Browsing by Author "Stobie, Cheryl."

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Audacious black female heroes in speculative and Afrofuturist fiction from the Nigerian diaspora.
(2021) Borain, Bernice Cynthia.; Stobie, Cheryl.
In four recent speculative novels from the Nigerian diaspora, The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi (2013 [2005]), Who Fears Death (2018 [2011a]) and The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor (2015), and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (2018), the main characters are represented as displaying audacity and courage. These qualities have aspirational value for young black women in particular. The genre of feminist Afro-Gothic and Afrofuturist fiction has extended the repertoire of its relevant womanist concerns since its origins, demonstrating the developing emancipatory potential of the genre, as portrayed in the analysed novels. Speculative fiction generally allows the reader to imagine a future where oppressive structures are overturned, and more specifically, Afro-Gothic fiction foregrounds the predicament of the black protagonist overcoming otherworldly dark forces, while Afrofuturism liberates the black protagonist by presenting her as the hero; in the selected novels she is represented as the literal and metaphoric bringer of light. The thesis employs close textual analysis in applying its focal theories of speculative fiction and womanism, based on Alice Walker’s emphasis on the audacity exhibited by young womanists. The womanist hero in Afrofuturist texts paves the way for a future when the young readers of these novels are encouraged to become the strong, audacious leaders of tomorrow through engaging with narratives exploring such possibilities. Similarly, Afro-Gothicism has expanded the genre of the Gothic, which originally presented Africa one-dimensionally as a dark continent being conquered by a white male hero, to explore the experience of young people of colour in the diaspora, navigating and reconciling the tension between African and Western cultural conventions that create cultural dissonance. A just ending is evident in each novel, with the womanist hero emerging as redeemed, and as the saviour or hero figure. Encountering these novels enables young black women to see themselves as heroes, and overthrows the single story that the literary canon often perpetuates, not just for these young women, but for other readers as well.
Being the "Bull goose" : masculinity, male relationships and fatherhood in Bitter Eden, King Rat and The Road.
(2014) Galbraith, Amy Avril.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This dissertation examines the relationships, masculinities and the issue of fatherhood in three different texts, all of which are set in times of extreme crisis and have a male protagonist. The texts are Bitter Eden by Tatamkhulu Afrika (2002), King Rat by James Clavell (1975), originally published in 1962, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006). I begin by comparing the theory of hegemonic masculinity as argued by Raewyn Connell with the theory of homosocial masculinity as argued by Michael Kimmel, and approach the novels from a Gender Studies standpoint, in that I am arguing that, other than hegemonic masculinity, there are other viable masculinities, for example, homosocial masculinity, as seen within the three novels. I argue that the portrayal of men in literature set in times of crisis has changed. Male characters are no longer simply portrayed as being hegemonic and patriarchal but are written as characters showing alternative emotions and reactions to their situations. I also look at the semi-autobiographical aspects of the novels, in that both Tatamkhulu Afrika and James Clavell experienced the situations described in their novels. By including this feature of the two Prisoner of War camp novels (Bitter Eden and King Rat), I believe that one is able to understand why each protagonist is portrayed as choosing an alternative masculinity to hegemonic masculinity, as the authors themselves have chosen to defy the social norms expected of men who fought in the World Wars. In this same line of thought, I have taken into account the fact that Cormac McCarthy is himself a father, and have applied this knowledge to The Road, reading it as a “love story” a father has written to his son, in which the father promises to protect his son, no matter what. The dissertation compares the subversion of the monolithic idea of hegemonic masculinity in each novel.
Creativity or control? : a study of selected Xhosa radio plays in the Apartheid years.
(2011) Gqibitole, Khaya Michael.; Stobie, Cheryl.
Although radio drama is a very popular form of the media, it is largely neglected in scholarship. As a result of this, it has been pushed into the periphery of research, thereby diminishing its value in society at large. The present study attempts to unearth the importance and value of the genre and its role in society, particularly during the apartheid era in South Africa. In this regard, the splendid work done by, among others, K. Tomaselli, R. Teer-Tomaselli, R. Fardon and G. Furniss, L. Gunner, D.A. Spitulnik, D. Sibiya, M. Maphumulo, N.E. Makhosana, N. Satyo and M. Jadezweni is acknowledged and commendable. In my view, its ‘omission’ in scholarship does not mean that the genre played a minimal role in educating and enlightening society. In the study I propose that radio drama was more constrained compared to other media genres, even though it was the most accessible. However, its accessibility had both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it informed and entertained audiences, while on the other it could be and was used for propaganda purposes. It is generally this paradox that the study will probe. My premise is that radio was primarily used by the apartheid government to disseminate propaganda. In order to ensure that the audiences were not exposed to what was happening ‘out there’, programmes were created to present a falsehood about the country, thereby depriving audiences of reliable information. It is not surprising, then, that there was some confrontation between the managers and playwrights at the Xhosa language radio station. While the managers tried to influence programmes to propagate government policy, playwrights used the same communicative space to educate as well as to entertain the audience. The audience actively extracted information they needed from the plays. In other words, they played an active role in meaning-making. Throughout the study I will claim that there was a rapport between playwrights and the audience. Among other things, that relationship illustrated the role that the audience played in constituting the plays. Themes such as ‘tradition’ and ‘romance’ were used to connect the plays with the audiences’ everyday lives. These themes were acceptable at the stations even though they could be manipulated to serve different purposes. Some of the plays that I will examine in the study are Buzani Kubawo (1981), Nakuba Intliziyo Ithatha Ibeka: Undoqo Sisibindi (1987), USomagqabi (1986), UHlohlesakhe (1979), UThuthula (1970) and Apho Sikhala Khona Isakhwatsha (1981). These plays will be examined to, among other things, establish the nature of the relationship between the managers and playwrights. The study will contend that there was a contestation between managers and playwrights. I will also claim that some of the plays were based on real political and social issues that plagued the period in question. In this regard plays such as Apho Sikhala Khona Isakhwatsha will be used to demonstrate that some playwrights dealt with political issues. I will also explore how women were represented in the plays. In this regard, I will argue that women were depicted as inferior to men. To illustrate this I will discuss plays such as USomagqabi, Lunjalo ke Uthando and others. I will also deal with the critical issue of the ‘voice’. As a blind medium, radio relies on the voice and as such playwrights had to work hard to make their plays not only relevant but also believable to the audiences. The connection between the voice on radio and the ancestral voice will be examined. Lastly, the study will suggest that radio plays are still relevant in the present dispensation even though they play a different role compared to the apartheid era.
Diasporic identities, divine presences and the dynamics of power in Deepa Mehta's filmography (1996-2008)
(2014) Laltha, Samiksha.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This dissertation explores Hindu diasporic identities through the medium of four films directed by Deepa Mehta. The analysis of Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Water (2005) and Heaven on Earth (2008) reveals the contrary nature of Hindu culture, while simultaneously providing measures to negotiate a culture that is thousands of years old. The film texts were selected as they have caused controversy while also initiating debate, both within the Indian sub-continent and the Indian diaspora. Utilising post-colonial and feminist discourses, I explore the ability for marginalised individuals (women, children and queer individuals) to gain access to power through structures that have previously resulted in oppression and subjugation. These structures include culture, gender, sexuality and the forces of colonialism. I reveal how subjects, despite their oppression, are able to gain some agency, voice and cohesion. Within contemporary society the social standing of women, both within the diaspora and the Indian sub-continent, needs re-evaluation. My research therefore illustrates how marginalised individuals are positioned within Hindu culture and demonstrates that there is no justification for the mistreatment of such individuals. Hindu culture is one of the few cultures that is primarily devoted to the worship of the female figure. An in-depth and critical analysis of Hindu mythology places the Goddess and female figure at the centre of Hindu culture. This stands in contrast to the patriarchal elements that have come to define Hindu culture. Re-affirming the place of women within Hindu culture bestows them with power, equal to that which men wield. Through her filmography, Mehta uses Hindu mythology to reveal the double standards that Hindu culture embodies. Mehta also exposes the endless possibilities that mythology exhibits for the change in treatment towards marginalised individuals.
Exploring the role of gender in the depiction of Utopia in selected novels.
(2015) Naudé, Michelle Jane.; Stobie, Cheryl.
Abstract available in print version.
From homo to pomo : 'gay identity' amongst young white men in contemporary South Africa.
(2011) Beetar, Matthew.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This project argues that there is a 'lacuna' in the representation of the demographic understood as 'young, white, urban, gay men' in contemporary South Africa. Whilst mediated popular representations of this demographic exist, these representations perpetuate a transnationalised, commercialised sense of identity – which in turn masks authentically local experiences. There are no literary representations of this demographic which speak to local experiences of support structures, community, identity, and ethics in a post-apartheid context. By deconstructing the label of 'gay' this project maps the problems of interpreting this demographic under a marker of 'gayness'. Using Alex Sanchez's American Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, and Rainbow Road it traces the history and meaning of 'gay'. It relates this meaning to a South African context by using André Carl van der Merwe's Moffie, Malan and Johaardien's Yes, I am! and mediated representations of the popular Mr Gay South Africa competition. These cultural sources point toward the need for a new framework of understanding in South Africa – one which shifts away from an overreliance on Western discourses. This framework is provided in relation to five local narratives gathered through ethnographic research, where the experiences of these five men are interpreted under a paradigm of 'pomosexuality' rather than 'gayness'. The project argues that pomosexuality, as a perspective, appreciates liminality but does not rely on it for identity. Rather, it focuses on the unrepresented shift from a Western ethic of the politicisation of identity to a local ethic of the politicisation of values. It ultimately argues that the lacuna of representation can be filled by adopting this pomosexual framework and breaking free of assumptions of homogeneity and assimilation.
"A hot thing" representations of slavery, identity, naming and mothering violence in selected Toni Morrison texts.
(2016) Schreiner, Samantha.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This dissertation explores themes of identity, naming, mothering violence and absent fathers in selected Toni Morrison texts. The novels under scrutiny are: Beloved (2011 [1987]), A Mercy (2009 [2008]) and Sula (1998 [1973]). My main – but not sole – focus is on the representation of women in line with Morrison’s own privileging of women characters’ perspectives. Therefore, with slavery as the umbrella of my analysis and her male characters being succinctly discussed, I analyse both the physical and mental ways in which these characters are enslaved, as well as the ways in which slavery was responsible for stripping down one’s identity and how this has affected women as portrayed in the selected texts. In order to adequately analyse these themes, I provide an extensive background to slavery, using intersectional lenses to discuss womanism, motherhood and fatherlessness. The notion that Black women suffer from a triple oppression, that being on the basis of race, sex and class, provides a compelling lens through which to study the portrayal of Morrison’s violent mothers and matriarch figures. Through her abnormal representation of violent mothers and absent fathers, she breaks down idealised stereotypes. My central argument is that while this violence and absence results from years of identity dismemberment through slavery, it is also a result of men and women trying to re-establish power and authority as a means of survival in the face of racism and oppression. Slavery was responsible for the dismantling of Black identity, and with that dismantling other deterioration emerged within family and community units. All three of the texts provide different aspects of identity, naming practices and issues of slavery to analyse. Naming, as an important aspect of identity, is investigated as it alludes to ownership. Morrison’s characters are shown to be in a constant struggle not to be owned by anyone but themselves. Beloved, A Mercy and Sula offer disturbing tales of mothers who murder and abandon their children to ensure that they are not captured into a life of enslavement. Enslavement is represented variously across the three novels. These violent mothers’ actions are extensively analysed as linked to a breakdown in identity that roots itself in a background of slavery. This violence, although disturbing and uncomfortable to the reader, can also be read as a form of protest against oppression and passivity from white patriarchy.
India through eastern and western eyes: women's auto/biography in colonial and post-colonial India.
(2001) Landon, Clare Eve.; Stobie, Cheryl.
During the course of my dissertation I demonstrate the way in which Anglo-Indian women writers of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century diverge from the genre of the "feminine picturesque" as explained by Sara Suleri in her book, The Rhetoric of English India. I look too, at what Indo-English women use as a genre, instead of the "feminine picturesque". I also apply Spivakean ideas on representation to their writing in order to see the similarities and differences between my primary texts and the theory. I begin my dissertation by explaining what Sara Suleri means by the "feminine picturesque" and how I intend using it to better understand the primary texts I look at. I also explain Spivak's ideas on representation and how I intend using them to further my appreciation of Anglo-Indian and Indo-English writing of this period. I conclude my thesis by discussing my findings with regard to the theorists looked at, and how their ideas have been reflected in the four principal texts I examined.
Liberating the potential of Kenyan women in Margaret Ogola's novels.
Cherop, Cathryne.; Stobie, Cheryl.
The research in this dissertation examines Margaret Ogola’s portrayal of female characters in three of her four novels, namely: The River and the Source, I Swear by Apollo and Place of Destiny. The main argument in this dissertation is that: through liberating the potential of Kenyan women in the texts, the author attempts to empower women. Of primary concern to this study is the way Ogola unleashes the potential of women through her narratives by analysing the impending liberation of Kenyan women in her fiction. I examine how Ogola restructures the image of women using different strategies to influence and boost women’s liberation and independence in their changing society. I further examine the classification of female characters: those who subscribe to traditional and tyrannical female socialisation, and those who go beyond the chains of patriarchy and advocate for emancipated femaleness. I analyse the traditional practices and cultural beliefs that bar women’s liberation and their progress, and also examine how the author privileges and gives voice to her female characters in their bid for liberation and independence. The analysis justifies the author’s aims to unmask the biased image of women in Kenyan society as demonstrated by her texts. Lastly, I analyse the principle of gender equality, and examine how the author gives cultural legitimacy to female power in her works of fiction. In this regard, my research is guided by African feminism theory and post-colonial studies. The analysis also takes a sociological approach as a focal point that informs the study on the plight of women and girls in the Kenyan context. I conduct my analysis in this study in a way that not only seeks to engage with the literariness of each of the primary texts, but also highlights the socio-economic value inherent in the texts, as well as how they function as vital tools for the liberation and independence of Kenyan women in the present time. The fourth novel, Mandate of the People (2012), is intentionally left out of my research because many of the issues tackled in it are similar to those found in the first three novels.
Making the journey : the female Bildungsroman and quest motifs in selected Margaret Atwood texts.
(2015) Webb, Tracy Elizabeth.; Stobie, Cheryl.
The research presented in this dissertation examines, from a gender studies approach, the genre of the female Bildungsroman and the representation of quest motifs in three primary texts selected from the oeuvre of Margaret Atwood. These three texts include: The Penelopiad (2005), Surfacing (1972) and Cat’s Eye (1988). Given that the Bildungsroman is traditionally championed by a male protagonist as well as the varied nature of this quest, which is also led by a male hero, this project investigates texts which highlight the nature of the female protagonist’s experience and the variation in her Bildung and quest as a result. In order to provide a thorough analysis of these texts an extensive theoretical approach of gender theory, Bildungsroman theory, and quest theory has been used. This promotes a focus on the construction of gender in the texts, the traditional structure of the Bildungsroman and how the selected texts conform to but also deviate from this model, as well as illustrating how variations of Joseph Campbell’s mythic structure have been included in the texts. The Penelopiad offers a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey epic from the point of view of a female narrator, Penelope. In this text several narrative techniques are used to ‘rewrite’ the original myth and privilege the female perspective. Surfacing provides an account of a spiritual quest; this text couples the protagonist’s Bildung and search for identity with spirituality. Cat’s Eye represents an example of a psychological quest as the protagonist’s journey is closely connected to her memories of the past and the experiences to which they are linked. The variations within these texts contribute to a comprehensive analysis of the complex nature of this study and this genre as a whole. These texts provide different examples of Bildungsromane and representations of the quest. This examination explores the extent to which Atwood makes use of the traditional Bildungsroman structure, and also the ways in which she is able to skilfully manipulate the genre and provide texts that more accurately constitute a female Bildungsroman.
Memory, monuments and the South African national imaginary : Constitution Hill and the fiction of Ivan Vladislavic.
(2010) Wright, Joanna Pretorius.; Stobie, Cheryl.; Brown, Duncan John Bruce.
This dissertation is an examination of public culture and memory sites in post-apartheid South Africa, in relation to their narrativisation in the fiction of the South African writer Ivan Vladislavić, who evinces a creolized, ludic style. The carnivalesque elements at play in his writing and his use of “minoritised” English constitute a radical aesthetic. With reference to poststructuralist theories of language, representation and history, I examine short stories and a novel by Vladislavić. I then turn a grammar developed from this aesthetic to an examination of one of post-apartheid South Africa’s most symbolically rich memory sites: Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Official spaces in this country and in this era have tended to be built and curated in the interests of establishing a national imaginary based on a teleological understanding of apartheid history. This can be problematic, as I show in a brief discussion of the Apartheid Museum, a site that offers an instructive comparison with Constitution Hill. I argue that Vladislavić’s radical aesthetic provides a way to interrogate the more totalizing discourses of nationhood and citizenship of the post-Rainbow Nation. Vladislavić’s refusal to allow an authentic history and his radical aesthetics of representation constitute an iconoclasm that can be brought to bear on the more totalizing aspects of Constitution Hill’s design.
The multicultural traveller : representations of Indian female identity in Gurinder Chadha's Bend it like Beckham and Bride and prejudice.
(2009) Maistry, Avershree.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This paper explores the construction of multicultural identities in the postcolonial world in relation to nonresident Indian women depicted in mainstream cinema. The dissertation traces the distorted representation of Indian women from its colonial and diasporic origins to its contemporary neo-colonial evolution. The analysis of two films, directed by Gurinder Chadha, Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Bride and Prejudice (2004), speaks back to Indian women‟s agency and ownership of multicultural identities. These film texts were chosen as they are both contemporary examples of Indian class, gender and culture in relation to the postmodern concept of multicultural societies. The films are products of formerly colonised people commenting on issues of class, gender and power as seen in Indian diasporic communities in England and the USA.
“Name Rhymes with Shame”: representations of migrant women protagonists in selected African texts.
Naidoo, Kimmera Sherrilyn.; Stobie, Cheryl.
dissertation explores representations of African migrant women through the medium of three African literary texts. The literary texts that are examined are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013), NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013) and Meg Vandermerwe’s Zebra Crossing (2013). African migrant women may be deemed the subaltern as they suffer marginalisation, subjugation and oppression in diasporic locations as a result of their identities. At home in post-colonial African nations, the protagonists are subject to adverse socio-economic and political conditions which prompt migration; however, in their host country, they are also subject to discrimination, xenophobia and displacement, which lead to a yearning for their home country. This project focuses on a transcultural study within the framework of English Studies, post-colonial literature and migration. The novels reveal the breaking down of cultural boundaries. The migrant characters in the novel represent a transcultural identity as their identity is transformed in their host countries through the hybridisation and syncretisation of cultures. The primary objective of this dissertation is to explore diasporic African identities through a textual analysis of the plot, characterisation and dominant themes in the selected primary texts. The individual novels are linked by the theme of diaspora, recurring diasporic contexts and circumstances, characters’ traits, and motifs. This paper uses Gayatri Spivak’s notion of the subaltern to explore the representation of the lives of African migrant women protagonists. The selected texts capture the painful emotions and experiences of female migrants who are subject to double prejudice. Women migrants are regarded as vulnerable, subordinate and subject to male dominance as well as national discrimination because of their outsider status. An analysis of the contexts, circumstances, emotions and actions of the protagonists will be undertaken. This dissertation also focuses on Rosemary Marangoly George’s notion of home. Home is not only a place of nurture, comfort and protection but it is also a place of catastrophe and danger. The selected texts highlight the dislocations of life in African countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria and the relocation and double displacement of the Zimbabwean and Nigerian diasporic community in the United States of America and South Africa. I analyse various coping mechanisms the protagonists employ as strategies for survival. I also explore the protagonists’ relationship with other migrants in their host countries.
Narratives of departure : a body of art and literary work accompanied by a theoretical enquiry into the process and methodology of their production.
(2017) Spencer, Faye Julia.; Stobie, Cheryl.; Wessels, Michael Anthony.
This research undertaking comprises the dual submission of closely related practical and theoretical research. The thesis represents the theoretical component of a practice-based PhD research project. The practical component of the project is made up of original creative work drawn from three bodies of practice across the creative spheres of painting, creative writing and printmaking. My Office Politics Series, comprises an extended immersion in paintings and drawings that utilise dogs and canine behaviour as metaphors for the workplace specifically, and the present social climate more broadly. The second project, The Indian Yellow Project began in creative writing, and consists of both printmaking and creative writing. The story unfolding within the writing is one of familial loss and efforts at recovery. Through writing I was enabled to create visual imbrications on this theme in printmaking. The prints themselves and the images contained therein reference the story outlined in the novella but also serve to act independently of it. The third project, the Wish List Project began as a series of paintings by a single creator (myself) but over time transformed into a multiple participant print-based collaboration for a public space. A significant part of my research comprises a detailed enquiry into the manner in which each of the three projects engages with notions of departure and dislocation in various forms. In my thesis I consider the dialogue that each project establishes internally in relation to the theme of departure as well as the form that this dialogue assumed across all three projects, including the novella. I reflect on how this exploration of departure relates to the humanising functions that I believe art fulfils: catharsis, cohesion and community. In my thesis I refer to writing from a wide range of contemporary theorists. These include ideas on signification, visuality and narrative proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva, insofar as these relate to my philosophy and experience regarding the function and potential of creative practice. Also contributing to this research are Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism (1981, 1984) and what he terms the “eternal” (1984:202) mobility of signs. In my Indian Yellow Project specifically I consider numerous ways in which the text and images can be read. The cathartic function and the ‘call to’ or motive for writing (and other creative acts) form a central question in the thesis, and ideas proposed by Cixous on the relationship of writing to death and to catharsis are of particular relevance to this research enquiry. The reading and creative investigation for the project span philosophical, narrative, thematic and material (medium-related) concerns. I also reflect on the important role metaphor and story-telling play in each project; and I consider their use as mechanisms for dialogue. Through my practice I discover, as Hannah Arendt (1995:105) suggests, that in story-telling we make sense of experiences, we uncover meaning without cancelling out or defining it in a narrow ambit. Through my enquiry into each of the three projects I consider ways in which creative practice offers the creators, and those who view, read or interact with the works, opportunities to, as Cixous suggests, say the unsayable (1993:53). My thesis and my practice are driven by the conviction that art is a valuable site for healing and for dialogue which “avows the unavowable” (53). While the first of my projects analysed in this thesis specifically references ideas about power relations and feelings of disempowerment, on the whole the traumas I reflect on in these three bodies of practice are personal in nature. Nevertheless, I believe that their implications for creative practices as tools for catharsis and communication of the “unsayable” are particularly relevant to a society such as South Africa where there remains so much scope for repair. As a person involved in arts education I believe it is important to draw attention to my conviction that creative practice offers opportunities for dialogue and repair, and my engagement with this thesis is an effort to emphasise this conviction.
Orion, Ram's-horn and Labyrinth : quest and creativity in Marlene van Niekerk's Triomf, Agaat and Memorandum.
(2014) Rossmann, Jean.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This study of Marlene Van Niekerk’s three novels, Triomf, Agaat, and Memorandum, explores the motifs of quest and creativity, and their association with the spiritual and numinous. Notions of self-creation, the imaginative re-creation of reality and the relationship between creativity, self-awakening and revelation are explored in an analysis of Van Niekerk’s novels. This thesis considers the encounter with alterity as a catalyst for undoing the boundaries of the self that leads to “profane illumination” and transformation. Van Niekerk’s characters confront alterity on numerous levels: their own abjection, death, the racial other, and the experience of alterity in artistic creation. It is worth noting that the characters who form the focus of this study – Mol, Treppie, Agaat, Milla, Jakkie and Wiid – are story-tellers and myth-makers, and that their creative use of symbol, myth and metaphor stimulate self-transformation. This study illuminates the relatively unexplored domain of the mystical and spiritual in Van Niekerk’s novels. This focus emerges within the context of a renewed interest in the spiritual within the humanities. Van Niekerk’s writing resonates with an integralist conception of spirituality that includes aesthetic experience, magic, and a sense of the sacred as embodied and demotic. The concern with immanence and non-dualism in Van Niekerk’s novels is typical of postmodern spirituality, and resonates with Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings on art and the Dionysian worldview. For Nietzsche art is spiritual, turning the individual into a creator and “transfigurer” of existence. Through the lens of Nietzsche’s writings on the artist-philsopher, I explore the motif of a spiritual-ethical and aesthetic quest toward a greater openness to alterity, to the world, and toward cosmic interconnectedness. Chapter One offers a reading of Triomf, focussing on the antithetical perspectives of Treppie and Mol, and their ontological quests. I explore Mol’s abjection in terms of Luce Irigaray’s writings on female mysticism, looking at Mol as a burlesque Mary/Martha figure. I explore Mol’s mystical quest, her compassion, and her affinity with alterity, which allows her to become the creator of her own cosmology. Conversely, I explore Treppie’s quest toward becoming an artist-philosopher. In the conclusion to this chapter I examine the implications of Treppie’s and Mol’s cosmic gaze and their different ontological outlooks.
People out of place : emotional geography, postmodern identity and gender in three contemporary Japanese texts.
(2015) Frankson, Paige Kendra.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This dissertation examines contemporary Japanese notions of place, gender and identity as discussed in three texts by Japanese and Japanese-descended authors. The texts under examination include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film Tokyo Sonata (2008), Haruki Murakami’s novel After Dark (2007) and Japanese-American author Ruth Ozeki’s novel A Tale for the Time Being (2013). Within each text, I will discuss how the author or filmmaker’s conception of location affects, and is affected by, their characters’ shifting experience of identity and gender. I begin with a brief exploration of the history of Japan’s exposure to the West, and the Orientalist notions which have been perpetuated about Japan which contribute to the image of Japan as other. Thereafter I examine theories of emotional geography, which is the exploration of the emotional connections between self, setting and society at large. I then tie this theoretical perspective with conceptions of the fluidity of gender and postmodern identity’s imaginings of the fractured self. Each text progressively widens the spatial areas of interest – from Kurosawa’s concern for the home, Murakami’s focus on the city, and Ozeki’s discussion of trans-oceanic and imaginative spaces – while emphasising the dynamic interplay of place, person and performativity within each of these spaces. Each of these arenas of thought are linked through their interest in the destruction of the rigid boundaries governing human experience, and I will argue that each of the texts under analysis presents a profound observation of not only what it means to be Japanese today, but also offers a touching and hopeful case for shared humanity on a global scale.
Queering Ubuntu : the self and the other in South African queer autobiography.
(2012) Marais, Barrington.; Stobie, Cheryl.
The research presented in this dissertation examines South African queer autobiography. The primary texts that I have chosen to analyse are four recent collections of autobiographical accounts by queer-identifying individuals, which I believe to represent a current trend in queer life writing in the South African context. These four texts are Hijab: Unveiling Queer Muslim Lives (Hendricks 2009), which is a collection of short pieces of writing by queer Muslims; Yes I Am! Writing by South African Gay Men (Malan & Johaardien 2010), a collection of writing by gay men; Reclaiming the L-Word: Sappho’s Daughters Out in Africa (Diesel 2011), a collection of lesbian writing; and Trans: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa (Morgan, Marais & Wellbeloved 2011 [2009]), a collection of writing by transgender individuals. I have isolated a number of chosen narratives from each collection and engaged in a critical exploration of the construction of autobiographical selfhood through the theoretical lens of collective identity and the African humanist concept of ubuntu. I begin by individually examining the major concepts relating to queer theory, ubuntu, collective identity and autobiography, and then charting the manner in which they intersect in the primary texts. I illustrate the relational nature of autobiographical self-construction by examining how it is constructed in various social locations and the interactions in these locations, including: community spaces, family spaces and spiritual/religious spaces. I foreground how the community is represented as shaping the family structure, and how each of these two institutions contributes to the manner in which the autobiographical subject views and presents the self textually. In terms of ubuntu and spirituality/religion I explore the Ubuntu Theology of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. I consider how it offers new modes and progressive ways of positioning the queer autobiographical self in terms of spirituality/religion, especially when one considers the often discriminatory manner in which monotheistic religion views the position of queer-identifying individuals. I conduct my analysis in this dissertation in a manner that not only seeks to engage with the literariness of each of the primary texts, but also highlights the socio-political value inherent in the texts, as well as how they function as vital tools in the struggle for equality that the queer minority is currently engaged in.
The rebel hero and social anxieties in selected cinematic representations of the twenty-first century hollywood dystopian and science fiction imaginary.
(2017) Laltha, Samiksha.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This thesis focuses on the rebel hero located within four twenty-first century Hollywood films. These films are Equilibrium (2002, dir. Kurt Wimmer), The Island (2005, dir. Michael Bay), The Giver (2014, dir. Phillip Noyce) and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Prometheus (2012). Drawing from a cultural studies perspective, this analysis focuses on heroism through rebellion, by discussing the psychological journey of the hero within each film text. The first three films focus on the male rebel hero. By contrast, Scott’s film offers an analysis of the female hero (and female alien) through my employment of a feminist lens. More broadly, this thesis explores the social, cultural, technological and psychological anxieties that utopian and science fiction films project onto the viewer. These anxieties focus on the psychological impacts of war and trauma, the use and dangers of technology, the power of totalitarian regimes and the female body, as represented by a female hero and the female alien. Utopia and its filmic representation are dependent on the lens of science fiction. The texts in this study show the capacity for the genre of utopian and science fiction film to explore trauma studies. The films that form part of this analysis are initially introduced as seeming utopias, even projecting eutopian elements. The hero at the centre of each narrative is initially compliant with the utopia. The moral awakening of the hero signals the emergence of dystopian elements in each utopia. Dissent on the part of the hero brings about an alternate utopia, one accompanied by hope for the future. Through journeying (physically and psychologically) each hero’s characteristics for rebellion are revealed, which they use to transform their respective societies. In relation to heroism, this thesis ultimately draws a distinction between the psychological journey of the female hero with that of the male hero. This study illuminates the capacity for utopian and science fiction film to act as warnings for the present and the future, drawing from dystopian elements in human history. This analysis therefore places an emphasis on history and remembering rather than on the projected future, revealing the value of utopian and science fiction film for our current time.
Representations of gender and sexuality in the key characters of Lauren Beukes's interstitial fiction.
(2015) Wilkinson, Robyn.; Stobie, Cheryl.
In the past seven years South African author Lauren Beukes has published four highly successful novels: Moxyland (2008), Zoo City (2010), The Shining Girls (2013), and Broken Monsters (2014). Beukes’s novels have garnered much attention both locally and overseas, with critics frequently praising the social awareness of her writing and noting her unique use of genre. Beukes employs a number of techniques to render the settings of her novels realistic and recognisable to a contemporary reader; however, disrupting the familiarity of the world in each case is an unexpected speculative twist. The supernatural elements of the texts become vehicles for the exploration of a number of topical social issues, offering fresh perspectives on these issues, and encouraging reader engagement with them. This dissertation focuses specifically on the presentation of contemporary gender issues in the novels, using textual analysis in order to consider how Beukes’s manipulation of genre tropes affects a reading of gender and sexuality in the key characters of her texts, and relating this to various contemporary gender theories. What emerges is a thorough demonstration of the socially constructed and multifaceted nature of gender and sexuality, together with insightful commentary on the complexities of enacting masculinities and femininities in a modern world influenced by rapid technological advancement and associated social developments. Through her narratives Beukes challenges the patriarchal ideologies which remain a significant feature of both South African and American social landscapes, advocating in their place a postfeminist egalitarianism.
Representations of masculinity in selected novels with South African settings by Bryce Courtenay.
(2019) Van Selm, Damian Richard.; Stobie, Cheryl.
This dissertation examines masculinities created by Bryce Courtenay as represented within his South African-set novels, The Power of One, published in 1989, Tandia, which appeared in 1991, and Whitethorn, published in 2005. The dissertation analyses the texts to expose how masculinities function within Courtenay’s novels, focussing on representation of characters, particularly the main protagonists of the three novels: Peekay, Tandia and Tom respectively. Building upon work by theorists including Viktor Seidler, Raewyn Connell and Robert Morrell, the formation of individual masculinities within select societies such as apartheid South Africa is explored. In addition, the setting of the novels is used to shed light on both the hegemonic ideal of masculinity and marginalised masculinities within the scope of apartheid South Africa, all of which are essential to understanding the overall societies in which the stories are set as reflections of South African history, and with an influence on contemporary society. The dissertation examines marginal masculinities, the role of fathers and father-figures, and how masculinities function within physical locations. It reveals how masculinities and identity-formation are influenced by personal beliefs and social identities, the presence or absence of an immediate father figure and the resulting influence on identity development in children, and how physical spaces (such as the boxing ring and boxing gym, mines, and sites of education such as schools) contain, enforce and manipulate the formation and maintenance of social, group, and individual identities. This opens up possibilities in using authors like Courtenay (who fall under the banner of popular fiction and are therefore commonly seen as unsuitable for academic study) and their work to examine complicated concepts like gender in an academic setting using a wider range of examples previously discounted and/or ignored by academia.