Masters Degrees (English, Media and Performance Studies)
Recent Submissions
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Representations of home, dislocation, and nostalgia in select contemporary South African novels.
(2021)This dissertation analyses the literary representation of home in Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground (2011) and Zoë Wicomb’s October (2014), by investigating the fictional reflection of the (e)migrant’s ‘home visit’. I am interested ... -
Re-inventing Zuluness : from ethnic separatism to democratic multiculturalism.
(1994)Abstract available in PDF. -
South African writers in exile: a search for identity and common threads in their writing.
(1995)Abstract available in PDF. -
The familial reconfiguration of the subject of cultural discourse in Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous conditions.
(1996)Abstract available in PDF. -
Using self-identity and brand personality in advertising appeals: a Unilever Dove case study.
(2020)The rise in popular culture and the growing power of brands led to factoring consumers and their self-concept, their buying power and interests as a part of the strategies implemented for the purpose of advertising. Brand ... -
A study of masculinity, memory and trauma in Niq Mhlongo’s Way Back Home.
(2019)In this dissertation I explore the representations of ‘struggle’ masculinity and the trauma of black masculinity in Niq Mhlongo’s Way Back Home (2013). My primary focus in this regard is Kimathi, the novel’s protagonist. ... -
Towards a transnational and intercultural literary perspective : continuity or discontinuity?
(2001)Abstract available in the PDF. -
Telling tales: life writing from the inner-city and a critical reflection on the ethics of non-fiction storytelling.
(2020)This thesis comprises a creative component entitled They won't come for us here, and a reflective component which examines the ethics of non-fiction storytelling. They won't come for us here is a compilation of life-writing ... -
Race trouble: An exploration of race relations in Zebra crossing, coconut and the book of memory by Meg Vandermerwe, Kopano Matlwa and Petina Gappah.
(2020)Despite the formalised abolishment of both apartheid and colonialism, it would in many respects be remiss to conclude that the legacy of these systems of oppression do not continue to exert some level of influence on the ... -
From dislocation to redefinition of home in Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup and Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret : a postcolonial perspective of home.
(2018)This study aims to investigate new understandings of ‘home’ as represented through the experiences of the migrant characters in Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup and Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret. I am interested in the ... -
A critical analysis of uncanny characters in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and The Graveyard Book.
(2018)In this dissertation I examine uncanny characters in Neil Gaiman’s novels Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008). I explore what constitutes uncanny characters in his narratives and the consequent effects these ... -
Representations of masculinity in selected novels with South African settings by Bryce Courtenay.
(2019)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. ... -
Women’s voices, precarity, and commercialism in selected dystopian South African fiction.
(2019)This dissertation examines the use and effects of women’s voices, precarity, and commercialism in selected dystopian South African fiction, namely Moxyland (2008) by Lauren Beukes, For the Mercy of Water (2012) by Karen ... -
When Sita met Belle: an Indian woman finds her voice through re-visioning fairy tales.
(2019)The dissertation comprises a creative component and a reflection paper. The creative component is a novella titled “When Sita Met Belle.” The novella engages with the Beauty and the Beast narrative written from an Indian ... -
#Democracy : a case study of social media use amongst members of the public sphere during the 2014 South African general election.
(2016)At present social media is used by 28% of the world’s population. The use has naturally penetrated the political sphere where social media presence in election periods is a global growing phenomenon. However, limited ... -
International students' experiences of taking a language and media studies honours specialisation at a South African university.
(2016)This study focused on international students’ experiences of taking the Language and Media Honours specialisation and utilised an interpretive paradigm and hermeneutic phenomenology as a theoretical framework. In order to ... -
Life-stories: ethnographic portraits of victims of the 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban - South Africa.
(2016)The borders of the Rainbow nation opened up in 1994 after Nelson Mandela became president. Since that time South Africa is faced with immigration issues which have led to an influx of foreigners in search for a better life ... -
Charles Mungoshi’s contribution to our understanding of female tragedy in a Zimbabwean context.
(2017)This dissertation is a literary analysis of Charles Mungoshi’s narratives Waiting for the Rain (Mungoshi, 1975), “The Day the Bread Van Didn’t Come” (Mungoshi, 1980), “The Little Wooden Hut in the Forest” (Mungoshi, 1997), ... -
“Name Rhymes with Shame”: representations of migrant women protagonists in selected African texts.
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 ... -
"A hot thing" representations of slavery, identity, naming and mothering violence in selected Toni Morrison texts.
(2016)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 ...