Masters Degrees (English, Media and Performance Studies)
Recent Submissions
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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 ... -
A handful of spaghetti : entanglements of space, place and identity in the works of Imraan Coovadia.
(2014)Durban born novelist, essayist, and academic, Imraan Coovadia has been described by Jane Rosenthal as “turning into a national treasure as a novelist” (Coovadia 2012a: cover). Despite winning numerous prizes including the ... -
Letters to who : an original cycle of poems that explores the confluence of space, the quotidian and memory in contemporary suburban South Africa.
(2014)Letters to Who consists of an original cycle of poetry which explores the confluence of space, the quotidian and memory. The material in my cycle of poems exposes the dynamic of everyday life and also the role that memory ... -
Pasts remembered, future identities pursued : postcolonial nostalgia in Etienne van Heerden's novels, Ancestral voices and 30 Nights in Amsterdam.
(2013)The aim of this study is to explore the concept and application of nostalgia in two of Etienne van Heerden’s novels in their English translation, Ancestral Voices (1989) and 30 Nights in Amsterdam (2011). I aim to show ... -
Writing autism inside-out autism and representation : a novel and critical essay.
(2014)The dissertation adopts both a creative and critical approach to exploring the representation of autism in literature. Much of the autism literature produced so far has arisen in first-world, developed contexts, characterised ... -
"Cleansing the actor" : an appropriated acting methodology utilising the performance theories of Jerzy Grotowski in a South African context- a case study of the cleansing (2011/2013).
(2013)This dissertation focuses on my key research question, “How Grotowski’s performance theories and actor training could be adapted for use in developing my own appropriated acting methodology in post-apartheid South Africa”. I ... -
Diasporic identities, divine presences and the dynamics of power in Deepa Mehta's filmography (1996-2008)
(2014)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 ...