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Watson, Stephen. ""Bitten-off things protruding" : the limitations of South African English poetry post-1948." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22545.
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Bibliography: p. 362-393.In this thesis, the discussion of South African English poetry is undertaken in terms of critical questions to which the body of work, to date, has not been subjected. In the nineteen-seventies and -eighties, several anthologies of South African English poetry were published which, despite their differing foci, attested to the strength, innovation, and international stature of the work. Their editors made claims which emphasised both the importance of Sowetan poetry and the emancipation of white poetry, particularly in the last three decades, from the legacy of a stultifying colonial past. This thesis sets out to examine the validity of these critical evaluations. The impetus for such an examination is threefold. Firstly, in comparison with a world literature, South African English poetry has had little impact on the kinds of aesthetic questions which have led to the radical work of international figures like Milosz, Walcott, Neruda. Secondly, South African English poetry tends to be bifurcated by critical analysis, both locally and internationally, into the work of black poets and the work of white poets. Despite the realities of social history which have indeed dichotomised the human experience of South Africa in racial terms, this dichotomy does not seem the most fertile assumption from which to approach the achievement of a nation's poetry. Thirdly, as a poet himself, the writer of this thesis embarked upon the scholarly analysis of a poetic ancestry to which his own work looked ,in vain for location. The re-examination of the roots and value of South African English poetry begins in the thesis with the dilemmas posed by a legacy of romanticism in its displaced relation to a British colony. From this point the discussion argues that this legacy is visible in the unsatisfactory work of liberal poets in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, and argues that such choices cannot be nourishing to a South African cultural originality. Turning to the work most forcefully emphasised as culturally original - i.e. the work of the Soweto poets in the nineteen-seventies and after - the thesis explores this poetry's claims to stylistic and conceptual innovation. The poetry of the late eighties is then examined in relation to its desire to support, and even to drive, anti-apartheid philosophy and practice. The conclusions of the final chapter, presaged throughout the entire argument, suggest that earlier critical estimations of South African English poetry ignore crucial aspects of what has usually been meant by a fully achieved poetic tradition and that such neglect amounts to the betrayal of the very meaning of the term "poem".
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Becker, Charity Dawn. "Constructing the mother-tongue, language in the poetry of Dionne Brand, Claire Harris, and Marlene Nourbese Philip." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0016/MQ54604.pdf.
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Malby, Mark Edward. "Hong Kong poetry: a comparison of the developmental experience of Chinese writers writing in English andnative speakers of English writing in English and their works." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2007. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B38725496.
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Gaylard, Rob. "Writing black : the South African short story by black writers /." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/3224.
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Chowdhury, Sajed Ali. "Dissident metaphysics in Renaissance women's poetry." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/45264/.
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This thesis considers the idea of the 'metaphysical' in sixteenth- and seventeenthcentury women's poetry, notably by exploring the female-voiced lyrics affiliated with Marie Maitland (d. 1596) in the Scottish manuscript verse miscellany, the Maitland Quarto (c. 1586). The study aims to reintegrate important strands of Renaissance culture which have been lost by too exclusive a focus on English, male writing and contexts. For many literary historians the 'metaphysical' refers overwhelmingly to Dryden's pejorative categorization of Donne and his followers. However, Sarah Hutton has recently shown how the 'metaphysical' can be traced to an Aristotelian Neoplatonism, whereby influential fifteenth-century thinkers such as Marsilio Ficino were conflating the spiritual and material for political purposes. For the queer Renaissance critic, Michael Morgan Holmes, the 'political' pertains to individual spiritual-material desires which can undermine hegemonic definitions of the natural and unnatural. Building on this, my thesis illuminates 'metaphysics' in the work of Maitland, Aemilia Lanyer (1569-1645), Constance Aston Fowler (1621?-1664) and Katherine Philips (1632- 1664). These poets use the physical and spiritual bonds between women to explore the nature of female space, time and identity. Hutton's and Holmes's definition of the 'metaphysical' has special applicability for these poets, as they tacitly deconstruct the patriarchal construction of the virgin/whore and offer their own configuration of the spiritual-sensual woman. While critics have foregrounded a male metaphysical tradition in the early modern period, this study proposes that there is a 'dissident' female metaphysical strand that challenges the 'dominant' male discourses of the time. Over the last few decades, feminist scholars, notably, Lorna Hutson, Barbara Lewalski, Kate Chedgzoy, Carol Barash and Valerie Traub have reinstated the work of Lanyer and Philips in the English canon of Renaissance writing. More recently Sarah Dunnigan has drawn attention to the importance of the Scots poet and compiler, Maitland. Moreover, Helen Hackett has indicated that the writings of Fowler force us to rethink the roles of women in early modern literary culture. I take this further in two ways. First, I examine these poets' relationship to the 'metaphysical', the importance of which has been underestimated by critics, despite Dryden's original gendered use of the term. Secondly, I propose that these writers are responding to a 'polyglottal' female metaphysical tradition that develops in Renaissance Europe through a female republic of letters. I also assess the difficulties in belonging to a 'female tradition' in an era where female authorship was necessarily affected by misogynistic attitudes to women as writers. The research re-contextualizes the work of these women by examining the philosophical ideologies of Aristotle, Ficino, Marguerite of Navarre, Donne, Sir Richard Maitland, Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth Melville, Olympia Morata, Herbert Aston, Katherine Thimelby, St Teresa of Ávila and Andrew Marvell. By juxtaposing these four poets and reading them from within this philosophical-political context, the thesis sheds new light on the nature of early modern female intertextuality, whilst challenging male Anglocentric definitions of the 'Renaissance'.
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Karassellos, Michael Anthony. "Critical approaches to Soweto poetry : dilemmas in an emergent literature." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18830.
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A review of contemporary South African and European critical approaches 'to "Soweto poetry" is undertaken to evaluate their efficacy in addressing the diverse and complex dynamics evident in the poetry. A wide selection of poetry from the 1970's and early 1980's is used to argue that none of the critical models provide an adequate methodology free from both pseudo-cultural or ideological assumptions, and "reader-grid"(imposition of external categories upon the poems).From this point of entry, three groups of critics with similar approaches are assessed in relation to Soweto poetry. The second chapter illustrates the deficiency in critical method- ology of the first group of critics, who rely on a politicizing approach. Their critique presupposes a coherent shift in the nature of Black Consciousness poetry in the 1970's, which is shown to be vague and problematic, especially when they attempt to categorize Soweto poetry into "consistently thematic" divisions. In the third chapter, it is argued that ideological approaches to Soweto poetry are impressionistic assessments that depend heavily on the subordination of aesthetic determinants to materialistic concerns. The critics in this second group draw a dubious distinction between bourgeois and "worker poetry" and ignore the inter- play between the two styles. Pluralized mergings within other epistemological spectrums are also ignored, showing an obsessive materialist bias. The fourth chapter examines the linguistic approach of the third group of critics. It is argued that they evaluate the poetry in terms of a defined critical terminology which assumes an established set of evaluative criteria exist. This is seen to be empiricist and deficient in wider social concerns. In the final chapter, it is submitted that each of the critical approaches examined foregrounds its own methodology, often ignoring the cohabitation of different systems of thought. In conclusion it is argued that a critical approach can only aspire to the formulation of a "black aesthetic" if it traces the mosaic of cultural borrowings, detours and connections that permeate Soweto poetry. Michel Serres, with his post-deconstructionist "approach", is presented as the closest aspirant. Bibliography: pages 117-123.
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Alwazzan, Aminah. "The Strong Voices of Black Women and Men in the Selected Poetry of Langston Hughes." DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, 2019. http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cauetds/161.
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This thesis discusses Langston Hughes’ poetry and details the African-American experience in a discriminatory society which was an essential theme of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement which enriched American life. Hughes’ body of work covers the entire range of the human experience, especially the experience of ordinary people. He believed that the role of the artist was to cover and illuminate every aspect of people’s lives. Part of this expansive philosophy towards art included giving a voice to African-American women and men who experienced both racist and patriarchal oppression.
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Elfyn, Menna. "Barddoniaeth Menna Elfyn : pererindod bardd." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683377.
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Miller-Haughton, Rachel. "Re-Calling the Past: Poetry as Preservation of Black Female Histories." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1005.
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This paper discusses the poetry of Audre Lorde and Natasha Trethewey, and the ways in which they bring to attention the often-silenced histories of African American females. Through close readings of Lorde’s poems “Call” and “Coal,” and Trethewey’s “Three Photographs,” these histories are brought to the present with the framework of the words “call” and “re-call.” The paper explores the ways in which Lorde creates a new mythology for understanding her identity as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” in her innovative, intersectional feminist poetry. This is used as the framework for understanding modern poets like Trethewey, whose identity as a biracial black woman from the American South colors her lyric, more formal work. Lorde uses the vocal, oral tradition of calling as Trethewey relies on visual, gaze-focused recall. Recall is memory and re-call means bringing the hidden past into the future. The paper concludes by saying that all black female writers may participate in their own ways of calling out the truth and remembering what should be forgotten.
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Nkatingi, R. O. "Nxopoxopo wa switlhokovetselo leswi ndhunduzelaka vavasati eka xitsonga." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1415.
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Bokoda, Alfred Telelé. "The poetry of David Livingstone Phakamile Yali-Manisi." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17400.
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Bibliography: pages 217-232.Yali-Manisi, a Xhosa writer, performs and writes traditional praise poetry (izibongo) and modern poems (isihobe) and can, therefore, be regarded as a bard because he also performs his poetry. One can safely place him in the interphase as he combines performance and writing. The influence of oral poems and other oral genres can be perceived in his works as some of his works are a product of performances which were recorded, transcribed and translated into English. The dissertation, among other things, examines the way in which Yali-Manisi's work has been influenced by such manipulations. In this study we examine lzibongo Zeenkosi ZamaXhosa, lmfazwe kaMianjeni, Yaphum'igqina and other individually recorded poems. His poetry is characterised by an interaction between tradition and innovation. The impact of traditional poetic canon on the poet, the way of exploiting traditional devices are the most outstanding characteristics concerning his poetry. His optimistic disposition towards the future of the South African political situation leaves one with the impression that he envisages an end to the Black-White political dichotomy. Yali-Manisi manipulates literary forms to articulate specific socio-political and cultural attitudes which are dominant among the majority of South Africans. His writings coincide with some of the major political changes in South Africa. In his recent works, he is explicit and protests against Apartheid structures especially in Transkei and Ciskei. In his earlier works he could not articulate the feelings of his people as an imbongi because of the fear of censorship and themes of protests had to be handled with extreme caution if one's manuscripts were to be published at all. He often alludes to national oppression of the majority by the minority and instigates the former to be politically conscious. In some instances (e.g. in his historical poems) he seeks to correct inaccuracies which are presented in history books. Thus showing the listener/reader another side of the coin. He displays very keen interest and deep knowledge of natural phenomena such as seasons of the year and the behaviour of animals during each period. Poems about historical figures are characterised by certain allusions which refer to realities and events in the life of the 'praised one' or his forefathers. This helps to shed light on the present situation. Although fictitious adaptations of genuine events have been done, an element of reality is still prevalent.
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Holmgren, Michele J. "Native muses and national poetry, nineteenth-century Irish-Canadian poets." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq28493.pdf.
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Bennett, Sarah. "The American contexts of Irish poetry, 1950-present." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669957.
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Thackwray, Sarah. "Storytelling and social commentary in a comparison of Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying (1995) and Black Diamond (2009)." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7149.
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In a comparison of two novels, Ways of Dying (1995) and Black Diamond (2009), this dissertation examines Zakes Mda's ongoing use of fiction in presenting incisive social commentary in the post-apartheid literary context. Mda's debut novel is a complex magic realist tale of Toloki, the professional mourner, who journeys from the village to the urban township. It is markedly different from his post-millennial satire, which invokes the social realist form, constructing a rapidly unfolding plot of urban gangsters, crime and sex, in which the characters are more representational than well-developed. While Ways of Dying has been praised as Mda's thought-provoking novel of the transition, Black Diamond has sometimes been criticised as being less able to comment significantly on the state of post-millennial South Africa. Subsequently, this dissertation evaluates the potential of Mda's most recent fictional portrayal of post-apartheid society to provide a meaningful interpretation of and commentary on post-apartheid South Africa, alongside his earlier novel.
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Jadezweni, Mhlobo Wabantwana. "Aspects of isiXhosa poetry with special reference to poems produced about women." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006364.
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This study investigates the use of modern and izibongo (praise poetry) techniques in representing women in selected isiXhosa poems. The main interest of the study is to determine whether the same techniques to depict men are used when writing about women. It is also the interest of the study to ascertain how gender issues are dealt with in the selected poems. Seminal studies on izibongo by eminent scholars in this field show a serious lack of critique and little recognition of women in African languages’ poetry in general and in isiXhosa in particular. Pioneering studies in Nguni poetry about women have thus recommended that serious studies on poetry about women be undertaken. The analyses of selected poems by established isiXhosa poets show that modern poetry conventions are significantly used together with izibongo techniques. These techniques are used without any gender differentiation, which is another point of interest of this study. There are however instances where images specific to women are used. Such use has however not been found to be demeaning of women in any way. Poems where modern poetry forms and conventions are used tend to deal with subjects who have international or an urban area background. Even though the modern poetry conventions are used with izibongo techniques the presence of the modern literary conventions is prominent. This is the case particularly with poems about women in politics. That some female poet seems to accept some cultural practices that are viewed to be undermining the status of women does not take away the voice of protest against this oppression by some of the selected poets. These two voices, one of acceptance and the other one of protest are used as a basis for a debate around a need for a literary theory that addresses the question of African culture with special reference to isiXhosa poetry about women. The success of the selected poets with both modern and izibongo techniques is a good sign for the development of isiXhosa poetry in general and isiXhosa poetry about women. It is strongly recommended that continued research of a serious nature concerning poetry about, and produced by women, be undertaken.
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Kozain, Rustum. "Contemporary english oral poetry by black poets in Great Britain and South Africa : a comparison between Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mzwakhe Mbuli." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20139.
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Bibliography: pages 242-266.The general aims of this dissertation are: to study a form of literature traditionally disregarded by a text-bound academy; to argue that form is an important element in ideological analyses of the poetry under discussion; and, on the basis of this second aim, to argue for a comparative, rigorously critical approach to the poetry of Mzwakhe Mbuli. Previous evaluations of Mbuli's poetry are characterised by acclaim which, the author contends, is only possible because of under-researched criticism, representing a general trend in South African literary culture. Compared to Linton Kwesi Johnson's work, for instance, Mbuli's poetry does not emerge as the innovative and progressive art - in both content and form - it is claimed to be. Mbuli and his critics are thus read as a case study of a general trend. Johnson and Mbuli mainly perform their poetry with musical accompaniment and distribute it as sound-recording. This study's approach then differs from the approaches of general oral literature studies because influential writers on oral literature - specifically Walter J. Ong, Ruth Finnegan and Paul Zumthor - do not address the genre under investigation here. Nevertheless, their writings are explored in order to show why particularly Ong and Finnegan's approaches are inadequate. The author argues that using the orality of the poetry as an organising, theoretical principle is insufficient for the task at hand. On cue from Zumthor, this study suggests an approach through Cultural Studies and conceives of the subject matter as popular culture.
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Carrière, Marie J. "Poetics of the other, five feminist writers from English Canada and Quebec." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0015/NQ45662.pdf.
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Kaminski, Margot. "Challenging a literary myth, long poems by early Canadian women." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0024/MQ37562.pdf.
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Montle, Malesela Edward. "Reconstructing identity in post-colonial black South African literature from selected novels of Sindiwe Magona and Kopano Matlwa." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2591.
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Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2018This study seeks to examine the concept of identity in the post-colonial South Africa. Like any other African state, South Africa was governed by a colonial strategy called apartheid which meted out harsh conditions on black people. However, the indomitable system of apartheid was subdued by the leadership of the people, which is democracy in 1994. Notwithstanding the dispensation of democracy, colonial legacies such as inequality, racial discrimination and poverty are still yet to be addressed. As mirrored in Sindiwe Magona’s Beauty’s Gift (2008) and Mother to Mother (1998) and Kopano Matlwa’s Coconut (2008) and Spilt Milk (2010), the colonial past perhaps paved a way for social issues to warm their way into the democratic South Africa. This study will use the aforementioned novels penned in the post-colonial period to present an evocation of identity-crisis in South Africa. It will then employ these methodological approaches; Afrocentricity, Feminism, Historical-biographical and Post-Colonial Theory to assert and re-assert the identity that South Africans have acquired subsequent to the political transition from apartheid to democracy. KEY WORDS: Apartheid, Colonialism, Democracy, Identity, Post-Colonialism
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Mde, Vukani. ""Effulgent in the firmament" the politics of representation and the politics of reception in South Africa's 'poetry of commitment', 1968-1983." Thesis, University of Port Elizabeth, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/288.
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This dissertation re-examines an era in the production and reception of English language poetry in South Africa by black writers. Intellectually the 1970's was the Black Consciousness phase of South African history and very few aspects of life in the country were untouched by the intellectual movement led by Steve Biko and other young black student leaders. The aesthetic and literary output of the time, like all other facets of South African life, exhibited the influence and pressures brought to bear by Black Consciousness. Moreover, the Black Consciousness poets introduced the most vibrant and innovative phase for English language poetry produced in South Africa. It is my contention, however, that such vibrancy and innovation has consistently been compromised by unsympathetic, often hostile, and almost-always ill-informed criticism. The dissertation offers a critique of the academic and journalistic practice of criticism in South Africa. I argue that critical practice in South Africa has been engaged throughout the twentieth century in the discursive enforcement of ‘discipline’. In his Discipline and Punish (1977) the French post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault demonstrated how power is wielded against oppressed/suppressed groups through self regulated proscriptions, and argued that power is a discursive rather than a corporeal phenomenon. My dissertation follows Foucault in reading the critical reception of Black Consciousness poetry as the practice of disciplinary power. The dissertation also engages critically with the poetry of Oswald Mtshali, Mongane Serote and Sipho Sepamla, and argues that their work is the inscription of black subjectivity into the literary and cultural mainstream. It situates their work within wider 6 societal debates and definitions of ‘blackness’. In this regard use is made again of Michel Foucault’s insights and methodology of discourse analysis as shown in The Archaeology of Knowledge (1972). I argue that Oswald Mtshali’s work is a failed attempt at a dissection of apartheid and colonialism from a broadly Christian and humanist perspective. In my reading of Mongane Serote I explore the relationship between women’s bodies and the practice of representation. It is my contention that Serote is most concerned with claims of belonging, and this is shown through his extensive use of the trope of ‘Mother’. My discussion of the poetry of Sipho Sepamla focuses on language and (self- )representation, particularly the use of practices of naming in constructing subjectivity. My contention is that Sepamla ultimately abandons attempts at representation in favour of oppositional self-construction in language. In the concluding chapter I defend the thesis that the politics of discipline have prevented the broad critical establishment from gaining access to these discursive constructions of blackness in the committed poetry of South Africa.
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Conlon, Rose B. "Toward a New American Lyric: Form as Protest in Claudia Rankine." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1077.
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This thesis argues that Claudia Rankine's two American lyrics destabilize the subject-object dialectic underwriting American lyricism. First, I consider Don’t Let Me Be Lonely’s rejection of spectatorship, insofar as spectatorship objectifies the suffering of the Other. Second, I analyze Citizen’s subversion of the lyric “I”, particularly as it vocalizes the “you”-position traditionally relegated to poetic object. I suggest that both works, by returning power to the object, manifest an aesthetic disruption to the racially-based power dialectic underpinning American lyric tradition. Eventually, I propose that Rankine mobilizes the poem as a future-space for the realization of an ideal politics.
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Mogoboya, Mphoto Johannes. "African indentity in Es'kia Mphahlele's autobiographical and fictional novels : a literary investigation." Thesis, University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/972.
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Thesis (Ph.D. (English studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2011This thesis explores the theme of identity in Es’kia Mpha-hele’s fictional and autobiographical novels, with special attention given to the quest for the lost identity of Afri-can cultural and philosophical integrity. In other words, the revival of the core African experience and the efforts to preserve and promote things African. Mphahlele wrote most of his novels during the time when Africa was under colonial influence. His native land was under the abhorred apartheid system which sought to relegate the African expe-rience to the background. In this sense, he was the voice of the people, reminding them of their past and giving them direction for the future. Chapter One of the thesis outlines the background to the study, defines concepts and gives a survey of African lit-erary identity. It also probes salient aspects which have influenced Mphahlele’s perspective on African identity dur-ing his early years as a writer and socio-cultural activ-ist. Approaches and methodology employed to examine Mphahlele’s writings are also outlined. Chapter Two synthesises the theoretical underpinnings of the study. The thesis adopts Afrocentricity as the basis of analysis, looking at aspects such as the African worldview, humanism (ubuntu) and collectivism. Views by different Af-rican literary critics on what African literature should entail in its distinctive definition are also discussed. Two main literary traditions, orality and the contemporary tradition, which give African literature its unique charac-ter as well as its phases are identified and brought to the fore.Identity in African literature is discussed in detail in Chapters three and four where Mphahlele’s literary works are closely examined. Chapter Five concludes the study and recommends that in order for Africa to forge ahead in her attempt to reclaim and promote her cultural identity, a new perspective must be cultivated and Mphahlele proposes hy-bridity, which is a harmonious co-existence of two or more cultural beliefs without one oppressing the other.
The University of Limpopo
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Upshur, Elizabeth. "Break Us Beautiful." TopSCHOLAR®, 2018. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/3071.
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The problem addressed in this thesis is cultivating an answer to the question: what creates or comprises the sum total of my Blackness as a modern American woman living in our current political climate? I primarily use a read/call and response methodology, responding to both lived and hypothetical experiences that explore or demonstrate the ways that identity, race, gender, sexuality, regionality, religion, and the historical thumbprint intersect. The results are this collection of poems that is at times mythological, at times irreverent, both abstract and formal as it seeks to fit these pieces into a singular mosaic. The conclusion drawn at the end of this thesis is that Black women's lives and stories have intrinsic value, interpretation, and are deserving of further exploration in both bibliotheraphy, mainstream, and academic writing.
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Slagle, Judith Bailey. "Literary Activism: James Montgomery, Joanna Baillie, and the Plight of Britain’s Chimney Sweeps." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2012. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/720.
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Excerpt: On 6 February 1824, Joanna Baillie Notified Her Friend Walter Scott that Scottish poet James Montgomery, then living in Sherrield, England, had written to ask her for a poem on the plight on chimney sweeps, also known as climbing boys.
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Drodge, Susan. "The feminist romantic, the revisionary rhetoric of Double negative, Naked poems, and Gyno-text." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1996. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq25770.pdf.
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Midgley, Henry Peter. "Author, ideology and publisher a symbiotic relationship : Lovedale Missionary Press and early Black writing in South Africa: with specific reference to the critical writings of H.I.E. Dlomo." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002284.
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The specific instances of R.H.W. Shepherd and H.I.E. Dhlomo are used in this thesis to investigate some of the many factors that influence the formation of a colonial literature, such as politics, social structures and personal ideals. By isolating the Lovedale Mission Press ~s a "contact zone" - a·place where the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized come into direct contact with each other - it is possible to trace how the interaction between these cultures shaped the writing of a particular African writer, H.I.E. Dhlomo. This is done through an analysis of historical factors that shaped the policy of the Lovedale Mission Press in the twentieth century: the development of liberalism in South Africa, the·role of the missionary in African education, the function ofa liberal magazine such as The South African Outlook and the appointment of an ambitious missionary, R.I.W. Shepherd, to the position of Director of Publications. This necessarily included a study of Shepherd's vision of African literature. On the other hand, this study takes cognisance of the factors that shaped Herbert Dhlomo's vision of literature: the development of African nationalism, the entrenchment of segregation as a politial doctrine, and most importantly, his struggle to have his creative writing published by the Lovedale Press. It is shown how Shepherd's vision of what African literature should entail contrasted with Dhlomo's, and how, as a result, Dhlomo deliberately structured his critical writing as a response to Shepherd's Eurocentric approach to African literature.
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Ghosh, Hrileena. "John Keats's medical notebook and the poet's career : an editorial, critical and biographical reassessment." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8247.
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This thesis explores the significance of John Keats's medical Notebook, and his time at Guy's Hospital (October 1815 – March 1817), for the poet's career. As a primary contribution, it offers a new transcription of Keats's medical Notebook (Appendix 1). The transcription reproduces Keats's text and indicates the layout of his notes, but is neither a facsimile, nor a new edition: the visual form of Keats's notes is not reproduced, nor do I offer critical annotations; commentary follows in subsequent chapters. The achievements, limitations and influence of the only edition of Keats's medical Notebook — Maurice Buxton Forman's from 1934 — are the subject of the first chapter, which also considers accounts of Keats's medical career in Keats biography and criticism. Chapter two focuses on the poems Keats wrote while at Guy's to show that the two aspects of his life — medicine and poetry — were mutually influential. Chapter three considers Keats's medical notes in comparison to a fellow-student's, indicating how some characteristics of Keats's note-taking prefigure aspects of his mature poetry. Chapter four finds Endymion suffused with medical knowledge and imagery, and argues that this was a vital aspect of the poem's depiction of passion. Chapter five suggests that the publication of Keats's 1820 volume was greatly influenced by questions of health, medicine, and disease; concerns reflected by the poems in it, which also reveal the extent of Keats's continued awareness of, and interest in, contemporary medical thought. In sum, the thesis argues that the origins of Keats's poetic achievement can be traced in his medical Notebook and ‘hospital' poems, and that the ability to infuse his poetry with medical knowledge was a vital component of Keats's poetic power and achievement.
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Prothero, James. "The influence of Wordsworth on twentieth-century Anglo-Welsh poets." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683327.
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Mashige, Mashudu Churchill. "Politics and aesthetics in contemporary black South African poetry." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10210/7166.
Full textAbstract:
M.A.In this dissertation an examination is made of the different strands of contemporary South African protest and resistance poetry. This is done by way of analysing selected poems to highlight the relationship which exists between politics and aesthetics and to illustrate that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. A brief history of written African protest and resistance poetry is provided in an attempt to put this poetry within its historical context and to trace its influences and development. The poems are then examined with the express aim of identifying and understanding their themes and the socio-political contexts from which they emanate. These contexts are then shown to have important implications in so far as the aesthetics of protest and resistance poetry is concerned. The dissertation highlights the fact that for this poetry to be fully appreciated, there is a need to recognize the particular circumstances which surround it. This recognition is essential because these circumstances are instrumental in the shaping of the poetry and the formation of an aesthetics of protest and resistance. An examination of whether this type of poetry has any socio-political relevance and literary significance to contemporary South Africa is made.
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Frielick, Frielick Stanley. "Aesthetics and resistance: aspects of Mongane Wally Serote's poetry." Thesis, 1990. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/24711.
Full textAbstract:
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the criteria for the c[egree of Master of ArtsThe literature produced by writers who align themselves with national liberation and resistance movements presents a serious challenge to dominant standards of literary . aesthetics. Resistance writing aims to break down the assumed division between art and politics. and in this view literature becomes an arena of conflict and struggle. This dissertation examines certain aspects of the poetry of Mongane Wally Serote in order to explore the relationship between aesthetics and resistance in his writing. Over the last two decades, Serote has made a significant contribution to the development of South African literature, and his work has important implications for literary criticism in South Africa. Chapter 1 looks at some of these implications by discussing the concept of resistance literature and the main issues arising from the debates and polemics surrounding the work of Serote and other black political writers. Perhaps the most important here is the need to construct a critical approach to South African resistance literature that can come to terms with both its aesthetic qualities and political effects. This kind of approach would in some way attempt to integrate the seemingly incompatible critical practices of idealism and materialism. Accordingly, Chapter 2 is a materialist approach to aspects of Serote's early poetry. The critical model used is a simplified version of the interpretive schema set out by Fredric Jameson in The Political Unconscious. This model enables a discussion of the poetry in relation to ideology, and also suggests ways of examining the discursive strategies and symbolic processes in this particular phase of Serote's development. Serote's later work is 'characterised by the attempt to create a unifying mythology of resistance. Chapter 3 thus looks at Serote's long poems from an idealist perspective that is based on the principles of myth-criticism, As this is a complex area, this chapter merely sketches the main features of Serote' s use of myth as a form of resistance, and then suggests further avenues of exploration along these lines. The dissertation concludes by pointing towards some of the implications of recent political developments in South Africa for Serote and other resistance writers.
Andrew Chakane 2018
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Kgalane, Gloria Vangile. "Black South African women's poetry (1970-1991) : a critical survey." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6649.
Full textAbstract:
M.A.This dissertation investigates the work of black women poets in South Africa during the period 1970 - 1991, within the context of race and gender politics. The period 1970 - 1991 represents the approximately two decades in which black poetry became recognised as an important development in South African literary studies. Although several studies of the work of black male poets have been written, hitherto no substantial study of the writings of black women poets, in particular, has been undertaken. Although relatively few black women poets published their work during this era, when compared to their male counterparts, this critical survey will attempt to give a broad overview of the poetry black women produced. Focusing on poetry written in English, this dissertation will argue that the majority of black women poets writing during this period harnessed their writing to the anti-Apartheid or liberation struggle in South Africa. Many of these poets regarded their writing as a 'cultural weapon' which could contribute to political transformation, and although few regarded themselves as 'feminist' poets, their poetry reveals a deep concern with gender oppression as well as racial and class oppression. Chapter one, the introduction, focuses on the way in which black South African women poets have been largely ignored, neglected and 'silenced' by the majority of critics. This chapter will also consider some of the factors that may have prevented more black women from producing and publishing poetry: social factors such as education, literacy and access to publication will be explored. The second chapter explores the emergence of South African 'protest poetry', and focuses on the poetry of Jennifer Davids and Gladys Thomas in relation to the 'protest' tradition. It will be argued that while poet Gladys Thomas defined her writing in terms of 'protest' literature, Jennifer Davids produced a more introspective, personal poetry that was primarily concerned with the difficulties of 'finding an individual voice' in the South African environment. The third chapter focuses on the more intensified phase of 'protest poetry' which was produced after 1976 by the growing culture of literary activism in the black townships, and will show how women poets write of the suffering specific to township women. This chapter will also focus on an analysis of gender oppression within the poets' own homes and communities, as well as celebrations of political activities by women. In particular, this chapter concentrates on women's poetry published in the literary magazine, Staffrider, established to promote the work of black writers. The Trade Union Movement was a major influence on literary production during this time, as we shall see from the 'worker poetry' produced by many women in the 1980s. Chapter four will concentrate on the poetry produced by black South African women in exile, most of whom were active in the ANC. It will be argued that rather than producing introspective poetry about the condition of exile, these women harnessed their writing to `the struggle'. This poetry can broadly be defined as 'resistance' or 'liberation' poetry. Some of these poets also explore the issue of gender in relation to liberation politics.
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Lockett, Cecily Joan. "Stranger in your midst : a study of South African women's poetry in English." Thesis, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/8766.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis represents the first extended study of South African poetry in English from
a gender perspective. It is conceived in two parts: firstly, a deconstructive analysis of
the dominant tradition of South African English poetry in order to reveal its masculine
or androcentric base; and secondly, the reconstruction of an alternative gynocentric
tradition that gives primacy to women and the feminine in poetry.
The first section consists of an examination of the ways in which the feminine has
been. excluded from the poetic tradition in historical terms by means of social and
economic constraints on women. The study begins with a brief reference to the
beginnings of cultural gender discrimination in British poetry, from which South
African English poetry derives, and then moves to a more extended consideration of
the ways in which this discrimination has manifested itself in the South African context
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is followed by an analysis of the
"poetics of exclusion", the ways in which the tradition genders itself as masculine by
defining its central speaking position or subjectivity as male and masculine, and so
excludes women and the feminine.
The second section commences with the reconstruction or recovery of a
gynocentric tradition of women's poetry in English in South Africa by means of a gynocritical "map" or survey, followed by a discussion of the nature of the feminine discourse or "poetics" required to provide the critical context for this poetry. The
preliminary "map" is given greater detail by in-depth discussion of the women poets considered to be major contributors to the gynocentric tradition: Mary Morison Webster, Elisabeth Eybers, Tania van Zyl, Adele Naude, Ruth Miller, Ingrid Jonker
and Eva Bezwoda. The study ends with an examination of the work of contemporary women poets in South Africa, especially the black women poets of the 1970s and '80s, and the poets - both black women and white women - who wrote from exile in the 1980s.Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1993.
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Kromberg, Steve. "The problem of audience: a study of Durban worker poetry." Thesis, 1993. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/26364.
Full textAbstract:
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of ArtsThis dissertation shows how both poets and their audiences have played a central role in the emergence of Durban Worker poetry. A review of critical responses to worker poetry concludes that insufficient attention has been paid to questions of audience. Performances of worker poetry are analysed, highlighting the conventions used by the audience when participating in and evaluating the poetry, Social, political and literary factors which have influenced the audience of worker poetry are explored, as are the factors which led to the emergence of worker poetry. In discussing the influence of the Zulu izibongo (praise poetry) on worker poetry, particular attention is paid to formal and performative qualities. The waye in Which worker poetry has been utilised by both poets and audience as a powerful intellectual resource are debated. Finally, the implications of publishing worker poetry via the media of print, audio-cassettes and video-Cassettes are discussed.
Andrew Chakane 2019
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Christison, Grant. "African Jerusalem : the vision of Robert Grendon." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/2172.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis discovers the spiritual and aesthetic vision of poet-journalist Robert Grendon (c. 1867–1949), a man of Irish-Herero parentage. It situates him in the wider Swedenborgian discourse regarding African ‘regeneration’. While preserving the overall diachronic continuity of a literary biography, it treats his principal thematic preoccupations synchronically. The objective has been to show the imaginative ways in which he employs his rich and diverse religio-philosophical background to account for South Africa’s social problems, to pass judgement upon the principal players, and to point out an alternative path to a brighter future. Chapter 1 looks at Emanuel Swedenborg’s mystical revelations on the heightened spiritual proclivity of the ‘celestial’ African, and the consequences of New Jerusalem’s descent over the heart of Africa, which Swedenborg believed to be taking place, undetected by Europeans, around 1770. It also examines how those pronouncements were received in Europe, America, and—most particularly—in Africa. Chapter 2 examines the circumstances surrounding Grendon’s birth and childhood in what is today Namibia. It takes note of a family tradition that Joseph Grendon married a daughter of Maharero, a prominent Herero chief, and it looks at Robert Grendon’s views on ‘miscegenation’. Chapter 3 deals with Grendon’s schooling at Zonnebloem College, Cape Town. Chapter 4 describes his cultural, sporting, and political activities in Kimberley and Uitenhage in the 1890s, bringing to light his editorship of Coloured South African in 1899. It also considers his conception of ‘progress’. Chapter 5 looks at some early poems, including the domestic verse-drama, ‘Melia and Pietro’ (1897–98). It also contextualizes a single, surviving editorial from Coloured South African. Chapter 6 treats Grendon’s tour de force, the epic poem, Paul Kruger’s Dream (1902), as well as his personal involvement in the South African War, and his spiritualized account of the ‘Struggle for Supremacy’ in South Africa. Chapter 7 relates to Grendon’s fruitful Natal period, 1900–05: his headmastership of the Edendale Training Institute and of Ohlange College, and his editorship of Ilanga’s English columns during the foreign absence of the editor-in-chief, John L. Dube, from February 1904 to May 1905. Chapter 8 analyzes some of the shorter and medium-length poems written in Natal, 1901–04. Chapter 9 is a close examination of the poem, ‘Pro Aliis Damnati’, showing its Swedenborgian basis, and how it dramatizes Swedenborg’s concept of ‘scortatory’ love. Chapter 10 describes Grendon’s early years in Swaziland from 1905. Chapter 11 deals with his period as editor of Abantu-Batho in Johannesburg, 1915–16. Chapter 12 describes his last years in Swaziland, and his relationship with the Swazi royal family.Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
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Moolman, Jacobus Philippus. ""Inside the cavity of shame" : a critical presentation of the New Prison Poetry Project (1998), and the spaces of expression and alterity constructed in the writing of the participants." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/4729.
Full textAbstract:
Chapter One will introduce the central area of exploration of this study and establish the main terms of reference and guidelines of the research.
Chapter Two will deal with the background and history of the project, and will include a discussion on creative writing as therapy in the context of a prison. Chapter Three will present a critical overview of the project's aims and results, as well as an account of the pedagogical methods employed. It will also analyse the work of three members of the writing group: Vusi Mthembu, Themba Vilakazi and Sibusiso Majola. Chapter Four will outline the socio-political context of my primary research material: a collection
of poems written in prison by Bheki Mkhize, Sipho Mkhize and Bhek'themba Mbhele. It will also include a brief biographical account of the three writers, as well as an historical examination of the Seven Days War in Pietermaritzburg in the early nineties. Chapter Five will focus on the three writers' accounts of incarceration, the threat of violence in prison and their resistance through writing to the loss of identity. Chapter Six will deal with the issue of alterity, and the way that the writers represent issues of
identity in their poetry, and create spaces of difference and distinction. It will also focus on intertextuality, and analyse the manner in which the writers negotiate the Western tradition of aesthetics in order to stake claim to their own spaces of difference in the prison. Chapter Seven will conclude the study, and will examine contemporary cultural studies theory
with specific reference to South Africa. It will also include an overview of the proposition of the research, and elaborate the way forward for a popular culture embracing such findings.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.
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Dyer, Kelly. "Light before midnight : a collection of poetry with reflexive documents regarding both the writing process and the writerly influences on this work." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1449.
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Nkuna, Khulusile Judith. "Lucwaningo lolujulile lwemifanekisomconiso etinkondiweni letikhetsiwe tetiswati." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11602/650.
Full textAbstract:
PhD (African Studies)Lomsebenti ucwaninga ngekusetjentiswa kwetinongo tenkhulumo etinkondlweni teSiswati. Lolucwaningo lubuka kutsi tinongo tenkhulumo tibaluleke ngani nekutsi kufanele kutsi ekukhulumeni kwetfu kwemihla nemihla sifake tinongo tenkhulumo. Tinongo tenkhulumo betikhona mandvulo imfundvo isengakafiki ebantfwini. Imfundvo ifika itfola kutsi emaSwati angemagagu ekukhulumeni futsi anelulwimi lolunotsile ngenca yetinongo tenkhulumo. SEHLUKO SEKUCALA: Setfula lucwaningo kutsi lumayelana nani nekutsi yini umcwaningi lafuna kuyilungisa leseyonakele. Kuniketwe tinhloso telucwaningo. Kubuye kwaniketwa umkhawulo welucwaningo nekubaluleka kwelucwaningo, kubuye kwavetwa umgudvu welucwaningo lokuluhlelolwati lwenhlelembiso neluhlelolwati lwemsebenti. Kubuye kwavetwa kuchazwa kwemagama, kubaluleka kwetinkondlo, tinongo tenkhulumo nebudlelwano bato naleminye imibhalo, umlandvo lomfisha ngetinkondlo kanye nesiphetfo. SEHLUKO SESIBILI: Sibuke kuhlolisisa imibhalo, kwabukwa libhayibheli, tincwadzi telucwaningo, nemajenali. Kubukwe netinhlobo tetinkondlo letisetjentiswa eSiswatini. SEHLUKO SESITSATFU: Sibuke tinhlobo tetinongo tenkhulumo tehlukaniswa ngalendlela: Tinongo tenkhulumo letifanisako nguleti letilandzelako: sifaniso, sifanisongco, simuntfutiso, silwanatiso kanye nakhulumango/umbiti. Tinongo tenkhulumo letihhlukanisako nguleti letilandzelako: silutfo, sicatsaniso, siphukuto kanye neluteku Tinongo tenkhulumo letigcamisa budlelwano nguleti letilandzelako: Sihabiso, simeli/simeleli, siphindzaciniso/imphindzaciniso, silandzakhashane/malandzakhashane nesihloniphiso. iv SEHLUKO SESINE: Sibuke tinongo tenkhulumo ngaloluhlobo: Siphindzamagama, siphindzamisho, secamagama, sifanagwaca,sifanankhamisa nesentakutsi. SEHLUKO SESIHLANU: Sisongela ndzawonye lonkhe lucwaningo, sibuye siphawule ngaloko lokutfolakele elucwaningweni, tincomo sigcine ngesiphetfo.
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Dalldorf, Tamaryn J. "The victimisation of genius : Mary Robinson's idealisation of the female author in sensibility literature during the decade of the 1790's." Diss., 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22689.
Full textAbstract:
Mary Robinson’s perceived entrapment within masculine discourse has led to a somewhat distorted portrayal of this author as ‘victim’: critical focus on how she and eighteenth-century society may have constructed her authorial identity, reflecting her primarily as a historical and cultural product, has contributed indirectly to diminish due recognition of the level of autonomy she attained within her own writing. However, recent political interpretations of Robinson’s work have largely challenged these views, acknowledging her considerable influence within the public realm of the ‘masculine’ Romantic. In this dissertation, I aim to build upon, and argue beyond, those readings which have explored Robinson’s political uses of victimisation, as well as those which have studied her promotion of female authorship. I will argue that, by exploring Robinson’s own portrayal of the female philosopher and author, as well as her manipulation of victimisation within sensibility literature, we may be able to better interrogate modern feminist thinking around the concept of the eighteenth-century female philosopher, and thus begin to situate the value of Robinson’s work within a firmer literary compass. I will focus upon the following novels: Walsingham (2003 b), The False Friend (1799), and The Natural Daughter (2003 a). While I will root my arguments in the abovementioned approach, I will avoid contributing further discussion to Robinson’s use of radical politics and defence or fostering of female authorship. First because these are relatively well explored issues around her writing, and secondly because it is wise to be cautious when affirming Robinson’s radical politics, as ultimately this impulse ties into a modern yearning to portray her as a radical feminist. Robinson certainly adopted a radical political stance in some of her novels; yet, I will argue, we cannot value her writing primarily in terms of its political bent, however tempting this approach may be.English Studies
M.A. (English Studies)
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""I step through origins": different forms of piety in Seamus Heaney's poetry." 2009. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5893886.
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Phalafala, Portia Mahlodi. "Writing b(l)ack: the ab(use) of the English language in texts by two post-94 black South African authors." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/11748.
Full textAbstract:
M.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Literature and Language Studies (English Literature), 2012With the advent of the relatively new democracy, there is a plethora of contemporary black fiction in South Africa, where black authors take the English language and recontexualise it to suit their narratives. This is done mostly for the purposes of shaping identities; it is an assertion of self in relation to the history of the country, where that self is linked to the culture and heritage that has weathered the apartheid storms. Therefore in the two texts chosen for this dissertation, the trope of silence and violence, and the resistance against those two factors are prevalent. As a result, the texts carry the burden of the past and the pursuit of a new voice through a new language in a new country. This burden has been called a ‘crisis of representation’ by Lewis Nkosi, where contexts overwhelm texts. The writers in my dissertation use English as their medium of creativity but feel profound ambivalence towards this language, and further feel that it is unable to carry the experience of a black South African. This gives them great creative challenges where they have to take that language and fuse it with local terms in order to indigenise and localise it. It is the dissertation’s aim to view the various forms of strategies used to superimpose context over text, at any cost. Language in postcolonialism is at the centre of my research although the discipline of sociolinguistics also has much to offer. My main questions are: what happens when context overwhelms text? What happens when writers who write in English feel profound ambivalence towards that language? To what extent have their pens been freed and how do they use that freedom in their art? And finally, although the era of protest literature has come to an end, how come these writers are still writing in and of a combative style?
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Lattor, R. N. "An investigation into factors influencing English second language, black matriculants' attitudes to poetry, with specific reference to KwaZulu-Natal." Thesis, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/5694.
Full textAbstract:
There is a strong perception among teachers, academics and researchers that English Second Language (L2) black matriculants and black pupils generally do not possess an aptitude for poetry appreciation in English; and therefore have a negative attitude to English poetry.
Another perception is that the apparent lack of aptitude by L2 black matriculants / learners for English poetry arises from the wilful neglect by the previous education system to offer an appropriate poetry curriculum for L2 black matriculants and L2 black learners generally. This perception contends that the poetry curriculum of the previous education
system ignored the basic principles of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages) in formulating the English poetry curriculum.
This dissertation tests these perceptions through a pupil questionnaire and teacher interviews. The L2 black pupils' responses are assessed against their literary background viz. the oral tradition and contemporary black writing, as well as the historical, sociopolitical and economic factors affecting their lives. The dissertation critiques the syllabus used by the Department of Education and Training (D.E.T.):·the prescribed poems, and
classroom methodology to see whether it reflects an awareness of the L2 black learners' background, guided by the basic principles of TESOL.
The contents of chapters 1-4 are arranged in a sequence that is aimed at testing the validity of the general perceptions of L2 black matriculants' attitudes to poetry mentioned earlier. The research revealed that the attitudes of L2 black matriculants to unjust education
system and an inappropriate English poetry curriculum should not be confused with their attitudes to English poetry in general. The dissertation concludes that L2 black matriculants / learners appreciate appropriate English poetry and respond positively to English as a subject.Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.
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Simon, Francine. "Shadow sounds : an original collection of poetry and an essay on questions of femaleness and diaspora in Meena Alexander's Illiterate heart." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/11321.
Full textAbstract:
Shadow Sounds: an Original Collection of Poetry and an Essay on Questions of Femaleness and Diaspora in Meena Alexander’s Illiterate Heart.
The thesis comprises two parts: an original collection of poetry entitled Shadow Sounds, and a critical essay exploring the issues of diaspora and femaleness in Meena Alexander‟s Illiterate Heart. Shadow Sounds is a compilation of poems which examines the interrelations of a South African Indian familial structure, the emergence of a strong female sexual identity, and the open, even experimentally processual approach which influences the exploration of lyric voicing. The critical essay on Alexander investigates two major thematic concerns in the collection Illiterate Heart, namely, diaspora and gender. I postulate that the diasporic experiences of the writer have inflected all aspects of her identity, occasioning both rhizomatic compositions and the ongoing composition of a dispersed subjectivity. Alexander‟s hypothesised „selves‟ are observed and identified as constantly shifting and changing throughout Illiterate Heart, and effectively recast the popular conceptualisation of identity as singular and coherent.M.A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.
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Hudson, Michael J. "Snaps Of Eden." 2010. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/631.
Full textAbstract:
The following poems are and attempt at reclamation and reconciliation. The first section wades through the delicate subject of personal history and is an attempt to show truth as a means of both self and communal healing. The second is plaintive, a brief effort to interlope into and understand worlds outside (but not foreign) to my own. The third is a poetic essay detailing the journey of a young woman facing the horrors of an undeclared, and seemingly eternal war. The fourth and final sections serve as a means of exploration of the self and place; tackling issues of sex, the physical body, and sexuality.
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Gilfillan, Lynda 1948. "Theorising the counterhegemonic : a critical study of Black South African autobiography from 1954-1963." Thesis, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/3321.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis, I examine a critical procedure appropriate to Black South African
autobiography of the 1950s and early 1960s. In particular, I examine these
autobiographies as examples of counterhegemonic writing in which the self counters the
hegemonic apartheid notion of identity, based on racial and cultural purity, and I propose
that the hybrid selves encoded in these narratives have the capacity to inform a new
South African nationhood.
Chapter One necessitates an autocritique, in which I locate my own discourse within the
intersecting discursive strands of Western and local theory, an effort that is guided by the
imperatives that emerge from the autobiographies themselves. In Chapter Two, I suggest
that the postcolonial autos displaces Humanist, and appropriates postmodernist,
conceptions of the "I". Rewriting the terms of the autobiographical pact, the authority of
grapos is re-instated in counternarratives that give privileged status to the bios - to
lives that claim "I AM!" and selves that reconstruct identity. A related concern is the
relationship between autobiographical criticism in South Africa and hegemony.
In the chapters that follow, I examine the various ways in which counterhegemonic selves
are constructed in Tell freedom, Down Second Avenue, Drawn in colour: African
Contrasts and The Ochre People. Peter Abrahams's autobiography is discussed largely
in terms of Frantz Fanon's insights on identity construction and the notion of a "hybrid
I". Es'kia Mphahlek's (re)writing of the self - whose main feature is ambivalence - forms
the focus of Chapter Four. These notions are developed in the final chapter, which
focuses on Noni Jabavu's narratives that encode an "in-between" cultural identity and, as
in the autobiographies of Abrahams and Mphahlele, a metonymic "I".English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)
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Castrillon, Gloria Ledger. "Invention or reflection? - tradition and orality in the works of Bessie Head." Thesis, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/22105.
Full textAbstract:
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in
fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master
of Arts. Johannesburg, 1993.This dissertation examines the work of Bessie Head with a view to sophisticating prevailing understandings of her texts which tend to concentrate on Head's place in a tradition of African women writers. Current critical works emphasise selected aspects, of Head's biography and assume her presentation of the 'tradition' and 'orality' of Serowe to be accurate. We argue in this dissertation that Head has constructed and manipulated concepts of 'tradition' and 'orality' in her texts to suit both her intellectual concerns and her fictional intentions. Broadly these are to present her works as the recorded history of an 'oral African' society. Head's six novels as well as aspects of her letters and interviews are examined in order to demonstrate this assertion.
AC2017
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Pasi, Juliet Sylvia. "Theorising the environment in fiction: exploring ecocriticism and ecofeminism in selected black female writers’ works." Thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/23789.
Full textAbstract:
Text in EnglishThis thesis investigates the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world or natural environment in selected literary works by black female writers in colonial and post-colonial Namibia and Zimbabwe. Some Anglo-American scholars have argued that many African writers have resisted the paradigms that inform much of global ecocriticism and have responded to it weakly. They contend that African literary feminist studies have not attracted much mainstream attention yet mainly to raise some issues concerning ecologically oriented literary criticism and writing. Given this unjust criticism, the study posits that there has been a growing interest in ecocriticism and ecofeminism in literary works by African writers, male and female, and they have represented the social, political (colonial and anti-colonial) and economic discourse in their works. The works critiqued are Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (1988) and The Book of Not (2006), Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (2001) and No Violet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013). The thrust of this thesis is to draw interconnections between man’s domination of nature and the subjugation and dominance of black women as depicted in different creative works. The texts in this study reveal that the existing Anglo-American framework used by some scholars to define ecocriticism and ecofeminism should open up and develop debates and positions that would allow different ways of reading African literature. The study underscored the possibility of black female creative works to transform the definition of nature writing to allow an expansion and all encompassing interpretation of nature writing. Contrary to the claims by Western scholars that African literature draws its vision of nature writing from the one produced by colonial discourse, this thesis argues that African writers and scholars have always engaged nature and the environment in multiple discourses. This study breaks new ground by showing that the feminist aspects of ecrocriticism are essential to cover the hermeneutic gap created by their exclusion. On closer scrutiny, the study reveals that African women writers have also addressed and highlighted issues that show the link between African women’s roles and their environment.
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)
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Mogoboya, Mphoto Johannes. "Identity in African literature : a study of selected novels by Ngungi Wa Thiong'o." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2025.
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Collins-Sibley, Miles A. M. "Wrap Your Body. Come Home." 2019. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/englmfa_theses/98.
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Pillay, Ivan Pragasan. ""Could it be madness - this?" : bipolar disorder and the art of containment in the poetry of Emily Dickinson." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/827.
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This dissertation engages in a critical analysis of the poetry of Emily Dickinson which, to me, suggests that the poet suffered from a type of manic-depression known specifically in psychiatric parlance as bipolar disorder. I argue that although Dickinson experienced much pain and suffering she learnt, through time, to address, understand and contain adversity - that ultimately, she transformed these experiences into the raw materials for poetic creation. Dickinson's poetic achievements are often obscured by a misunderstanding of her mental and emotional constitution. This thesis provides an alternative to the views of those commentators who maintain that Emily Dickinson was insane, neurotic or delusional. I intend, ultimately, to offer the reader a fresh insight into Emily Dickinson's poetry by reading it from the assumption that she suffered from bipolar disorder.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
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Smith, Stephen. "Restoring the imprisoned community : a study of selected works of H. I. E. and R. R. R. Dhlomo and their role in constructing a sense of African modernity." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/2559.
Full textAbstract:
This is a comparative study of a selection of the works of H.I.E. and R.R.R. Dhlomo in an attempt to specify the ways in which both writers contributed to constructing a sense of African modernity. While the focus will be on the content of the writing, it will include an analysis of the form and style of the literature, as well as the historical and political setting of the work, and of the authors. By employing the theoretical work of Alain Locke, David Attwell and Tim Couzens, I will address the issue of how Herbert and Rolfes Dhlomo negotiate the issue of a Christian modernity, as well as the ambiguous relationship between tradition and modernity. Another matter that I will focus on is that of the differences and similarities of their writing, in terms of aesthetics and their positions vis-a-vis tradition, modernity and the role of the Black subject, among other topics. Some questions that I will address are whether they are both contributing to an African modernity, and in what sense, and whether Rolfes' work complements that of Herbert, and vice versa. This will be done through a close reading of selected works across a
range of mediums, from literary texts such as plays, poems and short stories to the print media. In the Introduction I will outline the key theoretical work and definitions that I will make use of in my research, as well as give brief biographies of the two writers under examination. In Chapter One I will make a close reading of selected works of Herbert Dhlomo, and will attempt to show his changing role in the establishment of a sense of an African modernity.
In Chapter Two the focus of my work will be selected prose fiction of Rolfes Dhlomo. I will examine the major themes of these works, and show how they pertain to a sense of an African modernity. In Chapter Three I will examine Rolfes Dhlomo's "R. Roamer Esq." column from the Bantu World. I have selected in particular the year 1941, and I will show how Rolfes Dhlomo used satire and topical issues to help in the creation of a sense of African modernity. The Conclusion deals with the findings of my research on the role that Herbert and Rolfes Dhlomo played in the creation of an African modernity in South Africa.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.