Grade 11 learners’ engagement with representations of violence in Athol Fugard’s novel, Tsotsi.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
Literature such as Tsotsi has been introduced in public schools in South Africa, with
the intention to provide learners with literature with which they are able to relate.
However, few studies have been conducted to establish how the learners view the
representations of violence within these novels, whether they are able to identify
these violent acts within their own lives and whether the violence they have
experienced has affected their perceptions of violence within these novels and their
lives. This study sets out to answer these questions using a critical paradigm,
qualitative approach, and a single case study of 76 grade 11 learners in a school in
Newlands East, Durban. This study was anchored in the ideologies of Freire’s critical
pedagogy which includes constructing knowledge through the facilitation of
meaningful discourse on the power relations and social justice issues in society. In
order to generate data for this study, three data generation methods were used which
includes an open-ended questionnaire, a written task, and a visual data task, allowing
the learners the opportunity to express themselves fully, while ensuring triangulation
takes place. The data was then collated and through the structures of the thematic
data analysis method, the data was thematically grouped and interpreted. The data
indicated that many learners have been exposed to various types of violence, with
physical violence being the most easily identified and commonly experienced of all.
Sexual violence was commonly identified but seldom experienced by the learners.
Learners were also able to identify types of violence found within the novel which
included physical, emotional, and sexual violence, as well as abuse and crime. This
study emphasises the impact that representations of violence in communities have on
the learning and teaching of literature and recognises the importance of teaching
literature by understanding learners’ backgrounds and through the ideologies of
social justice.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.