Department of English
http://hdl.handle.net/11394/57
2024-03-28T20:32:11ZA cow’s meat: an original collection of poems and photographs that explores the influence of imagery in narrative
http://hdl.handle.net/11394/10525
A cow’s meat: an original collection of poems and photographs that explores the influence of imagery in narrative
Deane, Kirsten
This MACW mini-thesis will examine how photography can inspire narrative in a poem and enhance the impact of its imagery. As I embarked on my journey of writing, I came to the point of needing to augment its effect. So I decided to experiment with photography as the prompt for my writing; exploring how photography can inspire a writer’s creativity, and help them to take their work further and deeper. One of the most important and impactful parts of poetry is its use of evocative imagery. A poet employs imagery in her work to add sensory detail and lyrical effect in order to heighten the reader’s understanding and experience of the topic at hand. Poets such as Angifi Dladla, Chika Sagawa, Max Ritvo and Dawn Garisch use powerful, sometimes strange, images in their work to provide a literary experience that would have an impact upon the reader. With this in mind, I decided to explore using another form of art, specifically photography, to help me expand my use and understanding of the way imagery functions in poetry.
Magister Artium - MA
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZIn-between: a collection of poems of loss and memory
http://hdl.handle.net/11394/10506
In-between: a collection of poems of loss and memory
Williams, Justin
My mini-thesis in Creative Writing aims to explore memory and childhood through the lens of spatial and temporal consciousness. The vehicle for navigating these memories, whether individual or collective, real or surreal, is a collection of original poems based in and around the Cape Flats. Childhood specifically is the central theme of these poems, as it provides the basis for all the related memories in the collection. To me memory is like a map, dotted by landmarks in time. I will explore these landmarks in the poems to discover if there are patterns in the way that memories are made and stored. I will also explore changes in the physical environment – be these ecological or to do with human development – and how these changes intersect with memory. My aim in the collection is to channel the voice of a central character – a young boy – who is trying to find his place against the backdrop of the Cape Flats setting, while contending with all its challenges. My creative writing mini-thesis will also be accompanied by a reflexive essay that discusses the concepts of memory and spatial and temporal awareness and how these are manifest within my collection of poems.
Magister Artium - MA
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZContemporary South African speculative fiction: A study of Mohale Mashigo’s short story collection intruders (2018)
http://hdl.handle.net/11394/10483
Contemporary South African speculative fiction: A study of Mohale Mashigo’s short story collection intruders (2018)
Ruiter, Marvyn John
Speculative fiction, South Africa, entanglement, social commentary, post-Apartheid, folktales, tropes, Africanfuturism, Africanjujuism, Mohale Mashigo
Abstract
Globally, speculative fiction is a popular genre, but it has not gained much traction in the contemporary South African literary sphere. In this thesis, I argue that speculative fiction allows for the exploration of social configurations of South African society because of its speculative and experimental nature. I will do so through an analysis of Mohale Mashigo's collection of short stories, Intruders (2018), using Sarah Nuttall’s concept of entanglement as a rubric.
Masters of Art
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZBildungsroman writing by women in Africa and in the African diaspora
http://hdl.handle.net/11394/10462
Bildungsroman writing by women in Africa and in the African diaspora
Bivan, Amos Dauda
The Bildungsroman has from inception traditionally been a male-dominated genre, but a number of significant women-authored novels written in the 20th century disrupt these established patterns. The thesis demonstrates how women authors of African descent are deconstructing, reappropriating, and reimagining the Bildungsroman genre to create space for black women protagonists in various geohistorical contexts. The thesis employs a critical framework that draws on concepts from Helen Tiffin's idea of counter-discourse narratives, as well as discourses on feminist criticism more generally. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker, Maru by Bessie Head, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Beyond the Horizon by Amma Darko, and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are among the novels by African and African-American women writers analyzed for this study using such frameworks. As opposed to the individualistic male protagonists of traditional Bildungsromane, the texts examined in this thesis are found to demonstrate a sense of sisterhood instead of male heroic self-actualization. Instead of the Bildungsroman's typical story arc, which involves the development of a European young male character into adulthood these novels exemplify collective female experience.
Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
2023-01-01T00:00:00Z