Magister Artium - MA (English)

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Boycotting of academics: The case of UWC
(UWC, 1980) Miche, Ana; JJ, Rr
An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose.
Rap and the articulation of resistance: an exploration of subversive cultural production during the early 90's, with particular reference to Prophets of da City
(University of Western Cape, 1995) Haupt, Adam
This thesis explores the ways in which Cape Town rap group Prophets of da City articulate their resistance to apartheid and, in particular, the ways in which they attempted to intervene in politicians' attempts to pacify the black electorate during the build- up to South Africa's first democratic elections. Initially, I attempt to clear a space from which one could discuss POC's work as postmodern and postcolonial. I then theorise POC's use of sampling as a postmodern strategy whilst, at the same time, pointing out that rap has its origins in the African- American tradition of Signifyin(g). Through my discussion sampling, I suggest that rap, as postmodern cultural practice, challenges concepts of originality as well as uniqueness. I also discuss POC's work as part of subculture and analyse Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing in order to explore the black artist's struggle for space* within the public sphere. Finally, I contend that both Lee and POC's texts are flawed because they marginalise gender politics. I briefly discuss Queen Latifa's rap music to suggest that the discourses of race and gender are inseparable.
Changing rains, changing voices: Representations of black women over five decades of South African theatre (1950 - 1996)
(University of the Western Cape, 1997) Mazibuko, Nokuthula; Flockemann, Miki
Changing rains, changing voices: Representations of black women over five decades of South African theatre (1950 - 1996) The general aim of this research paper is to investigate/interrogate, tough analyses of four popular musicals, images of ideal womanhood put forward by South African popular theatre at various historical moments. I argue that these images have shifted from decade to decade (1950 - 1996), revealing the constructed and therefore changeable nature of unequal gender roles within society. My research will consist of textual and contextual analyses of the representation of women in the following popular musicals: King Kong ( 1959), Too Late ( 1975), Sarafina! ( 1987), and Marabi (1981/1995). The ideas of womanhood posited by the play texts will be examined vis-d-vis their "struggle narratives" (whose goal is liberation from racial and economic oppression).
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.
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.
"The enemy of the absolute": Women in the early poetry of T.S.ELIOT
(University of Western Cape, 2002) Birch, Alannah; Birch, Alannah
Mathew Arnold's 1867 poem presents romantic love as a condition of permanence that can offer refuge from a changeable world. Sixty years later, however, Virginia Woolf observes that romance has become rare as a subject of modern poetry. Her suggestion that there is an historical explanation for this change in literary subject matter is the starting point for this study of the representation of women in the early poetry of T.S. Eliot. Whereas Woolf tentatively dates the "death" of romance to the First World War I will suggest that this change in poetic sentiment is evident in Eliot's early work, some of which predates the war. In the poems under discussion, written between the years 1910 ("Portrait of a Lady" and "The Love Song of J.
African traditional culture and modernity in Zakes Mda’s the heart of redness
(2005) Birama, Prosper Ndayi; Wittenberg, Hermann
In my thesis entitled ‘African Tradition and Modernity in Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness’, I analyze the way Western modernity and African traditions interact in Mda’s novel. I suggest that both modernity and tradition interact to produce a hybrid culture. This will become apparent in my analysis of the way Mda depicts the cattlekilling episode and the effects of Nongqawuse’s prophecy, and also in the novel’s contemporary characters. Mda shows the development of an African modernity through the semi-autobiographical figure of Camagu who is not slavishly indebted to Western ideas of progress, but is a hybrid of African values and a modern identity. In my thesis I will look at the way Mda also addresses the issue of the oppression of the Xhosa in colonial history, and the way he demonstrates that the divisions of the past deeply influence post-apartheid South Africa. In this regard, I will show how The Heart of Redness is a critique not only of colonial oppression, but also of the newer injustices plaguing the post-apartheid South African society. The focus of Mda’s critique in this regard is the proposed casino that stands as a model of environmentally destructive, unsustainable and capitalist development. Instead, Mda’s novel shows an alternative modernization of rural South African society, one which is based on community upliftment and environmentally friendly development. Through an exploration of the above aspects of the novel, my thesis shows that Mda’s writing exemplifies a hybrid African modernity, one that incorporates Western ideas as well as African values.
An investigation of the potential role that folklore can play in environmental education: a case study of Mphoko
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Ramaila, Ziphora Mmabatho; Martin, Julia; Becker, Heike; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
This thesis investigated the role that folklore can play in contemporary environmental problems. This research was prompted by people living around the Mantrombi nature reserve in the Nebo region of Limpopo province who showed and interest in reviving folklore as an education model to combat their existing environmental problems.
Narratives of assessment: the newsletter as case study
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Scheepers, Jacqueline Norma; Dyers, Charlyn; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate success of an integrated newsletter assignment for first year Human Resource Management students as an authentic and meaningful form of assessment by tracing and deciphering the narratives of the role-players. The study also examined the role that the newsletter can play regarding experiential learning, which is an essential component of teaching and learning at technikons in South Africa.
Negotiating coloured identity through encounters with performance
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Fransman, Gino; Flockemann, M. Dr; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
In this study the theatre as staged performance and as text was used as exploratory and discursive tools to investigate the negotiation of identities. The aim was to explore this theme by examining the responses to four popular Coloured identity-related staged performances; Marc Lottering's "Crash" and "From the Cape Flats with Love", as well as Petersen, Isaacs and Reisenhoffer's "Joe Barber" and "Suip". These works, both as performance and as text, was used to investigate the way stereotypical representations of Coloured identities are played with, subverted or negotiated in performance.
Flying in the face of convention: The heart of redness as rehabilitative of the South African pastoral literary tradition through the frame of universal myth
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Jacobs, Anthony Richard; Merrington, Peter; Faculty of Arts
This thesis analyzed Zakes Mda's The Heart of redness in the tradition of South African pastoral and counter-pastoral. It proposed that the novel is a hybrid of both African and European tradition and perspectives. It adduced Northrop Frye's theory of myth and archetypes in literature as a basis for study. It also analysed the novel in its use of irony.
The representation of women in four of Naguib Mahfouz's realist novels: Palace walk, Palace of desire, Sugar street and Midaq alley
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Oersen, Sheridene Barbara; Merrington, Peter; Faculty of Arts
This thesis involved the various discourses around Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz's representation of women in four of his most well-known novels, which were originally written in Arabic. At the one extreme, he is described as a feminist writer who takes up an aggressive anti-patriarchal stance, delivering a multi-faceted critique on Egyptian society. Mahfouz's personal milieu, as well as the broader social context in which he finds himself, was given careful consideration. It was also considered whether the genre in which the four novels have been written has a significant influence on the manner in which Mahfouz has represented his female characters.
Alex La Guma’s short stories in relation to A Walk in the Night: A socio-political and literary analysis
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Ntaganira, Vincent; Field, Roger; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
The minithesis provides a detailed socio-political and literary analysis of A Walk in the Night: Seven stories from the streets of Cape Town. It investigates and systematically compares each short story to the novella or compares the short stories with each other and shows their thematic and formal similarities and differences. The results of the study will provide a valuable contribution to the study of African literature. It will complete what other critics have left out. No one among La Guma’s scholars has analysed the anthology as a single entity; most critics have analysed the novella and have not analysed the accompanying short stories. As a result, the relationships between the novella and the short stories are unknown to many readers. I argue that this needs to be corrected. In order to situate the thesis, the study also presents a selected list of critics who have studied the novella and the short stories, and indicates their achievements and their shortcomings. The study will be carried out from a Marxist perspective, and will explore the use of realist and naturalist literary styles. Marxism will provide the socio-political and theoretical framework. Naturalism and realism are the two main literary genres that occur in the anthology.
Humour as a postcolonial strategy in Zakes Mda's novel, The heart of redness
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Hagemann, Michael Eric; Woodward, W; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
This thesis sought to demonstrate that humour and the grotesque are the primary tools by which Mda achieve his postcolonial strategies of "writing back" that is, of asserting an identity in the face of colonial pressures, apartheid and the growing selfishness of many in the new, post-democratic South African society.
Playing with time: the relationship between theatrical timeframe, dramatic narrative and character development in the plays of Alan Ayckbourn
(University of the Western Cape, 2006) Vokes, Elizabeth; Parr, Anthony; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
Alan Ayckbourn claims that he has always been facinated by time as an aid to dramatic story telling. The thesis examined how Ayckbourn manipulates the dramatic timeframe, often in an unconventional manner, as a device to aid both the development of dramatic narrative and the development of characterisation within his plays.
Parodic imagination and resistant form in historical fiction: A study of Ann Harries' manly pursuits
(University of the Western Cape, 2007) Bavasah, Tessa; Merrington, Peter; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
In this dissertation, the author examines the historical novel Manly pursuits (1999), by Ann Harries. The novel deals with the late nineteenth century in Oxford, England, and inparticular the year 1899 in Cape Town. The focus of the novel is on Cecil John Rhodes and his entourage, and their obsession with empire, which culminates in the South African war in 1900. Featured characters include Chamberlain, Jameson, Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dodgson, John Ruskin and Olive Schreiner. Harries novel is interpreted as showing resistance to the Victorian society which is the framework which is seen to developed the class and gender-based valued and imperialist thinking of Rhodes and his following. as such the novel is showing resstance to imperialist thinking, the Anglo-Boer war, apartheid and all the resulting legacies for South Africa.
The valley trilogy: a reading of C. Loius Leipoldt's English-language fiction circa 1925-1935
(University of the Western Cape, 2007) Oppelt, Riaan; Merrington, P.; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
Louis Leipoldt is known as a canonical figure in the history of Afrikaans poetry, He is customarily included in the pantheon of writers such as C.J. Langenhoven who not only established Afrikaans as a standardized national language in the early twentieth century, but also contributed to the idea of the Afrikaner Volk as a distinct nation within South Africa. The recent publication of Leipoldt's Valley Trilogy, three novels written in English in the 1930's now reveals Leipoldt in a very different light. Today, in a time of national transformation, Leipoldt's liberal ideas deserve to be given the broader scope he had intended for them.
Female identity and landscape in Ann Radcliffe's Gothic Novels
(University of the Western Cape, 2008) Davids, Courtney Laurey; Wittenberg, Hermann; Dept. of English
The purpose of this dissertation is to chart the development of an ambivalent female identity in the Gothic genre, as exemplified by Ann Radcliffe's late eighteenth century fictions. The thesis examines the social and literary context of the emergence of the Gothic in English literature and argues that it is intimately tied up with changes in social, political and gender relations in the period.
The social constructions of HIV/AIDS stigma in one community in Cape Town, South Africa
(2010) Kayonga, Yvette; Shefer, Tamara; Lees, Marion Keim
Due to tremendous stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, revelation of HIV positive sero-status of an individual has become a significant risk in communities of South Africa (Kalichman el al., 2003;Deacon et al., 2004; Kalichman et al., 2005, Simbayi et al., 2007). Several researchers have argued that HIV/AIDS stigma poses severe problems which include that it delays HIV testing;stops people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) from seeking care; inhibits incorporation of prevention behaviours; increases violence against HIV-positive people; and extends beyond PLWHA to families, providers and volunteers. HIV/AIDS stigma is widespread, and it is widely accepted that it does not only reflect but also is exacerbated by co-existing stigmas related to poverty, race, gender, substance use, and sexual behaviour (Parker et al., 2002; Parker & Aggleton, 2003; Holloway, Seaton, Taylor, 2004).This study aimed to understand whether HIV/AIDS as a social construct and those living with HIV/AIDS are understood and responded to differently by males and females and those previously classified by the apartheid divisive policy as African and Coloured participants in the context of their daily encounters. Hence, the study investigated whether there is a relationship between race, gender and HIV/AIDS stigma among participants and whether this relationship is mediated by age, educational level, and participants’ household situation. In addition, the study explored whether gendered stigmatization is subscribed to by participants, while it further sought to assess the extent to which participants were exposed to HIV and AIDS; and whether there were gender and racial differences with respect to participants’ perceptions about PLWHA.Finally, the study scrutinized participants’ perceived levels where they believe interventions to eliminate stigma could be prioritized. This study utilized a survey questionnaire drawn up on the basis of qualitative findings in earlier studies on stigma and HIV/AIDS in both ‘African’ and ‘coloured’ communities. Two hundred participants were recruited through a convenience sampling method in the Mitchell’s Plain area of Cape Town, South Africa. The sample was stratified by ‘race’ and gender with the majority between the age of 35 and 49 years; 50.3 % of the respondents in the sample were males, while 49.7 % were females. The majority of the respondents were Africans of Xhosa speaking descent(49.2 %) and coloureds (48.2 %) with a small proportion of whites (2.5 %). All standard ethical procedures for research with human participants were adhered to and the project was registered with the UWC Research & Ethics Committee. All participants responded on the basis of informed consent and consent forms were signed to confirm ethical assurances. Confidentiality of the data was observed and the data was kept in a locked up and secure place for a period of five years after the study. Completed survey questionnaires were coded, and analyzed quantitatively using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17.0 (SPSS) and SAS.Inferential statistics showed highly significant gender differences in participants’ personal stigmatization. More so, personal stigma attitudes were more likely to be found among older males and with means to support their households. Descriptive results showed these older males were less likely to know someone with HIV. The study acknowledged that HIV and AIDS as well as PLWHA are socially constructed and intersected with existing social inequalities on difference and hence, recommends that interventions to address HIV/AIDS stigma need to take cognizance of the contexts in which it occurs. It seems important to address de-stigmatization efforts at coloured families since descriptive results reflect some denial that HIV is a challenge and/or that PLWHA are stigmatized in families and community at large. Gendered constructions of stigma, while impacting on both men and women (since both appear to be stigmatized differently), are clearly still salient and it is recommended that efforts be continually made to raise the way in which gender, class, racialised and other differences of power are being played in community responses to HIV and those living with HIV/AIDS.
Representation, affiliation and compassion in selected fiction by Michael Ondaatje
(2010) Espin, Mark; Kohler, Peter

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