Theses and Dissertations (English)

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Psychology, patriarchy and a politics of men and masculinities : reading inequality in three South African texts
(University of Pretoria, 2019) Medalie, David; katlehisosixam@gmail.com; Sixam, Katlehiso
After the 27th of April 1994, South Africa entered an unchartered territory, turning its back on a long history of segregation and of inequalities. With the new democratic government having assumed office, many were right to hope for a better future: better employment opportunities, better education for the previously disadvantaged, better racial integration and equality across racial groups, genders, and sexual preference and/or orientation. However, inequality continues to be invasive in many facets of post-apartheid life. An observation of inequality in the country using the Gini index showed a rise between 1991 and 2001 from 0.68 to 0.77. Masculinity unlike maleness is ideological rather than biological, therefore it follows that context would naturally play a significant role in informing ideologies that dominate in such environments. It also follows that inequality like other social phenomena influences masculinity as an ideology and a set of practices. This dissertation explores how inequality affects and influences a politics of men and masculinities in South Africa. This is investigated in three South African texts namely The Smell of Apples (1995) by Mark Behr, Ways of Dying (1995) by Zakes Mda and The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) by K. Sello Duiker. These three texts lend themselves to an exploration of inequalities in the country in relation to South African men and masculinities during specific historical and political contexts. The Afrikaner ideology which enforced a militaristic kind of masculinity as the most dominant type through its State/Patriarchy/Hegemonic masculinity pact is discussed in relation to The Smell of Apples and how such a pact is shown in the novel to affect boys and men. Following through on this thread is an investigation of black township and informal settlement masculinities as represented in Ways of Dying. That chapter focuses on the South African interregnum and how toxic and violent masculinities are subverted in the novel by the self-marginalisation of the protagonist from the construct of masculinity itself. Finally, what follows is a discussion of masculinities in South Africa as represented in the most recent text, The Quiet Violence of Dreams. The text shows how since the 1994 political transition, it is no longer easy to distinguish between the oppressor and the oppressed. The chapter investigates how, in Duiker’s representation of these issues, the ideology of masculinity manifests itself in an environment that assumes equality for all but in which stark inequalities persist.
The South African place in fantasies of recovery and the sublime
(University of Pretoria, 2019) Brown, Molly; West-Pavlov, Russell; farah.ismail17@gmail.com; Ismail, Farah
This thesis analyses the depiction of South African inspired places within the aesthetic of the fantastic utilizing a theoretical toolkit enabled by criticism of the marvellous fantasy subgenre. In my study, I consider the marvellous subgenre not as an arbitrary grouping but more holistically as an aesthetic approach entailing narrative structures and rhetorical strategies that enable the depiction of desirable places evocative of a specific mood and quality. This kind of desirability, I argue, is characterised by an enchanting sublime mode designed to awe and enthrall without alienating. The aim of my investigation is to shed light on a spectrum of questions revolving around the status and curious absence of the marvellous aesthetic in South African fiction and fantastic literature in general, centred specifically on the depiction of place. Are such depictions capable of inspiring wonder and recovery in the mode of the sublime? The selection of texts analysed in this study has been based on the questions each one opens up about depictions of desirable South African inspired places in fiction making use of the fantastic. In an analysis of H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885), I trace the marvellous subgenre to its roots within the imperial romance, which left on the subgenre traces of imperialist rhetoric that are intrinsically antithetical to postcolonialist sensibilities. The Heart of Redness (2000), a magical realist work by Zakes Mda, implicitly interrogates the binaries underlying the marvellous aesthetic whilst simultaneously enabling enchantment in the service of national healing. The Hidden Star (2006) by Sello Duiker is a children’s novel and reflects the important role that children’s literature has performed within the marvellous subgenre, yet it also indicates an unexpected but telling affinity with horror fantasy. Under the revealing lens of a theoretical frame that juxtaposes marvellous fantasy criticism with magical realist thinking, I explore the unique challenges involved in the depictions of South Africa as a place of enchantment.
Disarming the canon : exploring Tepper’s and Atwood’s retelling of classical (her)story
(University of Pretoria, 2019) Brown, Molly; nicole.best@up.ac.za; Best, Nicole
This dissertation explores the ways in which two contemporary texts, Sheri S. Tepper’s (1990) The gate to Women’s Country and Margaret Atwood’s (2005) The Penelopiad, adapt classical texts by Euripides and Homer in order to make and strengthen statements about contemporary gender ideologies that may be rooted in and perpetuated by the canonization of classical texts such as those involved in this study. I start by discussing the curious phenomenon of the simultaneous prevalence of adaptations of classical Greek literature in contemporary culture and the often negative perception of adaptations. I then explore the inequalities of gender, originality, and genre in both the contemporary texts and their classical counterparts before suggesting that although these qualities mean that the contemporary texts might have been critically neglected, they are also the reason that the contemporary texts are able to effectively question the classical texts that they adapt. I draw on Hutcheon’s (2013) theory of adaptation and Bakhtin’s (1981) theory of dialogics to motivate a critical analysis of the ways in which both contemporary texts use adaptation to write back to the past. Chapter one explores Sheri S. Tepper’s (1990) The gate to Women’s Country, which adapts three plays by Euripides – Iphigenia at Aulis ([410BCE] 1999), Iphigenia among the Taurians ([412BCE] 1959), and The Trojan women ([415BCE] 1959). Chapter two explores Margaret Atwood’s (2005) The Penelopiad, which adapts Homer’s ([800BCE] 1937) Odyssey. Through this analysis, I argue that by writing in liminal genres, Tepper and Atwood are uniquely situated to destabilise contemporary patriarchal worldviews rooted in a classical past and perpetuated by a classical canon. This dissertation thus aims to demonstrate the value of adaptation in reframing an old order so as to posit a new one.
Unreal cities and valleys of ashes in post-Great War European and American society: a comparative examination of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
(University of Pretoria, 2019-09) Wessels, J.A. (Andries); elmarie.kruger@up.ac.za; Kruger, Elmarie
Considering that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922) were released in a time that is now referred to as the Jazz Age, it can be said that these two works have various shared characteristics. This study aims to draw comparisons between the two works in terms of the respective authors’ views of the Great War as well as the overlapping characters and scenery in both works. It also aims to compare both authors’ views of the cityscapes of The Great Gatsby and The Waste Land, respectively, and their reverse trajectories in terms of notions of “hope” and “hopelessness”. Chapter one offers a detailed comparison of images and characters used in both the poem and the novel. This chapter discusses and compares the similar images and scenes in both texts (which shows The Waste Land’s influence on Gatsby). This chapter therefore concludes that the novel’s characters are, in fact, scarred post-war waste land-dwellers in their own right. The second chapter broadens the previous chapter’s comparisons of scenery and imagery. However, the focus is more specific: New York and “the valley of ashes” as mentioned in Gatsby is compared to Eliot’s view of London – which also shows how Eliot’s description of London in The Waste Land reflects his personal feelings about being an outsider in this city. The final chapter highlights the reverse trajectories of The Waste Land and Gatsby. Where The Waste Land takes a more positive turn (and, in its criticism, still shows a sense of hope), Gatsby’s conclusions are far less positive. This chapter discusses the yearning for hope in both works, and how the realisation thereof is only truly possible in The Waste Land.
The presence/absence of Plain English in selected Senior Phase science material for educators
(University of Pretoria, 2018) Noomé, Idette; fouchelauren@gmail.com; Fouché, Lauren Senna
At senior secondary and even tertiary levels, many South African science learners have a poor grasp of basic scientific concepts and processes. This is often blamed on poor teaching, as science teachers must create a connection between subject content and learners, and lay the foundation for a more advanced and technical understanding of science. Many local teachers are underqualified; moreover, gaps in language understanding may have a knock-on effect on science teaching. For more than 90% of South Africans, English is not their home language, but English is the primary medium of education in South Africa and the lingua franca of science. This is problematic because many science teachers are not necessarily fully proficient in English (any more than the learners in their classrooms), which makes it difficult for these teachers to digest the subject matter they must teach. If teachers are not comfortable with their subject matter, learners will be inadequately prepared. This exploratory study investigates whether and how using plain language, in this case, Plain English, to communicate subject matter to Senior Phase Natural Science teachers who lack English language proficiency can help them to understand the curriculum and subject content. In theory, plain language ensures clarity of information by explaining difficult/misleading terminology, and by implementing various other strategies to communicate complex information clearly. It can make basic and more advanced scientific concepts more accessible to teachers, ensuring a less problematic transfer of knowledge and a foundation for a more advanced scientific vocabulary. Plain language also ensures a stronger correlation between the writer’s intent and the reader’s interpretation. This pioneering study goes beyond identifying the challenges of multilingualism in South Africa, by proposing proactive use of Plain English to make pertinent information accessible to Natural Sciences teachers. The study adopts a mixed methods approach, combining a literature review on plain language with a qualitative study (interviews). Preliminary plain language criteria were identified from the literature and a few sample Plain English revisions were prepared. Then ten structured interviews were conducted with science teachers currently working in the Senior Phase to establish their qualifications and experience, their views on the resources available to them, whether these resources communicated concepts well, and whether the application of the selected Plain English criteria to the samples improved their understanding of problematic areas in the curriculum and additional teacher resources. Their views on communication via the Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statement (CAPS) document for Senior Phase (Gr. 7- 9) Natural Science varied. However, there was fair consensus that the Plain English revisions were clearer than the original versions, suggesting that the CAPS document could be improved by implementing these criteria. The respondents used different guides, and their views on these resources varied. Some liked the fact that the information presented allows for an individual teacher’s interpretation, but others felt that the guides needed to be more specific. The respondents agreed that the guides would be improved by consolidating the information presented in the learner and teacher guides to create a more complete resource for teachers. The preliminary plain language criteria were then refined, and three Senior Phase Natural Science resources were then selected for analysis in terms of these criteria and their readability was tested using a combination of readability measures. Samples from these resources were then revised according to the criteria and again tested for readability using the same combination of readability measures to quantify the readability of the original samples and the revised ones. These tests demonstrated that the most-used section of the CAPS document (according to the teacher interviews) could be dramatically improved by implementing the selected plain language strategies. The analyses of samples from the learner and teacher guides showed that several plain language writing techniques have already been implemented in these guides, but also that the teacher guides could still be improved. It is recommended that the information in the learner and teacher guides be consolidated in the teacher guides to make a more complete resource for teachers. Based on the data gathered from the interviews and the readability tests, it is concluded that Plain English can be used successfully to enhance readers’ ability to understand and absorb important science information.
“God doing limbo” : creolised belief systems represented in selected Caribbean poems
(University of Pretoria, 2023-08-12) Moonsamy, Nedine; U18078193@tuks.co.za; Place, Sarah Ann
This dissertation explores the representation of Afro-Caribbean mythology, folklore, and tradition in postcolonial Caribbean poetry. In addition, this study explores how references to Afro-Caribbean folklore connect the African diaspora in the Caribbean to a shared history of belief and has become essential in the creation of a creolised national culture. The significance of the representation of Afro-Caribbean folklore, mythology, and tradition in poetry is explored through selected poems by Olive Senior and John Agard. Poetry by Kei Miller is also explored to highlight how the rejection of evangelicalism and the reshaping of Christianity is an important aspect of creolised culture in the Caribbean. Thereafter, Tanya Shirley’s poetry is analysed for a unique view of black female sexuality in relation to Afro-Caribbean spirituality. As this dissertation delves into the intricate threads of Afro-Caribbean mythology, folklore, and tradition woven into the verses of postcolonial Caribbean poetry, it becomes evident that beyond the rejection of colonial forces, these rich cultural expressions serve as a unifying chorus, harmonising the echoes of shared histories, resilient beliefs, and diverse voices, ultimately crafting a vibrant creolised national culture that resonates with the heartbeat of the Afro-Caribbean spirit.
How boys become men : examining the representation of boyhood masculinity in Hughes’s Tom Brown’s school days (1857)
(University of Pretoria, 2023-12-13) Medalie, David; carynleighoram@gmail.com; Oram, Caryn
Masculinity today is a highly contested subject. In current cultural discourse, it has frequently been viewed as a deeply embedded social system that is harmful and dangerous. In this dissertation, I wish to explore the period in boys’ lives where masculinity is learned and to consider the possibility of instilling more positive forms of masculinity. This aim has directed my focus to consideration of the schoolboy environment, specifically as it is depicted in Thomas Hughes’s well-known novel, Tom Brown’s School Days (1857) [1993]. In the novel, Hughes presents a loosely fictionalised depiction of Rugby, a renowned and elite British school for boys. The story is set in the nineteenth century, during the years of Dr Thomas Arnold’s headmastership. Hughes’s novel is pertinent to my exploration of masculinity due to the character development of its protagonist, Tom Brown, during his schooling at Rugby. Tom’s journey offers insight into how young boys develop in this environment. In conducting an analysis of Hughes’s novel, I explore the influence of Dr Arnold, who is renowned as a significant historical figure and educator, as well as the interactions among the schoolboys themselves. The novel is analysed alongside an exploration of R. W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity and criticisms of it, in order to understand how masculinity as a social phenomenon is able to operate and sustain itself. I also explore research conducted on masculinity in the nineteenth century to provide an appropriate historical context, as well as on boys in modern schooling environments, in order to develop a theoretical framework on boyhood masculinity. Through an analysis of Tom Brown’s School Days, a famous account of boyhood experience, I aim to discern what values and expectations masculinity instils in boys, and to identify aspects of masculinity which may be deemed to be beneficial for boys’ overall development.
Writing in engineering : teaching higher-order writing techniques to engineering students in an extended degree programme
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Lenahan, Patrick; Müller, Erika; lauren.jansen@up.ac.za; Jansen, Lauren Senna
This study investigates the ways in which a writing curriculum with an emphasis on higher-order skills improves student writing. This curriculum was developed for a module titled ‘Professional Orientation’, which is offered to students in the extended engineering degree programme at the University of Pretoria. One of the aims of Professional Orientation is to promote writing development as specified in the Engineering Council of South Africa’s (ESCA’s) Graduate Attribute 6. After a quality review in 2017, which indicated that the writing aspect of the module was too general and simplistic, and the lecturer/researcher’s appointment in the module, it was decided that a PhD study would be conducted to establish the success or failure of a revised writing curriculum with an explicit emphasis on higher-order writing. This exploratory study investigates whether or not a curriculum with an emphasis on higher-order writing skills leads to improvements in student writing, to what extent these improvements are notable, and how these are relevant to students as they progress in the academic and professional environment. This study adopts an action research framework, following Glanz’s 1998 proposed research cycle. A literature review was done to investigate the cognitive, social, and education theories used as a lens to develop the revised curriculum. Thereafter, different international and local studies on academic literacy were reviewed to gather relevant information on the field. Finally, a framework for the lower- and higher-order skills developed and enforced in this study was investigated and finalised. This led to a revised curriculum in 2020 and a further revision of the curriculum for analysis in this study in 2021. The researcher conducted a quantitative analysis of student results, a qualitative analysis of select student writing samples, as well as an analysis of regular student writing reflections. The results indicate that certain aspects of student writing improved, particularly in mid- or high-performing student work, but that low-performing students were not necessarily able to keep up with the writing demands and make significant improvements in their writing. However, students, whether low-, mid-, or high-performing, typically perceived an improvement or need for improvement in their own writing, suggesting that the interventions were successful at creating an awareness around the importance of writing in an academic setting.
Complexities of the feminine voice in J. M. Coetzee’s in the heart of the country, foe, and age of iron
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Goedhals, Antony; anoukvong@gmail.com; De Klerk, Anouk Christine
Between the years of 1976 and 1990, J. M. Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country, Foe, and Age of Iron were published. These three novels – the subjects of this dissertation – stand out within Coetzee’s oeuvre because of their narrative voices. Although Coetzee presents strong women with strong and powerful voices in most of his novels, these three are the only novels that use a feminine narrator. In order to study Coetzee’s writing successfully, a reader must understand the political background that Coetzee comes from, but when considering his novels narrated by a feminine voice, this political understanding becomes even more complex. A deep understanding of the existing patriarchal systems at play is critical, as well as a thorough examination of the feminine voice and its relationships with other characters, and the complexities that exist. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the theories used in the study and introduces the core issues that are met in critical studies of Coetzee’s feminine narrated novels, such as gender ventriloquism and cultural assumptions. In Chapter 2, I examine In the Heart of the Country and the way in which Magda uses her own imagined and re-imagined narrative to establish herself in a society (or indeed a micro-society) in which she has disappeared into because of her gender. In Chapter 3 I examine Susan Barton’s relationships with Foe, Cruso, and then Friday, in Foe. I look at silences within these relationships, and issues of authority and authorship. Finally, I examine in Chapter 4 the complexities in the character of Mrs Curren in Age of Iron as she allows herself to love in world that she has come to hate. By examining the feminine voices within these novels, I reveal a strength in Coetzee’s female voices – a strength that marks the male voices with which each female interacts and indeed other male voices in other novels as somewhat superficial in comparison. Coetzee’s feminine voices are the ones that carry power and complex messages within.
Thuma mina : debates about South African literature in English and implications for high school curricula
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Medalie, David; Noomé, Idette; robertmaungedzo@gmail.com; Maungedzo, Robert Ndanduleni
The beginning of the demise of apartheid in 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela and the formal end of apartheid with the first democratic elections in 1994 were conceived by some to spell the death of South African literature in English, because, for many, opposition to apartheid determined and defined South African literature in English. This study offers a new way of investigating the problem of defining and conceptualising South African literature in English in the post-apartheid era by fusing theoretical debates by scholars and academics on the topic with the practice and experience of teaching and learning this literature at the Further Education and Training (FET) Grades 10 to12 level by subject advisors, educators and learners. A special emphasis was the prescribed literature for Grades 10 to 12. Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements and other policy documents were analysed to see whether there are discrepancies between policy and what educational practitioners do in practice. Using a descriptive qualitative research methodology, English subject advisors (facilitators) and educators were interviewed, and learners responded to a survey questionnaire. The study confirms that South African literature in English is difficult to conceptualise, as its definition is determined by social cultural processes that are always in flux. South African writing in English cannot be categorised or explained in essentialist terms such as the origin, race or gender of the author, or even the subject matter and style. Even some of the educators who were interviewed could not define it, and preferred to describe it by mentioning some of its characteristics. There is a disjuncture between how academics, policy-makers and critics conceptualise literature on the one hand, and how practitioners implement it on the other. The academic literature taught in educational institutions lags behind the street or social literature (literature read or performed outside of the educational institution). It is recommended that any attempt to conceptualise South African literature in English take into consideration the subjectivities of individuals’ different social practices and not necessarily be based on elitist hegemonic discourses.
In an other world : representations of the other in queer African speculative short stories
(University of Pretoria, 2023) Moonsamy, Nedine; Shaw, Micaela Jade
This dissertation examines the manner in which queer African speculative fiction short stories navigate the other – that which is perceived as not belonging, or being outside of what is considered ―normal‖ – and how this other is represented. By setting their stories in both familiar and unfamiliar settings, and by blending mythological and futuristic elements, African speculative fiction authors imagine a diversity of emancipatory possibilities. Given that speculative fiction explores the limitations of time and manipulates it as necessary, this dissertation explores the different temporalities used in African speculative fiction. In particular, the focus is on utopian, dystopian, and mythological temporal frameworks. This dissertation also explores how each of these frameworks influences the existence and understanding of queerness and its consequences. Additionally, speculative fiction is a genre that successfully engages with both entertainment and social critique. I contend that the stories read here are political in nature; in a homophobic world insisting on the presence of queers in alternative time-space dimensions turns this literary practice into a profound, political act.
Landscapes of violence, galleries of crime : gender violence in selected post-apartheid crime novels written by women
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Medalie, David; Guldimann, Colette; tmadziyauswa@yahoo.co.uk; Madziyauswa, Tafirenyika
This thesis aims to interrogate the ways in which gender violence is portrayed in selected crime novels written by South African women writers. This thesis contends that the fictional texts written by South African female writers a vista into how female characters disrupt the discourses that continue to treat them as victims of gender violence. This thesis explores how South African women writers’ engage genre fiction to create a space to converse or dialogue on gender violence that has turned into a war mostly waged against and on the female body. What makes this study new is bringing together of crime novels written by both black and white women to converse on the unspeakable subject of gender violence which traverses markers of difference such as race, class or sexual orientation. In each chapter, both black and white female writers are made to engage with a specific response to gender violence (notwithstanding that two texts covered in this study were written by one black female writer). Gender violence is presented as an undercurrent that runs through the entre thesis, hence the need to break it down into different themes that constitute each chapter. In order to streamline the debate, each given chapter creates a space where two texts enter into a dialogue about the envisioned responses to gender violence. In this regard, the study shows that identities of the female characters in the selected texts are complex. Despite being considered victims of gender violence, these women neither share and experience violence in the same way nor do they react to this violence in a similar manner. This study thus study demonstrates how the selected texts complicate the overarching theory of gender performativity. Chapter 2 focuses on Margie Orford’s Like Clockwork and Makholwa’s Red Ink by interrogating how the female bodies disrupt the narratives that are written on them by male perpetrators of violence. The female characters use their vulnerability as a mechanism to move beyond their victimhood status. The study contests the disparities that have been and continue to be etched on the female bodies by illustrating how the living and dead bodies of women break the silence that contributes to female victimhood. Chapter 3 analyses the female coping mechanisms in Jassy Mackenzie’s Random Violence and Angela Makholwa’s Black Widow Society. The discussion centres on individual and collective female coping strategies that are evident in the notion of female killers. This chapter problematises the notion of collective female strategy by demonstrating that, though the female characters’ actions towards gender violence are collectively implemented, their lived experiences still remain different. Chapter 4 interrogates the notion of gender power relations as represented in Sarah Lotz’s Exhibit A and Hawa Jande Golakai’s The Lazarus Effect. The interrogation delves into how the uneven gender power relations are responsible for gender violence that is perpetrated against women. This chapter reveals that men mostly use power to suppress women’s voices so that they remain unheard, particularly, through the crimes of rape and murder. Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the thesis which provides a reflection on gender violence as well as further extending the theoretical framework on gender. This chapter highlights that crime fiction challenges the gender binaries that are implicated in the chapters of this study.
Queer spaces, the body, and the text in Frank O’Hara’s lunch poems
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Nöffke, Tobias Georg; johanine.muller@gmail.com; Muller, Johanine
This dissertation explores how queer spaces are created in Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems (1964). It investigates the definition of queer spaces and how these spaces can be created in literature. It uses the history of queer spaces in fields outside of literature to draw a parallel to the queer spaces that are created in a selection of O’Hara’s poems. This dissertation considers how the poem as a non-physical space is used to produce queer space in its representation of a physical space. I introduce five main points as the modes of approach to my analysis of O’Hara’s poetry. They include the reconstruction of spaces, the experimental escape, and O’Hara’s use of the othered consciousness. In addition to this, I also demonstrate that the use of the body within the textual universe is an essential part of creating queer spaces in these poems. Judith Butler’s theory of performativity is related to the remapping of the city and the unembodied self, to illustrate how the body operates in the creation of queer spaces. These five terms signal the interpretative strategies that I have devised in order to analyse a selection of poems from O’Hara’s Lunch Poems. Reality is queered in these poems to produce a non-conforming space for the queer body to exist in, and this dissertation analyses some of the aspects involved in creating queer spaces in literature.
Border thinking as literary imaginations : rereading decolonial entanglements in fiction by Bessie Head, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Kopano Matlwa
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Fasselt, Rebecca; mpangazitha_@outlook.com; Ncube, Ndumiso
The thesis Border thinking as literary imaginations: Rereading decolonial entanglements in fiction by Bessie Head, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Kopano Matlwa is inspired by the contemporary decolonial debates and draws both from decolonial thinkers and feminist border theories. Within the conceptual corpus of decolonial thinking, this study employs María Lugones’s concept of the coloniality of gender to examine the representation of border feminism in the trilogies of Bessie Head, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Kopano Matlwa. I regard these writers as three sisters in struggle since, although their struggles are different, they write to raise awareness of ‘women’/human issues, they call for solidarity, and they are writing back. The selected semi-autobiographical trilogies are significant since they, despite their generational differences, are connected through bloodlines of women’s resistance against the coloniality of gender and the marginality of African experiences in general. In this study, the domination and exploitation of ‘women’ are understood as part of the coloniality of gender that has resulted in the systemic and structural exclusion of ‘women’ from mainstream economic and political life in the Global South of which southern Africa is a part. In this way, the study re-situates and re-thinks the reading of the selected body of primary texts as well as relevant theoretical material. Herein lies the originality of this thesis, and it is here that I mobilise border thinking as a method that shows how it is to think, know, write and do differently. By drawing from the decolonial ecologies of knowledges and feminist border theories to understand the selected body of southern African women’s writing, the study contributes to the critical discussions on the modern concept of gender, and modernity/coloniality in general, and the relevance of decolonial thinking in the fictive imagination and performance of writers of the Global South. The concepts of the coloniality of gender and border thinking, combined, clarify how ‘women’ of the Global South largely experience domination, oppression, and exploitation first as black people and next as ‘women’ that are located, geographically and biographically, in the sphere of colonial difference. In its own way, therefore, the present study contributes to the expansion of literature and scholarship in the fields of decoloniality, feminism and liberation in the Global South. Decolonial feminism is awake to the intersections of race, class, biography and geography in the oppression of ‘women’.
Haunting and Queerness in Selected Post-2000s African Short Fiction
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Moonsamy, Nedine; kegangaspar@gmail.com; Gaspar, Kegan
This dissertation discusses post-2000s queer African short fiction in the context of haunting.
The Agency of the Servant : Reframing Domestic Service in Contemporary South African Popular Forms
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Sandwith, Corinne; Fasselt, Rebecca; andamons28@gmail.com; Ndweni, Angela Naomi
Representations of domestic workers and their relationships with employers occur in several fictional/non-fictional post-apartheid narratives in South Africa, including chick-lit, self-help literature and television series. This study explores how popular genres reinforce, challenge or reframe existing depictions of domestic workers (which have historically often been one-dimensional and superficial), by analysing Zukiswa Wanner’s chick-lit novel The Madams (2006), Zukiswa Wanner’s self-help text Maid in SA: 30 Ways to Leave Your Madam (2013), and the television drama Housekeepers (2018) directed by Grant Atkinson and produced by Portia Gumede. These works are examined against their genre conventions to investigate what these popular forms might open up for the representation of domestic workers and their relationships with employers. The study aims to highlight unique ways in which popular genres such as chick-lit and self-help engage with the subject of domestic service, opening up new spaces for previously marginalized characters and complicating stock figures. Including analysis of a television series underscores similar innovations in South African television, focusing on crime drama’s distinctive contribution. This dissertation shows the expansion from representations of domestic workers in South African apartheid literature as silent, peripheral figures to multi-faceted depictions that underscore their identities and experiences outside of their jobs as domestic workers. It demonstrates a shift from focusing on the intimate nature of domestic work to acceptance that it is essentially a job and should be treated accordingly. Moreover, it demonstrates how the portrayal of the domestic worker/employer relationship now showcases the possibility of friendship rather than simply depicting them in pseudo familial terms. Popular forms, adapted to the South African, and wider African context, are thus clearly able to engage with social and political themes in complex and dynamic ways.
Products of dystopia : Philip K. Dick’s reflections on uncomfortable social realities in three novels
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Goedhals, Antony; u16148208@tuks.co.za; Visagie, Jeandre
This dissertation explores ways in which a selection of Philip K. Dick’s novels express the idea of products produced in a dystopian setting and how these products reflect uncomfortable social realities. The first novel to be discussed is We Can Build You, in which constructed humanoids referred to as ‘simulacra’ are uniquely situated to reflect societal decay under a system of late-stage capitalism and governmental overreach through mental health institutionalisation. The second is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which also features constructed humanoids, although the androids of this text are far more advanced and agentive. These androids and their role in the society of the text, are explored considering their positioning in the dynamic of empathy established in the novel’s post-apocalyptic setting. The final text discussed is The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, which is analysed with special attention to the use of drugs and escapism, as characters seek to escape the climate apocalypse ravaging the Earth. The use of such drugs and the solipsistic nightmare world in which the characters are entrapped, forms the basis of this discussion. The works of Umberto Rossi in The Twisted Worlds of Philip K. Dick and Evan Lampe in Philip K. Dick and The World We Live In are drawn from extensively throughout the dissertation, as they are instrumental in establishing the nature of the dystopian societies described and the perspectives through which we view them. This dissertation explores an under-represented aspect of Dick’s works, in that it discusses the use of products as reflectors of social reality. Dick’s writing often engages with capitalist characters, societies or ideas and the products of such a society are important to discuss as they reflect the priorities and values of such a society. This is a field of Dick’s work that would benefit from more discussion
H. P. Lovecraft's monsters of modernity read through J. J. Cohen's 'Seven Monster Theses'
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Goedhals, Antony; u17083100@tuks.co.za; Olivier, Cuan
This dissertation offers a unified application of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s ‘Seven Monster Theses’ (first introduced in Cohen’s 1996 Monster Theory: Reading Culture), and Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s (1890-1937) Supernatural Horror in Literature (1926) to a reading of three stories from Lovecraft’s fiction: At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. The study’s purpose is to determine what influence major events and fears of early twentieth century American society might have on the construction and representation of Lovecraft’s monsters. The study finds that Lovecraft’s monsters are in part influenced by religious uncertainty following the First World War, the scientific advancements of Einstein’s theories of relativity, and the economic uncertainty of the American Great Depression. Lovecraft’s monsters are, moreover, representative of their writer’s own racial prejudices, as well as those of the society he lived in. However, racial attitudes were becoming debunked, and subsequently changed in the early twentieth century. The result of this is that Lovecraft’s heavily racialised monsters are often represented in a subversive fashion: as beings ultimately revealed to be superior, analogous, or highly akin to humanity itself. The study consequently suggests that Lovecraft’s subversive monsters – situated within the field of cosmic horror that Lovecraft pioneered, and therefore inherently concerned with motifs of unfathomability and anti-anthropocentrism – are representative of the immense societal unease and existential dread that pervaded twentieth century thought. Such broader fears are distilled and localised within the bodies of Lovecraft’s heavily racialised monsters. These monsters undermine and reveal racist bodies of thought as arbitrary, thereby suggesting by extension that the very worldviews thought to be cruxes of American thought in the twentieth century – laissez-faire Capitalism and Judeo-Christian thought, specifically – needed to be reinterpreted within a time and place as ideologically volatile as early twentieth century America.
Using Plain Language for effective interdisciplinary science communication
(University of Pretoria, 2022-08) Noomé, Idette; ant_vst@yahoo.com; Van Staden, Antoinique
Globalization, rapid technological advances and complex problems require scientists to cross-collaborate to solve problems, and to compete for funding in an interdisciplinary arena. This involves communication across disciplines, often also across national, cultural and linguistic borders. Such communication is mainly in English, currently the global language of science, but a second language for many scientists. One important area of interdisciplinary peer-to-peer science communication is writing and reviewing funding proposals, formulated in terms of discipline-specific details, terminology and concepts. However, panels reviewing funding proposals seldom consist only of experts from the same field of expertise as the proposers. This thesis posits that one way to enhance the chances that proposals are not misunderstood, and to assist the reviewing process, is to apply Plain Language strategies. This exploratory, mixed methods study investigates the use of Plain Language principles in interdisciplinary peer-to-peer science communication and how it can help to clarify funding proposals. It thus adds to previous Plain Language research conducted on consumer needs around finance, law and the medical sciences, and on how Plain Language benefits science communication with the general public and applications in science education. Based on an extensive literature review on science communication and Plain Language definitions, a definition of Plain Language for funding proposals and eight Plain Language guidelines were developed to guide the analysis of two funding proposals. From these two texts, sample texts were selected and rewritten in Plain Language for testing in a survey, which also probed participants’ writing experiences, their perceptions on Plain Language and collaboration with language practitioners in science communication. The survey provided some quantitative and some qualitative data, which were expanded by two rounds of interviews with engineers and other scientists. Survey respondents confirmed the frequent need for written peer-to-peer communication. They predominantly preferred the Plain Language versions of the sample texts, confirming the relevance of the eight guidelines relating to the macro-level (organisation) and micro-level (vocabulary, conciseness, vertical listing, sentence length, active/passive voice, reduction of cross-references and sequencing). The scientists in the sample seemed aware of the concept of Plain Language, but were unsure of the value of the guidelines beyond simplification, which some resisted. Overall, participants were positive about Plain Language and collaboration with language practitioners, although they mentioned practical obstacles to collaboration. Many equated language services with checking spelling and grammar, which implies a need for the language services industry to educate scientists on the value of language-related services. Instead of document-based collaboration, interviewees showed a keen interest in training on Plain Language guidelines and associated strategies to ensure that reviewers of proposal are able to judge the merit of research on first reading.
Toward a metafictional aesthetic in the Netflix television series, You : ambiguity, genre and spectatorship
(University of Pretoria, 2022) Guldimann, Colette; niniesoost@gmail.com; Oosthuizen, Jenine
My research study provides a critical analysis of the Netflix series You (2018) and seeks to provide an answer as to why the show and its protagonist engenders paradoxical interpretations that alternate between two diametrically opposed genres, namely: romance and thriller. I approach this consideration of the series’ dualism by first placing Joe Goldberg in the context of the anti-hero tradition. By outlining Tom Pollard’s explanation of the decline of modernist heroes, who embody the Weberian ideal of ‘great men’ to increasingly postmodern heroes, who embody moral ambiguity, corruption and defeat (Pollard, 2000), I indicate the necessity of analysing Joe in terms of the postmodern ethos. After establishing Joe as a postmodern hero, I move beyond the characteristics of the protagonist to consider the narrative and the way in which the narrative is represented. By analysing the formal elements of cinematic narration implemented in the series’ audio-visual display, I expose the series’ subversive treatment of genre as a crucial factor that feeds the existent paradox of describing or interpreting the series as both thriller and romance, and Joe as both hero and villain. I propose that the series’ conflation of genre engenders an awareness of form, specifically that of the romance formula. I therefore suggest that the series be treated as, what Linda Hutcheon terms, a ‘narcissistic text’ (Hutcheon, 1980). By combining Hutcheon’s theory regarding the narcissistic text (Hutcheon, 1980) and David Bordwell’s work on cinematic narration’s inferential model (Bordwell, 2008), I illustrate how the viewers’ understanding of both the narrative and Joe is ultimately manipulated. My work on the series’ conflation of genre coupled with an understanding of the series’ narcissistic narrative identity supports my argument that the paradoxical interpretations found in both journalists’ and fans’ deliberation about the series result from the contestation between thriller and romance constituents within the cinematic narration, as well as the deliberate manipulation of the viewers’ inference through the awareness of form, that is the awareness of the romance formula. My research study concludes that the answer to the question regarding the conflicting dualism surrounding the series’ narrative and protagonist stems from a complicated amalgamation between three crucial components: the postmodern hero, the subversion of genre and narcissistic tendencies. In addition, my analysis of the series’ subversive and narcissistic treatment of genre exposes a meta-dimension functioning in the series You that ultimately places the onus of interpretation on the viewers.

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