Researchers in Arts

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/2169

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 52

"Speak out" - issues in participatory materials development
(University of Stellenbosch, 1999) Bock, Zannie
This article outlines the development of a beginner English course called 'Speak Out' for adults in Adult Basic Education and Training classes in the early 1990s. The course uses an innovative roleplay methodology which builds on the experiences and language knowledge of the adult learners. It was conceptualised and developed within a participatory approach to adult learning and materials development. The article explores the tension between the ideals of the participatory approach and the constraints exerted by contextual and other factors. The article begins with an introduction of the context within which the materials were conceptualised, then offers a brief overview' of the participatory approach, and then considers the following aspects of the 'Speak Out' course; the language learning methodology, issues of teacher competence and development, and lastly, the materials development process itself.
Eschatology in South African literature from the struggle period (1960-1994)
(University of Kwazulu-Natal School of Theology, 2000) Conradie, Ernst
On the background of the current sense of despair concerning the environmental crisis, this article follows the basic intuition that a Christian environmental praxis can only be empowered on the basis of an adequate understanding of Christian hope. Christian eschatology has traditionally responded to three distinct aspects of the human predicament - human self-enclosure, and finitude in both time and space; instigated by an unacceptable present reality, it articulates the conviction of an upcoming transformation into what it ought to be. Investigating the theme of hope in some major ecclesial documents and literature that explicitly addresses the topic written during the struggle, it is argued that the strength of the eschatology developed during that period consists in its return to the prophetic roots of Christian hope. Its concentration on the anthropological aspect of the liberation from the predicament from human sin makes it necessary to rediscover the impact of eschatology on the salvation of creation and the theocentric aspect of hope.
Alternative perspectives on orality, literacy and education: a view from South Africa.
(Routledge, 2001) Bock, Zannie; Gough, David H.
The question of the 'great divide' between orality and literacy has been critically addressed by various scholars of literacy, including social literacy theorists. This paper uses the notions of primary and secondary discourse across both oral and literate contexts to examine this 'divide'. Using evidence from the oral tradition of the Xhosa, it is shown that 'traditional' societies have well-established primary and secondary discourse types. Against this understanding, the issue of 'access' to Western academic literacy is examined. It is argued that within the changing context of South African society and as a direct result of former apartheid policies, individuals may have failed to acquire the cultural capital of both oral secondary and literate secondary discourse types. The literate secondary discourse practices of Xhosa-speaking students at univer�sity are explored through an analysis of student writing. This paper then reports on several projects which attempt to address some of the concerns of academic staff with respect to student writing. In particular, this section argues for a broadening of the notion of 'academic literacy' and suggests some ways in which texts derived from the oral tradition may be used to develop awareness of secondary discourse types.
A cross-linguistic analysis of the writing of prospective first year students in Xhosa and English.
(University of Stellenbosch, 2002) Bock, Zannie; Dadlana, Phakamani
This article aims to characterize typical linguistic and discourse features of academic writing in Xhosa and English among prospective Xhosa-speaking students at the University of the Western Cape so as to account for strengths and weaknesses in the writing and provide possible �points� for pedagogic intervention. It presents an analysis of a sample of entrance essays written by these students in English and Xhosa. The analysis is in terms of a framework which considers aspects of argument, register and syntax. It aims to highlight strengths and weaknesses in student writing and to ascertain the extent to which these characteristics are language-specific or cross-linguistic. The results of the analysis suggest that the ability to argue coherently in an appropriate register is the defining mark of good writing in any language, and that control over the syntax of the language is particularly important for these students when writing in English. The ability to write well, like certain aspects of style, seems to be a generic ability and affects students� performance in both languages.
Applying linguistics: Developing cognitive skills through multimedia
(Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand, 2003) Gough, David H.; Bock, Zannie
This paper examines the effectiveness of linguistic analysis in developing scientific thinking skills and scientific attitudes. It reports on a project established at a South Africa university in South Africa which engaged students in the analysis of code-mixed data. Students who participated in the project showed gains in being able to analyze linguistic data using problem solving skills. While transfer of such skills to mainstream science teaching was not investigated, the study confirms the effectiveness of linguistic analysis in engaging students in the activities associated with the development of skills for science.
Towards an ecological reformulation of the Christian doctrine of sin
(University of Kwazulu-Natal School of Theology, 2005) Conradie, Ernst
This essay defends the significance of the Christian doctrine of sin with reference to the many contemporary manifestations of evil, including the problems of environmental devastation, environmental injustuce and rampant consmerism. It offers a survey of various attempts towards an ecological reformulation of the doctrine of sin. It argues that theological circumspection is required in order not to confuse and conflate the problems of natural suffering and human finitude with the human roots of evil. It argues that theological attention on the relationship between nature and grace should not inhibit a primary theological focus on the tension between sin and grace.
Mission as evangelism and as development? Some perspectives from the Lord's Prayer
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2005) Conradie, Ernst
This essay builds on the conference on �Mission in the 21th century: New models and strategies in a world of diversity� held in Livingstone, Zambia from 25 March to 1 April 2004. It offers some background to the tension between mission as �evangelism� and as �development� which was addressed at this conference. It then describes some of the insights emerging from this conference, with specific reference to the description of mission as �crying and struggling with others to live today with dignity.� It provides some perspectives on this description on the basis of an exegesis of the second half of the Lord's prayer. The conclusion to the essay suggests that further reflection is required on the relationship between soteriology and missiology.
Transitivity and the narrator's role in selected TRC testimonies
(Stellenbosch University, 2006) Bock, Zannie; Duncan, Paul
This paper seeks to explore how two different narrators at a hearing of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) represent the same set of events. With the use of analytical concepts and frameworks drawn from Systemic Functional Linguistics, we show how the different narrators' roles and perspectives on the events shape their choice of genre and their construal of experience. The narrators in question are Mr Colin De Souza, a young activist from Bonteheuwel, and his mother, Mrs Dorothy De Souza. Both describe events in the 1980s when Mr De Souza and his family suffered at the hands of the then Security Branch of the South African Police Force.
An analysis of what has been "lost" in the interpretation and transcription process of selected TRC testimonies
(Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, 2006) Bock, Zannie; Mazwi, Ngwanya; Metula, Sifundo; Mpolweni-Zantsi, Nosisi
The main aim of this research is to evaluate �what has been lost� in the simultaneous interpretation and transcription processes of selected Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) testimonies. The testimonies under consideration are those of two of the widows of the Cradock Four who were murdered by the South African Security Branch in 1985 for their work in mobilising resistance to apartheid. The widows testified in Xhosa at the East London Human Rights Violation hearings in 1996 and their testimonies were simultaneously interpreted into English on the day of the hearing. Using audiovisual copies of the testimonies on which one can hear the original soundtrack, as well as the English voice-over, we transcribed the testimonies in the source language (e.g. Xhosa). We then translated these into English and compared our translation with the official English versions which are published on the TRC website. Our analysis revealed that a significant number of meanings were lost under the pressures of simultaneous interpretation. These meanings related predominantly to the �emotional� content: for example, to aspects of narrative style expressed through gesture, intonation, repetition and the use of direct speech, particularly the verbatim quotes of the police in Afrikaans. We also noted that an understanding of the culture of the testifier was essential to understanding the testimony and that researchers who did not have access to the testimony in the source language and the cultural codes of the testifier would be significantly compromised when trying to understand the testimonies. In addition, we noted the loss of a number of factual meanings as a result of inaccuracies and omissions both during the interpretation and transcription process. We argued that these losses and omissions detracted primarily from what the TRC referred to as the �narrative truth� or subjective meanings of the testimonies, and, in some cases, the �factual truth�. We undertook this research because we are concerned that many researchers only have access to the official TRC record. This record, in our view, is in some cases compromised as the processes of simultaneous interpretation and transcription inevitably led to some loss of meaning due to the pressures and constraints under which the interpreters were working.
�For God so loved the world��The story of God�s work on earth according to Douglas John Hall
(Stellenbosch University, 2008) Conradie, Ernst
This essay reconstructs the way in which Douglas John Hall tells the story of God's work. The argument of this essay is that Hall's entire theology could be described as an exposition of the famous formula in John 3:16, "for God so loved the world". His emphasis on a theology of the cross is explored with reference to the doctrines of creation, humanity, providence, redemption, the church and the eschatological consummation. It is argued that Hall's strength (his Christological focus on a theology of the cross) is also his weakness, given his underdeveloped pneumatology. It would therefore be important to further investigate Hall's understanding of the filioque problem.
�Modern prophets, produce a new bible�: Christianity, Africanness and the poetry of Nontsizi Mgqwetho
(Southern African Literature and Culture Centre, UKZN, 2008) Brown, Duncan
In this article I consider how one might approach the apparently singular figure of Nontsizi Mgqwetho, a Xhosa woman who produced an extraordinary series of Christian izibongo in newspapers in the 1920s: through what kind of language, from what critical perspective, might one think and write about her? There have been various attempts to write about Mgqwetho, and there are certain obvious possibilities in terms of approach and methodology, which I explore briefly, but I want to suggest a mode of reading which provides a richer, more engaged and more engaging understanding � one which reads with and through, rather than onto or against, her African Christian articulations.
The earth in God�s economy: Reflections on the narrative of God�s work
(Stellenbosch University, 2008) Conradie, Ernst
This essay is an abbreviated version of an inaugural lecture, read on 24 October 2007 at the University of the Western Cape. It investigates the role of cosmological narratives that help people to understand where they come from, who they are, how they can cope with the demands of life and with evil, and where they are going to. It focuses on one such a narrative, namely the Christian story of God�s work of creation, evolution, the emergence of human beings and human culture, the distortions resulting from human sin, God�s providence, redemption, the formation of the church, its ministries and missions and the consummation of all things. These themes have traditionally been captured under the notion of �God�s economy�. This term is derived from the Greek word oikos which is understood in the Christian tradition as �the whole household of God�. In contemporary ecumenical theology this term provides a clue as to how the moral of this story may be understood to address ecological degradation, economic injustices and ecumenical fellowship. The argument of the essay is that a retrieval of the underlying narrative structure of the story of God�s work can help to avoid the ways in which one �chapter� of the story tends to be subsumed under another.
The justification of God? The story of God�s work according to J�rgen Moltmann: Part 1
(Stellenbosch University, 2008) Conradie, Ernst
This essay reconstructs the way in which J�rgen Moltmann tells the story of God�s work. This is done on the basis of a review essay by Douglas Farrow who identifies a neo-Platonic structure in Moltmann�s systematic contributions to theology. The argument of this essay is that Moltmann fails to distinguish adequately between creation and fall. This has significant implications for his understanding of salvation, church and eschatological consummation. In this way theology becomes preoccupied with the doctrine of providence and thus with the theodicy problem.
'Language has a heart': linguistic markers of evaluation in selected TRC testimonies
(Taylor & Francis, 2008) Bock, Zannie
This paper explores how two testifiers at the Human Rights Violation hearings of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996 used selected markers of evaluation (shifts in tense, the inclusion of direct speech and code-switching) to express evaluative meanings and position themselves, the police and their audiences in relation to their narratives. Both testifiers are mothers of young activists who were pursued, detained and tortured by police in the 1980s. The paper argues that it is through the subtle though significant linguistic choices the women make that their perspective is construed and their 'narrative truth' realized.
Construals of agency in the testimony of Colin de Souza
(Academia Press, 2009) Bock, Zannie
In this paper, I analyse the testimony of Colin de Souza given before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the mid-1990s.1 My aim is to explore how De Souza projects an identity of himself as 'agentive', as an innovative and flexible individual who is capable of outwitting and outmaneuvering his opponents despite the fact that within the TRC context, he is positioned as a 'victim' of human rights abuse. To substantiate this argument, I use a number of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) tools to analyse the way in which this agency is encoded in the language of the testimony.
Santu Mofokeng, photographs: 'the violence is in the knowing'
(Wiley - Blackwell Publishing, 2009) Hayes, Patricia
Born in 1956, Santu Mofokeng formed part of the Afrapix Collective that engaged in expos� and documentary photography of anti-apartheid resistance and social conditions during the 1980s in South Africa. However, Mofokeng was an increasingly important internal critic of mainstream photojournalism, and of the ways black South Africans were represented in the bigger international picture economy during the political struggle. Eschewing scenes of violence and the third-party view of white-on-black brutality in particular, he began his profound explorations of the everyday and spiritual dimensions of African life, both in the city and in the countryside. His formal techniques favor �fictions� that contain smoke, mist, and other matters and techniques that occlude rather than expose. Using angularity and ambivalence, he also ruptures realist expectations and allows space for the uncanny and the supernatural. He works with the notion of seriti (a northern seSotho term encompassing aura, shadow, power, essence, and many other things). The essay follows strands in Mofokeng�s writings and statements in relation to certain of his photographs, most recently repositioned in the substantial 2007 exhibition Invoice, to argue that he has pushed for a desecularization and Africanization of photography from the 1980s to the present. In more recent work the scourge of apartheid has been replaced by the HIV/AIDS virus, a mutation of nature, exacerbating the spiritual insecurities of many people in postapartheid South Africa. The essay concludes that Mofokeng�s work poses a critique of the parallel paradigms of Marxist-influenced social history and documentary photography in 1980s South Africa, both still highly influential, by attempting to reinsert aura (seriti) into photography and by highlighting what secular Marxism has concealed and proscribed.
Confessing guilt in the context of climate change: Some South African perspectives
(Stellenbosch University, 2010) Conradie, Ernst
This contribution explores the significance but also the immense complexities of Christian discourse on confessing guilt within the context of climate change. It draws especially on South African discourse on confessing guilt in the context of apartheid. The argument of the essay is twofold: Christians with an enduring large carbon footprint may wish to confess their guilt in this regard, but typically find it difficult to live from God�s liberating forgiveness and are therefore prone to rather desperate efforts to save the world themselves. By contrast, Christians with a small carbon footprint may opt for alternative understanding of salvation, namely in terms of redemption from the looming threat of climate change.
Code-switching: An appraisal resource in TRC testimonies
(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011) Bock, Zannie
This article analyses the function that code-switching plays in selected testimonies given at South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which followed the country's transition to democracy in 1994. In a number of testimonies, victims of human rights abuse under Apartheid code-switched into Afrikaans when recalling particularly offensive uses of language by the police. Within the code-switching literature, it is well recognised that a speaker's choice of code, particularly for quoted speech, is a strategy for performing different kinds of local identities which index a range of social meanings and relationships (Alvarez-Caccamo 1996, Koven 2001). Thus code-switching may serve a complex evaluative function although the meanings it generates are very context- dependent. In order to explore this role in the testimonies in this paper, I use the appraisal theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin & White 2005). I argue that on a number of occasions, code-switching into a particular variety of Afrikaans is used by testifiers as a strategy to invoke negative judgement: it has the effect of associating the police with a particular racist ideology and positioning them for our sanction. Further, it works together with other engagement resources to insert a recognisable historical voice into the text, thereby expanding the heteroglossic nature of the discourse while simultaneously allowing the speakers to signal their rejection of that voice and the ideologies it represents. In the current SFL literature, however, code-switching has not been noted as an appraisal resource. In the light of the examples from the TRC testimonies, I argue that, in multilingual contexts, code-switching has the potential to invoke complex evaluative meanings and should be included in the appraisal framework as an evaluative resource.
The necessity of natural theology? In conversation with John Calvin on the human senses
(Stellenbosch University, 2011) Conradie, Ernst
This contribution explores John Calvin's position on natural theology. The point of departure is not so much the much discussed notions of a sensus divinitatis or of the semen religionis, but the role played by the human senses in coming to knowledge of God in the first place. How can God's presence be recognised? How can human language (that which is natural), from below, express the inexpressible? How is it possible to speak of God in the first place? This article suggests that Calvin's remarkably sophisticated understanding of signification is the clue to respond to these questions. His position is discussed on the basis of the reading strategy of catena and commentary. The author finally offers some concluding observations on the relationship between signifier, signified and referent in human language about God.
All theology is natural theology: The hermeneutic necessity of natural theology?
(Stellenbosch University, 2011) Conradie, Ernst
This article first offers a brief overview of the history of what is understood under "natural theology". The contrast between the Barthian critique against natural theology and the dangers of repudiating natural theology as stressed within the context of contemporary discourse on science and theology is highlighted. In response, the author offers a constructive proposal in which the hermeneutic necessity of natural theology is affirmed. This follows from a notion of that which is "natural" which includes human constructs (also ideas). In this sense all theology is by definition natural theology. However, the Barthian critique against natural theology may still be appropriate as a selection of those signs that can express the inexpressible with relative adequacy

Browse

Browsing by Issue Date

Results Per Page

Sort Options