Magister Artium - MA (Creative writing)

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'n Maatskaplikewerk-profiel van persoonsontbering in die Swartland met spesifieke verwysing na die groter Chatsworth-gebied
(University of Western Cape, 2002) Blankenberg, Jurine Henry; Small, Adam
Hierdie skripsie wil die mens en sy ervarings, of dit wat hy binne 'n bepaalde gebied beleef, blootlê. Daarmee saam kom 'n duidelike teoretiese beskouing na vore om die persoon in sy gedepriveerde gemeenskap uit te beeld. Die karakter van die gebied weerspiël die volgende kenmerke: Dit is landelik van aard, 'n beduidende afstand vanaf stedelike ontwikkeling geleë, en dit word as 'n "slaapdorp" ervaar. Histories word die gebied bykans 'n honderd jaar deur die inwoners en hul voorgeslagte bewoon, maar as gevolg van poli tieke rompslomp het ontwikkeling nooi t werklik plaasgevind nie. Die probleme wat in die gebied tydens navorsing aanwesig was, is die volgende: Onvoldoende infrastrutuur, watervoorsiening is gebrekkig, riolering kom nie voor nie, gesondheidsdienste word periodiek gelewer, en werksgeleenthede moet buite die gebied bekom word. Die haglike woonomstandighede het die inwoners se lewensverwagting geaffekteer en ongelukkigheid meegebring. Die doel van die navorsing is om 'n geheelbeeld te verkry van die gebied se probleme en behoeftes, hoe die inwoners daaroor voel en wat die mense dink gedoen kan word om, ten spyte van die heersende probleme, hul lewensomstandighede te verbeter. Dit wil sê die ondersoek poog om te bepaal wat die werklike lewensomstandighede van die mense in die Groter Chatsworthgebied (Chatsworth en Riverlands gekombineerd) is.
The treatment of Historical space in selected works by Thomas Pynchon
(University of the Western Cape, 2004) Kapp, W.; de Lange, A.M
The focus on space and spatiality is relatively new in literary studies and also not unproblematic. Problems arise from the way in which these concepts are constructed, described, defined and interpret~. It is possible to derive numerous kinds of space, such as historical space, physical space, metaphysical space and religious space, to name a few, from the structure or thematics of a novel. This in itself presents a problem, since the literary scholar must differentiate between these spaces in order to determine which will be most useful for study of a particular aspect. There does not seem to be a coherent theoretical position in literary scholar regarding space, and thus various views of theorists will be considered. Gullon (1975:21), in a seminal article on space entitled On Space in the Novel provides a possible definition of space, with reference to another seminal article, this time by Joseph Frank when he states that "Frank calls 'spatial' the form of those works that at a given instant in time concentrate actions that can be perceived, but not related, simultaneously". This definition denotes a further complication engendered by space, namely the notion that different spaces intersect and interrelate with each other, and consequently that it is very difficult - if not impossible - to separate the various kinds of literary spaces in order to analyse the occurrence of a single space in a text. It also seems bound to time, but in a sense bridges the temporal gaps in a novel since it brings together parts that are not necessarily adjacent to each other temporally. Time becomes spatialized by treating events in the novel as separate chunks which can be rearranged and linked to each other. 1bis creates a more coherent and comprehensive picture of events in a text. namely the notion that different spaces intersect and interrelate with each other, and consequently that it is very difficult - if not impossible - to separate the various kinds of literary spaces in order to analyse the occurrence of a single space in a text. The main point in this regard seems to be creating patterns. This brings together more elements for the reader to be viewed at once, allowing him or her to attain a broader perspective on the text.
Reflexive Essay
(University of the Western Cape, 2011) Cornelius, Jerome; Vandermerwe, Meg
His brown hands, tanned darker than they already were from hours of supervising men shoveling sand and mixing concrete on building sites, gripped the steering wheel. Hendrick Vermeulen drove down Voortrekker Road after a long day's work. He had dropped off the last of the guys with his bakkie and was looking forward to resting. He was enjoying the cool night air blowing up his arm. And there it was, that mountain. There was nothing more to think about it. It meant nothing to him; a big rock, a marker to remind where he was. The rich people were there by the mountain; he was not. He drove on. The sun had gone down and he was making his way home. He looked at his eyes in the rear view mirror, the lines on his forehead more visible than they had ever been. He lived close to the university that he dropped out of thirty years ago. He drove past it often - a reminder of a life he could have had. He was supposed to be a teacher and help his mother move out of the coloured townships and into a nice house, nessie wit mense, like the white people, she would say. She always said that and she laughed, with a cough at the end as she slapped her knee. That was a long time ago. He often thought of the past, but he always made sure he snapped out of it soon enough. No time for that, he thought. And then he saw her, the young· lady walking down the street. He slowed the car. What do you think you are doing, he thought to himself as he idled down the main road. She had a plastic shopping bag and was probably on her way home from the Pick 'n Pay. Student life, he thought. He hardly had a taste of it before the riots and state of emergency and all that. Now he was a contractor. Men like him are not supposed to look at girls walking down the streets going home to their flats. Jissus she was beautiful though, he thought as he stopped at the intersection and she crossed the road. She ran across and as she walked under a street light, he got a better view. A thick, brown coat and black pantyhose and not much else. Heshook his head and laughed. These kids of today. But that's how Chalita used to dress. When they were young themselves and fell in love. They were free. When they had dreams and hopes and she thought that things were still decent and they were going to have a double story and everything will be ...
Unsettled: A Collection of Sort Stories
(University of the Western Cape, 2013) Hill, Sandra; Vandermerwe, Meg
Harriott is asleep under a jacaranda tree in her daughter's lush Escombe garden. Escombe is no longer part of the Natal Colony, the Natal Colony exists only in the minds of people like Harriott. Escombe, though still in the same place it's always been, is now part of the Union of South Africa. It is the 20th of January 1923. Harriott has lived in the Natal Colony for thirty years exactly. She has been married for only one day less. Dorothy's garden Is wonderful, but according to Harriott, not as wonderful as it could be with a little more effort. Dorothy's bougainvillea are a riot of cerise, peach and white. Her dipladenias climbing the pillars of the front veranda - a profusion of pink. The creamy day Iillies are in full bloom. The lavender is a field of purple and the plumbago hedge, where dragon-like Harriott is asleep under a jacaranda tree in her daughter's lush Escombe garden. The barometer has dropped. Harriott does not notice the thickening of the air, nor the band of dampness spreading along her back. Her chair is covered with blankets and a white sheep fleece. It Is the day-bed of a woman whose own padding has melted away, whose bones are dissolving, whose joints have swollen over. 'It won't be long,' whispers Herbert to his bride as they lie side by side sweltering in the room next to Harriott's, the door ajar so Dorothy can hear her if she calls out. 'I'm afraid, it won't be for very much longer, my dear.' chameleons lurk, is thick with blue ... a cool blue ud at t he bottom of the garden, Dorothy thinks. Boy is hard pressed to kee~~~~~~~~~i_~~~~ go, paw-paw and avocado trees. Harriott pays little heed to t ~ e for her lawns, beds, shrubs, Harriott's book is lying on the grass. It is a very slim volume, the slimmest she owns and the latest addition to her collection, thanks to dear Rose who tracked it down somewhere in London and sent it over. Harriott cannot hold anything heavier than the slimmest of books, nor can she make.
What lies
(University of the Western Cape, 2014) Cornelius, Jerome; Meg, Van Der Merwe
His brown hands, tanned darker than they already were from hours of supervising men shoveling sand and mixing concrete on building sites, gripped the steering wheel. Hendrick Vermeulen drove down Voortrekker Road after a long day’s work. He had dropped off the last of the guys with his bakkie and was looking forward to resting. He was enjoying the cool night air blowing up his arm. And there it was, that mountain. There was nothing more to think about it. It meant nothing to him; a big rock, a marker to remind where he was. The rich people were there by the mountain; he was not. He drove on.
Let’s go home: Stories and portraits
(University of the Western Cape, 2014) Phillips, Jolyn; Meg, Van Der Merwe
Let's Go Home encompasses thirteen short stories inspired by the Coloured fishing community of Blompark in Gansbaai. These stories embody a range of voices and perspectives, some contemporary, some set in the past thirty to forty years, each of which attempts to represent the lives, loves and losses of a rural community that too often has found itself at the margins of society and ignored by literary representations. Themes explored include traumaphysical, psychological and spiritual. Some of these traumas are linked to the legacies of Apartheid: For example, my story titled "Fraans‟ is about a man who struggles with alcohol addiction and represents one of countless individuals within rural Coloured communities still haunted by the inheritance of the dop system. Other traumas in Let's Go Home represent more personal and private traumas. In "Secrets‟, for instance, a young woman who finds out that the man she wishes to marry is in fact her illegitimate brother. Such stories in rural communities are not uncommon because children born out of wedlock are seen as sinful and thus many women keep quiet about illegitimate offspring. Voice, (whether that of a narrator or in the form of the characters' dialogue) is also a central concern, for as I have explained above, one of my chief preoccupations and inspirations for writing this collection, has been the lack of texts giving voice to Coloured fishing communities.
The wedding interviews: A novella
(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Gabier, Muhammad Saaligh; Moolla, Fiona
It’s quite simple really. During these interviews you get to talk about anything you like. I’ll ask questions here and there to help the story along. Just be honest and try to forget about the camera. We’ll use the interview footage to complement the live footage to help tell your story. Wedding from Different Worlds is probably the most honest and authentic documentary series on television. You’re pretty lucky to star in one of the episodes. So relax and say anything.
The marginal grey: A collection of short stories
(University of the Western Cape, 2015) Douman, Bronwyn; Van der Merwe, Meg
A Collection of Short Stories.
Lady Liberty
(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Orner, Phyllis June; Vandermerwe, Meg
Visklippie and other Cape Town stories
(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Andrews, Hilda; Vandermerwe, Meg; Moolla, Fiona
Visklippie and other Cape Town stories is a collection of short stories, inspired by my experiences having grown up in the 1960s and 1970s in Cape Town. This is a fictional work that, however, uses memory and oral history as the main sources for the stories told. I have conceived my project in the context of South African short stories from the mid-twentieth century, a very significant part of our literary history, since it encapsulates the volatile years of Apartheid. Unlike most of the writing of this period, my stories will try to highlight individual experiences, especially female subjectivity. My fictional engagement is also narrowed down by region since I will focus more on the short stories which emerge out of and represent Cape Town. This collection will aim to reflect the diverse voices of the people who have lived in divided communities in Cape Town. The stories will cover the period from the 1960s to contemporary times. They will be stories told from the perspective of children and women, but a few will be focalised through marginal male characters. The collection will be grounded in local community experience and centre on family relationships where there is triumph over political and personal adversity. The voices that emanate from these stories are seldom represented despite the great diversity in South African literature. These voices will sometimes emanate from the perspective of individuals condemned and ostracised by the same people dispossessed by Apartheid. The stories will aim for individual perspectives, complex interior explorations, ironies and paradoxes that will reveal fleeting connections and triumphs despite adversity.
We dare not say
(University of the Western Cape, 2016) Lange, Janine Carol; Krog, Antjie
We Dare Not Say is an anthology of seven interlinked short stories with the general theme of intergenerational trauma among coloured families in Cape Town. The stories are arranged in a montage of internally, variably and externally focalised narratives that span over a century, from 1900 through to 2015, and are fictionalised accounts of real events, categorising them as biographical fiction. Some of the specific topics covered in the stories include incest, molestation, substance abuse, mental illness and humour as a coping mechanism. The body of work is conceived in the context of the twentieth century trauma narrative, the complexities of which run as undercurrents through most of the important English literary works created in South Africa since the 1800s up until John M. Coetzee, but which has often lacked a female perspective, especially women of colour. The stories in this volume aim to depict a group of people, who, through centuries of oppression in the form of serfdom, servitude and segregation, have developed various coping mechanisms to make sense of their own identity in an absurdly cruel social landscape. The stories focus on the inward turning of violence, substance abuse, silence and humour as survival mechanisms after generations of trauma that have been, in a sense, the hallmarks of coloured South Africa. The stories are told using a split narrative method, showing multiple viewpoints of the same story with perspectives ranging from young to old, crossing the gender divide in both time and space. Ultimately, We Dare Not Say, is a depiction of the complexities of lives lived under oppression, and the triumphs and challenges faced in trying to resolve, live through or deny the effects of such oppression on a group and the individuals that make up that group.
The girl with the red flower
(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Misbach, Abdul Waghied; Moolla, F.F.
For a woman of her age, thirty-seven, freshly divorced, she has, to her mind, not solved the problem of her sex very well. So now her work in the escort business all those years ago will be used against her. This warning is in a note from her lawyers. She is sitting cross-legged, trying to warm up, in a book-sized patch of morning sunlight on her bunk, in a fetid cell meant for five but with thirty crammed in. She has earphones in, with twelve bass-heavy tunes on a continuous loop. It is hard for her sometimes to drum out the hum of the lovemaking, man-hating, babyyearning and fatal stabbings of the women around her - all day long. It is just like being free in the real world outside. The letter is typewritten, but has a handwritten salutation, "Dear Soraya," as if to convince her of its authenticity; and her existence.
Molla's music
(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Mudge, Ethne; Martin, Julia
Molla's Music is a novella about Maureen (Molla), a white Afrikaans woman born in 1935 in Cape Town, who faced poverty and abandonment before apartheid and who, during apartheid, faced the choice between an unwanted pregnancy with a married man, and a carreer in music funded by the father who had betrayed her. Maureen is introduced in three sections with very different voices in each. In the first section she is depicted in the context of being cared for by a single mother with severe post natal depression. The short chapters and long sentences reflect the naïvity of the subject, whose unfiltered observations allow the reader to bear witness to the traumas that dictate her character later in life. She was so ashamed of her poverty, her father's abandonment, and her pregnancy, that she hid all memories of her past from her children and grandchildren and almost managed to die with all her secrets in tact. The second section becomes more sophisticated with longer chapters. The reader is guided through the fifties by a young adult whose adolescent memories inform the events that unfold over a mere two days. Finally, the last section consists of only one chapter, but it reviews an entire life. It is written in the first person, revealing the identity of the narrator. Maureen taught herself piano before school. Her father played the violin and her dedication to music seems to be a mechanism for connecting to him and what his absence from her life represents. It is an absense that eludes consolidation until her death. Molla proved to be such a gifted child that she skipped two years of school and took on music as an extra subject until matric, but financial strain and the shackles of patriarchy limited her options and only after years of working, does she apply to the UCT college of music. She inherits a piano from her landlords, who are evicted during the implementation of the Group Areas Act of 1957. In the years after that, playing piano becomes her private liberation practised in plain sight, on the only heirloom that persists from her past. When she dies, her granddaughter has a heritage that beckons to be resolved and remembered. She does not play the piano she inherited from her grandmother, but starts to investigate its past. In the course of Molla's Music, I explore themes of Afrikaner identity, and question modes of being for white Afrikaans women in South Africa today. By offering an intimate depiction of an individual's search for meaning, while negotiating the forces of Apartheid and patriarchy, especially as a confluence of forces, I hope to gain clarity with regard to my own questions about identity.
Bab’aba - Ugly short stories
(University of the Western Cape, 2018) Nxadi, Julie Ruth Sikelwa; Moolman, Kobus
Bab’aba - Ugly Short Stories is a collection of vignettes whose function is to colour and collage three portraits of Black women characters; namely, a rural woman (Nozikhali), a township teenager (Zola), and a child/baby (Loli). Each of these stories serve as details in each other’s portraits whilst remaining stories on their own. My intention with this collection was to restore some form of abstract equality and right to mystery by functioning within a lexicon of opacity. In the scholarship of decoloniality this is my argument for the legitimacy of vernacular/customised definitions for problems that preoccupy communities/individuals rather than having to always pin ourselves to already existing theory in order to be legible. In the scholarship of opacity, this is a contribution to the argument against the necessity for legibility/transparency (in the first place) in exchange for dignity. I chose ugliness as my thematic district of departure because of its connoted potential to provide richer explorations into notions of marginality and an emancipatory praxis that cannot afford to have in its makeup the potential to seek to eliminate. And though such a liberatory ambition is hard to fantasize about against the backdrop of popular chauvinism in the contemporary landscape of - particularly - South Africa, and the visceral effects thereof and the swift justice needed to attend thereto, I do think that there is merit in hallucinating some sort of doctrine of humanity that ends in dignity for all.
I am not a colour: A novella
(University of the Western Cape, 2018) Gcwadi, Madoda; Krog, Antjie
Nobathembu lifts her hand and waves at her neighbour. She is watering spinach in her garden with a jug from a bucket. At age sixty-nine, her beauty shines. The sun is high on the echoes of Nyanga village – echoes of barking, the neighing of nearby donkeys, a truck against a slope. Two butterflies mate in her thorn tree. In their hearts the story begins. Their wings brighten and in their own time they disappear, following their peculiar rhythms.
Townships, shacks and suburbs: An original collection of poems
(University of the Western Cape, 2018) Khanyile, Musawenkosi Christopher; Moolman, Kobus
My creative writing full master’s thesis, entitled Townships, Shacks and Suburbs, is a collection of poems that explores the role played by place in shaping identity. Poems in this collection seek to examine the interplay between identity and place, particularly the influence that environmental settings or contexts have in shaping how individuals define who they are. The theme of place is divided into three environmental contexts, namely the township, the rural context and the urban context. The poet navigates between these three environmental contexts, observing how each influences the way people define who they are and also how they identify with that particular environmental context. This definition of self, which forms part of identity, encompasses the day-to-day life, emotions, struggles, memories and a variety of other aspects that are linked to place and are inherent in identity-formation. The observation of how identity is shaped by place includes the poet and extends to people around him. This collection of poems can be viewed as a man’s attempt at finding out who he is, by exploring the history of his life, as well as reflecting on the intricacies of growing up or being exposed to a variety of environmental settings. It can also be viewed as an attempt at learning who people around him are and how their identities are shaped by the place(s) they live in.
Lost on the way home
(University of Western Cape, 2018) Levy, Moira; Martin, Julia
This is a novella about homelessness, and the forms of exile, loss and displacement that it creates. Based in South Africa and Palestine/Israel, it is a story about four men who all find themselves alienated and marginalised and who, in their different ways, find themselves lost in their search for a place to belong. Reuben is the primary character. Estranged from the Jewish community into which he is born, he turns his back on apartheid South Africa, expecting to find an alternative home in Israel. But when he arrives there he encounters once again the same dark side of humankind that he thought he had left behind. He is not the first of his family to be driven from a place he calls home. His grandfather, Sam, who has already passed away by the time this story takes place, experienced homelessness after Nazism forced him to flee. The novella opens at the moment when Reuben takes his son Dov to Israel as a young child. But a growing estrangement between father and son emerges over time, as Dov is fiercely loyal to Israel while Reuben becomes bitterly disillusioned. They find themselves pitted against each other politically, until the pathology of Israeli militarism drives Dov to a breakdown. Following Dov's own eventual personal escape into exile, when he decides he must dissociate himself from the Israeli Defence Force, he calls out to his father to rescue him and take him home. Finally there is Haroom, a young Israeli Palestinian whom Reuben befriends, who has his own story of rootlessness and the absence of belonging. In Lost on the Way Home, the politics of oppression, discrimination, dispossession, and violent victimisation underpins each of the four men's individual stories. And despite their differences, all share the experience of being driven from their "homes", or the communities or places from which they originated. It is through their individual relationships that they reach out to each other to find a place to share and establish an alternative to the homes they have lost. In the end it is left to Reuben and Dov to struggle to find a way of finding each other when they set off together on a desert hike with no destination and only the goal of escaping their pasts.
Of flowers and tears
(University of Western Cape, 2018) Rodkin, Hayley Amanda; Van Der Merwe, Meg
The collection of ten short stories, Of Flowers and Tears, aims to capture the events that have shaped my life, impacted on my community. It hopefully gives a voice to topics such as mental trauma, sibling strife, abortion, drug use and abuse, suicide, as well as political and social activism. Whilst none of the topics are new, the collection could potentially add to a growing genre of short story fiction by local authors which examine issues relating to trauma, loss, violence and the acknowledgement of identities. As South Africans, we carry many metaphoric scars (including psychological, socio-economic, sexual) as well as literal ones, which act as testimonies to our violent and frequently traumatic past and present. Even though most of the material used in my collection forms part of my personal memory bank and will be interpreted in a wholly fictional way, I propose that such a collection speaks to pertinent, present and pervasive realities.
This Family of Things: Reflecting on the significance of objects in poetry
(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Julie, Lisa; Moolman, Mark
The creative project is a mini-thesis. It is made up of a collection of poems, titled This Family of Things. The collection consists mainly of narrative and descriptive poems which explore the relationship between people and objects and objects and space. The poems explore the day-today experiences of a mother and her young son. The poems exhibit certain elements of the narrative poem. The poems tell a story, and there are two distinct characters and instances of dialogue. This mini-thesis also includes a reflective essay in which I discuss the functionality of objects in poetry. In the essay, I discuss the potentially of objects in creative work. I discuss to what extent objects illuminate space and how objects can potentially disrupt space. I also discuss the separation of objects and things. I discuss creative influences and the various processes involved in the formulation of the creative project.
Learning to Exhale
(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Mojapelo, Lebohang; Moolman, Jacobus
My MA mini-thesis in Creative Writing is a collection of 33 poems titled Learning to Exhale. The poems are centred around a character – a black African woman who is sharing her experiences of mental illness. The poems revolve around memory, forgetting and remembering; going back to the moment when the woman realises that she is ill, understanding it from the present while working to find ways to express what bipolar disorder is and how she experiences it. The collection also highlights her search for words and meaning to describe these experiences that are highly traumatic. This is to create a language of expressing the indescribable. This means that the form and structure is experimental, combining differing styles and form to show different voices, different states of mind that swing from depression, mania to suicidal thoughts.

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