigation into the teaching of the rural settlement component of the secondary school syllabus with special reference to Venda
- Authors: Mphaphuli, Shonisani Eunice
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Geography -- Curricula -- South Africa Geography -- South Africa -- Study and teaching (Secondary) Rural geography -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Land settlement -- South Africa -- Venda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1760 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003645
- Description: School geography has been identified as the one subject which has the most potential to develop pupils' ability to identify with their community and with their environment. Through the development of a sense of place pupils are encouraged to become effective perceivers, users, appreciators, evaluators and developers of their environment (Catling 1987. This approach to the teaching of geography implies that the content and the teaching strategies need to be perceived as relevant. Relevance in this study is taken to incorporate not only the needs of the pupils and the community but also of the subject. The location of this study in Venda, an area which is predominantly rural in nature sought to emphasise the important role which rural settlement geography can play in aiding the development of these pupils' sense of place and social identity. The research therefore concentrated on the approaches and teaching strategies used in the teaching of rural settlement in Venda secondary schools. This was achieved through a survey which involved geography teachers and pupils in the Thohoyandou inspection area. The place of rural settlement in the current geography curriculum was established through an analysis of the relevant syllabuses, textbooks and senior certificate examination papers. This analysis was primarily undertaken to illuminate the extent to which rural settlement geography in the South African curriculum complies with accepted criteria for relevance. The study revealed that the teaching of rural settlement in Venda is textbook-related and teacher- directed with no attempt to capitalise upon the pupils' experience of their rural environment. This was largely ascribed to the constraints of the syllabus and the demands of the examination system. When allied to the problems teachers have concerning syllabus development, the validity and relevance of this aspect of the syllabus is reduced. More importantly, because the local environment is not perceived as having value in the teaching of geography, the Venda pupils' perception of the value of their environment is diminished.
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'Becoming animal': motifs of hybridity and liminality in fairy tales and selected contemporary artworks
- Authors: Wasserman, Minke
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Fairy tales -- History and criticism , Liminality in literature , Cultural fusion in literature , Cultural fusion and the arts , Art, Modern -- 21st century -- Themes, motives , Art, Modern -- 21st century -- Exhibitions , Human-animal relationships in art , Human-animal relationships in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2512 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019759
- Description: ‘Becoming Animal’: Motifs of Hybridity and Liminality in Fairy Tales and Selected Contemporary Artworks serves as a theoretical examination of the concept of the hybrid. My research unpacks the liminal aspect of hybridity, locating the hybrid in the imaginative world of popular fairy tales, folk lore and mythology. In my accompanying MFA exhibition, Becoming(s), I explore these motifs through an installation of mixed-media sculptures which are based on the hybrid creatures that populated the fantasy world of my childhood. The written component of my MFA submission will relate directly to my professional art practise, developing it further and situating it within a relevant context. In my mini-thesis I will consider the liminal in relation to the ‘animal turn’ in contemporary art, with a particular focus on relevant artists working with the motifs of hybridity, such as Nandipha Mntambo, Jane Alexander and Kiki Smith. The ‘animal turn’ is a term used by Kari Weil (2010: 3) to describe a contemporary interest in issues of the nonhuman, and in the ways that the relationship between humans and nonhumans is marked by “difference, otherness and power”. Of key concern to my research will be Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of ‘becoming animal’. Rather than describing a transition from one stable state to another, ‘becoming animal’ suggests a radical dissolution of boundaries – not just between species (such as ‘human’ and ‘animal’) but between any essentialising binaries. As such, ‘becoming animal’ suggests a conception of identity as being fluid and mutable, rather than stable and fixed.
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'Becoming citizens': young people making sense of citizenship on a South African community radio station youth show
- Authors: Karamagi, Sharon Benna Kyakyo
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Citizenship -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Youth -- Social conditions Community radio -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3444 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002898
- Description: This research set out to investigate the role that community radio can potentially play as a space in which young people engage with their own role as citizens and, in so doing, participate in discussions that seek to address social problems in a community divided by class, income, gender and race. The study examines how a local community radio station - Radio Grahamstown - developed a youth programme Y4Yin which the producers of the show and its audience came together to negotiate the meaning of citizenship. The study examines whether this interactive programme was able to function as something like a public sphere where in young people were able to develop a greater sense of agency, at least in the realm of citizenship. Using evidence gathered through focus group discussions with a group of young school-going leamers, interviews conducted with the producers of the show Y4Y, and drawing on Dahlgren's elaboration of a functional public sphere, the research concludes that the show provided a useful platform for Grahamstown high school students to develop their own notions of citizenship and to, at least partially and tentatively, build some 'bridges' across the vectors of socio-economic division in the town. However, the research also concludes that the Y4Y producers often failed to use a mode of address contemporary to the youth and often did not use production techniques congruent with young people's cultural tastes. This limited the programme's appeal and its potential as an enabler of discussion about notions of citizenship and as a platform for social bridging. In addition, because of the producers' control over the choice of topics put up for discussion, open interaction was more limited than could have been expected. In addition, the study also concludes that various limitations to the leamers' freedom of expression (including their fear that teachers might be listening in to the shows) inhibited the programme's role as a deliberative public sphere where issues could be aired, common ground found, and solutions discussed.
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'Carrying the fire' : Cormac McCarthy's moral philosophy
- Authors: Davies, Christopher
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: McCarthy, Cormac, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation American fiction -- 20th century -- Moral and ethical aspects American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2217 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002260
- Description: In this thesis, I argue that the question of ethics, despite claims to the contrary, is a central concern in Cormac McCarthy’s fiction. My principal contention, in this regard, is that an approach that is not reliant on conventional systems of meaning is needed if one is to engage effectively with the moral value of this writer’s oeuvre. In devising such an approach, I draw heavily on the ‘immoralist’ writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. The first chapter of the study contends that good and evil, terms central to conventional morality, do not occupy easily definable positions in McCarthy’s work. In the second chapter, the emphasis falls on the way in which language and myth’s mediation of reality informs choice. The final chapter focuses on the post-apocalyptic setting of The Road, in which normative systems of value are completely absent. It argues that, despite this absence, McCarthy presents a compassionate ethic that is able to find purchase in the harsh world depicted in the novel. Finally, then, this study argues that McCarthy’s latest novel, The Road, requires a reconsideration of the critical claim that his work is nihilistic and that it negates moral value.
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'Environmental policy to community action': methodology and approaches in community-based environmental education programmes in Uganda
- Authors: Babikwa, Daniel J
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Environmental education -- Uganda -- Case studies Education and state -- Uganda Community development -- Uganda -- Case studies Sustainable development -- Uganda -- Case studies Environmental policy -- Uganda -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1518 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003400
- Description: This research was conducted in Luwero, a rural district in central Uganda, over a period of three years, half of which entailed fulltime engagement in a participatory action research process with VEDCO, an indigenous NGO. The study focuses on the educational processes involved in the translation of Uganda's environmental policy into action at community level. It looks at community-based education and development activities run by VEDCO among smallholder farmers. The study addressed four objectives. For the first objective I developed a conceptual framework through a review of theories informing education in general and environmental education, adult education, community education, and community development in particular. The second objective was to conduct a situational analysis to identify contextual issues related to policy implementation at community level. The third objective was to engage in a participatory action research process with the NGO in the farming community in response to the identified contextual issues, and the fourth was to explore and comment on environmental education methods used within a community context. PRA techniques, interviews, and other participatory data collection methods were used to generate the data. The study reveals contradictions that limit NGO capacity to make appropriate use of participatory education processes in implementing policy-related training at community level. Elements in the National Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture, for example, conflicted with the principle of sustainable development underlying the policy. VEDCO itself was changing from a social-welfare-oriented organisation into a commercial enterprise pursuing economic goals, which conflicted with its social goals. The capitalist development ideology of the donor was being adopted by VEDCO, which contradicted the goals of people-centred development. This was exacerbated by VEDCO's dependency on donor funds for its activities. Contextual issues like people's history; poverty, gender and inconsistent land policies further complicated the policy implementation processes. There were also inconsistencies in the epistemological assumptions and didactic approaches evident in the implementation. The study shows that the intended emancipatory education processes are more often supplanted by technicist methodologies. Thus, it exposes the underlying historical, ideological and epistemological tensions and contradictions within the field of education, particularly in relation to the `paradigmatic' orientations (neo-classical, liberal and socially critical/emancipatory) outlined in the literature. Conclusions are made at two levels: in relation to the study goals, of examining policy implementation at community level and in terms of the study's contribution to the understanding of current education theory in the context of sustainable development among communities.
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'I want to tell the story again': re-telling in selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner
- Authors: Collett, Jenna Lara
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Warner, Alan Criticism and interpretation Winterson, Jeanette, 1959- -- Criticism and interpretation English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2248 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002291
- Description: This thesis investigates acts of ‘re-telling’ in four selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner.Re-telling, as I have defined it, refers to the re-imagining and re-writing of existing narratives from mythology, fairy tale, and folktale, as well as the re-visioning of scientific discourses and historiography. I argue that this re-telling is representative of a contemporary cultural phenomenon, and is evidence of a postmodern genre that some literary theorists have termed re-visionary fiction. Despite the prevalent re-telling of canonical stories throughout literary history, there is much evidence for the emergence of a specifically contemporary trend of re-visionary literature. Part One of this thesis comprises two chapters which deal with Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry (1989) and Weight (2005) respectively. In these chapters, I argue that, although the feminist and historiographic elements of her work are significant, there exist further motivations for Winterson’s acts of re-telling in both Sexing the Cherry and Weight. In Chapter One, I analyse Winterson’s subversion and re-imagining of historiography, as well as her re-telling of fairy tale, in Sexing the Cherry. Chapter Two provides a discussion of Winterson’s re-telling of the myth of Atlas from Greek mythology, in which she draws on the discourses of science, technology, and autobiography, in Weight. Part Two focuses on Warner’s first two novels, Morvern Callar (1995) and These Demented Lands (1997). In both novels, Warner re-imagines aspects of Christian, Celtic and pagan mythology in order to debunk the validity of biblical archetypes and narratives in a contemporary working-class setting, as well as to endow his protagonist with goddess-like or mythical sensibilities. Chapter Three deals predominantly with Warner’s use of language, which I argue is central to his blending of mythological and contemporary content, while Chapter Four analyses his use of myth in these two novels. This thesis argues that while both Winterson and Warner share many of the aims associated with contemporary re-visionary fiction, their novels also exceed the boundaries of the genre in various ways. Winterson and Warner may, therefore, represent a new class of re-visionary writers, whose aim is not solely to subvert the pre-text but to draw on its generic discourses and thematic conventions in order to demonstrate the generic and discursive possibilities inherent in the act of re-telling.
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'Leaders like children playing with a grenade?' : an analysis of how the Arab Spring was received in South Africa
- Authors: Gevers, Tristan Ronald
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Arab Spring, 2010- Revolutions -- Theory Arab countries -- Social conditions -- 21st century South Africa -- Social condtions -- 21st century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2846 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006031
- Description: When the Arab Spring took place, it took the world by surprise and sparked renewed interest in the idea of revolution. With differing opinions on what caused such a revolutionary wave throughout the North African and Middle Eastern region, many began looking at their own countries, and South Africa was no different. A debate was sparked in South Africa, as to whether there would be a revolution or not. What I originally set out to accomplish is to find out which side of the debate would be correct through the philosophical context of revolutionary theory. Initially, we attempted to define and consider the history of revolutionary theory. We found that revolutionary theory has gone through four generation and that even finding a theoretically informed definition is difficult. Following this, we considered some social-psychological theories of revolution as well as theories of moral indignation. We found that these theories were incredibly informative and that they provide some insight into the reasoning for revolutionary fear in the South African debate. Through the use of opinion pieces, we then considered the South African debate, and – using socialpsychological theories and the theories of moral indignation - found that both sides of the argument had valuable points, however, they often lacked some foresight. With tentative agreement, we found that the side arguing that there would a revolution in South Africa had a more valuable argument, despite its limitations. However, far more research is required before one can – with more accuracy – predict a revolutionary occurrence in such a way as was done in South Africa.
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'n Interdissiplinêre benadering tot die klasmusiekonderwys in Suid-Afrika
- Authors: Hendrikse, Salóme
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: School music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa Music -- Instruction and study -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2640 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002305
- Description: In hierdie tesis word 'n nuwe benadering tot klasmusiekonderwys in die R.S.A. bespreek. Die navorsing vervat in die tesis is vanaf 1984 tot 1992 gedoen. In 'n sekere sin verklaar die aanvangsdatum van die navorsing die feit dat die projek veral gerig is op die blanke onderwyssituasie aangesien die verskillende groepe se onderwysbelange volgens amptelike beleid grotendeels deur verskillende onderwysowerhede behartig is. Die blanke onderwysgerigtheid van die navorsingsontwerp ten spyt, is die uitgangspunte en die bevindings van die studie, veral ten opsigte van die rol en funksie van musiekopvoeding, sonder twyfel van toepassing op al die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskappe. In die opsig behoort die bevindings van die studie dus tot 'n groot mate ook die eise van musiekopvoeding veral vir 'n toekomsgerigte onderwys te kan ondervang juis omdat die vertrekpunt van die voorgestelde vemuwings en aanpassings in die musiekopvoeding die waardes en norme van gemeenskappe moet identiflseer en vertolk en terselfdertyd die beperkende effek daarvan moet teenwerk deur kulturele transenderings. Veral laasgenoemde is van groot belang in die multikulturele opset van die Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap waarin die musiekopvoeding juis 'n belangrike rol kan speel in die ontwikkeling van 'n onderlinge begrip en waardering tussen die verskillende kultuurgemeenskappe. In Afdeling A van die tesis word die huidige stand van klasmusiek bespreek en daar word op gewys dat, afgesien van 'n aantal sekondere faktore, die prirnere redes vir die nie-geslaagdheid van die vak, faktore soos die sillabusse, die opleiding van die onderwyser en die posisie van die vak in die kurrikulum is. Teenoor die huidige benadering van klasmusiek met al sy probleme word 'n ander benadering tot die onderwys in die a!gemeen en die klasmusiek in die besonder gestel, naamlik die interdissiplinere benadering met sy twee afdelings, naamlik die geesteswetenskappe en die kunstebenadering. Hierdie benaderings word bespreek soos wat dit in die V.SA. en Europa toegepas word, en daarna word 'n aangepaste benadering vir die R.S.A. ontwikkel ten opsigte van doelstellings,uitgangspunte, riglyne, metodiek en tegniek. In Afdeling B volg die empiriese navorsing wat ten opsigte van die interdissiplinere benadering in die R.S.A. gedoen is, en drie lesreekse, soos beplan vir Standerd 6 en 7; Standerd 8 en vir Standerd 9 en 10 word bespreek. As deel van elke lesreeks word die wordingstand van elke ouderdomsgroep bespreek en in gedagte gehou by die saamstel van hierdie lesreekse. Elke lesreeks bestaan uit 3-4 volledig uitgewerkte lesse wat insluit: hulpmiddels (kunsvoorbeelde, musiekvoorbeelde, gedigvoorbeelde ensomeer), beknopte aantekeninge vir die onderwyser, 'n bronnelys en 'n klankkasset met die nodige klankillustrasies soos waarna in die lesse verwys word. In Afdeling C word die resultate van 'n steekproef bespreek wat gedoen is in verskeie skole in die vier provinsies van die R.S.A. Met hierdie steekproef is beoog om die reaksies van leerlinge en onderwysers te toets ten opsigte van hierdie nuwe voorgestelde, en aangepaste interdissiplinêre benadering. Die lesreekse wat deel vorm van Afdeling B is as basis deur die onderwysers gebruik, maar hul was vry om eie idees te ontwikkel en te gebruik. Die reaksies van die leerlinge en die onderwysers word in die vorm van tabelle en besprekiogs aangedui, en aanbevelings van die leerlinge en die onderwysers word aangetoon. Die tesis word afgesluit met addendums tot die verskillende hoofstukke asook volledige bibliografiese besonderhede.
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'People's English' in South Africa : theory and practice
- Authors: Butler, Ian
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Second language acquisition -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1691 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003574
- Description: Communicative Language Teaching, an approach to language teaching currently widely prescribed, has been criticised for its unquestioning acceptance of the cultural and political norms of the target language. People's English (an aspect of the larger People's Education movement), on the other hand, offers a philosophy and methodology that takes an actively critical view of language and its relationship to power. In the context of South African society, this stance has had clear political implications. Although still imprecisely defined , the concepts of People's Education and People's English have been debated and discussed by various ant-apartheid movements in recent years. Attempts have also been made to translate the evolving theory into practice through the development of materials and methodologies. This has been achieved on a relatively small scale, with varying degrees of success. Recent reform measures by the South African government have, however, prompted the proponents of People's Education to reassess their position. This thesis presents a historical overview and critical assessment of the development of People's English in South Africa.
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'Rhodesians' in South Africa : a study of immigrants from Zimbabwe
- Authors: Simon, Alan
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Zimbabweans South Africa -- Foreign population Zimbabwe -- Emigration and immigration South Africa -- Emigration and immigration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3345 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005630
- Description: Although most whites have remained in Zimbabwe after independence and not all who have emigrated came to South Africa, large numbers established themselves as an immigrant community in this country. The aim of this study is to "sociologically capture" this community's views about their past experiences in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and their present experiences in South Africa. This is done by employing a generative methodological procedure whereby members of the target population themselves generated issues considered to be of importance to their previous and new situational contexts. As it was not possible to obtain a random sample of all Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa, questionnaire data were collected from four separate categories of respondents. In addition, depth interviews were conducted and thus responses have been analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings demonstrate that for the most part, few "Zimbabweans" - whites who are reasonably accepting of the new socio-political order in independent Zimbabwe - have come to South Africa. Rather, most of the immigrants, whose views were canvassed in this research investigation, seem to be bitter "Rhodesians" who have been unable to accept change and integration and the consequent loss of white privilege in the new Zimbabwe. These recent immigrants have not found all things to their satisfaction in South Africa moreover, despite the similar socio-political structures in former Rhodesia and contemporary South Africa.
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'Show and tell': a discursive analysis of women's written accounts of their self-injuring practices
- Authors: Morison, Tracy
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Self-injurious behavior , Psychology, Pathological
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3026 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002535 , Self-injurious behavior , Psychology, Pathological
- Description: Self-injuring is a practice that involves self-administered damage to one’s body, most commonly cutting of the skin on the forearms. (The practice is distinguished from other intentional and in/direct self-harmful or self-damaging behaviours that cause bodily harm). Dominant psychiatric, psychological or medical approaches construct self-injuring as deviant, socially unacceptable or abnormal behaviour that is indicative of more or less severe psychopathology, and importantly as a stereotypically female practice. This research is conducted within a post-essentialist framework and views self-injuring, and the injured body, as discursively constituted as well as a cultural and political act. It therefore moves away from pathologising discourses in which those who self-injure typically find themselves and their own accounts of their behaviour invalidated and silenced. Instead, the mental health perspective is viewed as one party among many that may contribute to the conceptualisation of ‘self-injuring’ practices as socially meaningful and thus self-injuring is critically interpreted without reliance on a medical model of ‘normalcy’. As part of attempts to challenge medical models and cultural ideals of normalcy, this research presents a critical discursive analysis of a series of narratives provided by 5 female participants in which they record their own experiences, feelings and thoughts related to their practices of selfinjuring. It makes use of critical discourse analytic methodology to identify certain characteristics of these narratives as representations of larger collective meaning systems. It analyses the ways in which self-injuring is constructed in women’s stories of their self-injuring experiences, focusing particularly on the subject positions available in these discourses, as well as their ideological effects. The analysis focuses particularly on constructions of the body and subject positions as they enable or undermines the self-injuring subject’s agency. Finally, it attempts to determine the limitations of certain accounts of self-injuring, pursuing multiple meanings of self-injuring and illuminating new dimensions of talk on self-injuring and novel ways of conceptualising and understanding the practice.
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