Browsing by Author "Hunter, Eva"

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    A comparative reading of Elleke Boehmer�s Nile Baby and Richard Hoskins� The Boy in the River: different attitudes towards the possibility of cultural �mixedness�
    (Routledge, 2016) Hunter, Eva
    This article examines two contemporary texts that present different attitudes towards cultural diversity in Britain: Elleke Boehmer�s novel Nile Baby and Richard Hoskins� memoir The Boy in the River. Boehmer, who is an internationally recognised theorist in colonial and postcolonial writing, applies her concept of �mixedness� to characterisation and incident, using the metaphorical and narrative devices available to the writer of fiction, to achieve in her novel a more promising approach to cultural hybridity than does Hoskins. Writing as an �expert� on �African� religions, Hoskins must, in a fact-based genre, establish himself as a reliable informant for his implied British audience. Confronting the ambiguities of ethically and judicially complex situations relating to belief in sorcery and witchcraft, he consigns them to the nonrational, alien, and predominantly dangerous. Hoskins therefore, despite his commitment to notions of shared humanity, reinscribes oppositional boundaries between the belief systems of �the West� and �Africa�.
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    A connotative turn for pictorial semiotics: The cultural semiotics of Goran Sonesson
    (University of the Western Cape, 2000) Paulsen, Amanda; Hunter, Eva
    Goran Sonesson provides a departure point from the work of Roland Barthes in the pictorial semiotic studies. He questions the theoretical and methodological assumptions underlying the Barthesian model. We compare Sonesson's model to results gathered from the iconic analysis of a selected photograph taken from a women's magazine (see Figure 1 above), and conclude that there is little to suggest an analysis of a pictures iconic content will convey its intended message. However, there is some indication that when the conventions or codes operating within a culture are known, the mechanisms responsible for the production of meaning in the visual medium become more transparent.
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    A Connotative Turn for Pictorial Semiotics: The Cultural Semiotics of Goran Sonesson
    (University of the Western Cape, 2000) Paulsen, Amanda; Hunter, Eva
    Goran Sonesson provides a departure point from the work of Roland Barthes in the pictorial semiotic studies. He questions the theoretical and methodological assumptions underlying the Barthesian model. We compare Sonesson's model to results gathered from the iconic analysis of a selected photograph taken from a women's magazine (see Figure 1 above), and conclude that there is little to suggest an analysis of a pictures iconic content will convey its intended message. However, there is some indication that when the conventions or codes operating within a culture are known, the mechanisms responsible for the production of meaning in the visual medium become more The art historian Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) was a pioneer and leading exponent of iconographical studies. According to Panofsky, iconography is "that branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art, as opposed to their form" (Panofsky 1978: 51). An important distinction made by Panofsky is that between iconography as the study of subject matter and iconology as the study of meaning. Using the example of "doffing one's hat", Panofsky shows that two meanings can be appended to this common gesture. While the act of raising one's hat indicates a polite gesture, it originated from the practice of medieval knights where the removal of one's helmet indicated peaceful intent. Panofsky goes on to say: "To understand (the significance) of the gentleman's actions I must not only be familiar with the practical world of object and events, but also with the more-than-practical world of customs and cultural traditions peculiar to a certain civilisation." (ibid.: 51-3).transparent.
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    Lauretta Ngcobo�s And They Didn�t Die (1990) in post-apartheid South Africa � a critical rereading
    (Taylor & Francis, 2017) Hunter, Eva
    Rereading Lauretta Ngcobo�s And They Didn�t Die nearly thirty years after it was first published in 1990 proved to be a complex, rewarding experience. Setting her story of the lives of rural African women in KwaZulu-Natal during the turbulent times that include the Cato Manor protests of 1959, Ngcobo creates a world of nearly unrelieved deprivation and suffering � in a text that also offers pleasure to the reader. Such pleasure is due to the quality of the writing; Ngcobo took her craft seriously. At the centre of the tale is Jezile, a young woman. She endures much suffering, and yet the novel closes with words of defiance that are hers. Since some of her travails stem from patriarchal beliefs as well as class and race practices, the novel is an example of the intersectionality focused on by contemporary feminist scholarship. Finally, I argue that Ngcobo�s stance in this novel on the retention or otherwise of traditional cultural practices is just one manifestation among others, such as interviews, of the knowledge of politics she can contribute to present day readers.
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    The muslim "who has faith" in Leila Aboulela's novels Minaret (2005) and Lyrics Alley (2009)
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Hunter, Eva
    This essay analyses Leila Aboulela's narrative techniques when depicting a Muslim �who has faith� in her two most recent novels. In Minaret she presents religion as a source of strength for her female narrator-protagonist but also suggests that Muslim women of faith should adopt a quietist retreat from public life in order to nourish their spiritual life. In Lyrics Alley, by contrast, the male Muslim �who has faith� represents superiority in spirituality and intellectual accomplishment as well as knowledge of the orthodox form of Islam. While Aboulela may be reacting to the kind of journalism in the British media that portrays distorted facts about Muslims and links Islam with violence, the form of her religion that she advocates is not modulated by her life in Britain. She misunderstands British culture and does not present understanding of the long-standing forces behind the recent eruptions in Arab states, in which women have figured.