Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Authors and readers – History – 21st century'

Following recent critical work on writers' representations of sociability in Romantic literature, this thesis examines in detail the textual strategies (such as allusion, acts of address, and the use of 'coterie' symbols or references) which writers used to seek to establish a friendly or sympathetic relationship with a particular reader or readers, or to create and define a sense of community identity between readers. The thesis focuses on specific relationships between pairs and groups of writers (who form one another's first readers), and examines 'sociable' genres like letters, manuscript albums, occasional poetry, and periodical essays in a diverse series of author case-studies (Anna Barbauld, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, John Keats and Leigh Hunt). Such genres, the thesis argues, show how manuscript and print culture could frequently overlap and intersect, meaning that writers confronted the demands of two co-existing audiences - one private and familiar, the other public and unknown - in the same work. Rather than arguing that writers used manuscript culture practices and produced 'coterie' works purely to avoid confronting their anxieties about publishing in the commercial sphere of print culture, the thesis suggests that in producing such 'coterie' works writers engaged with and reflected contemporary philosophical and political concerns about the relationship between the individual and wider communities. In these works, writers engaged with the legacy of eighteenth-century philosophical ideas about the role (and limitations) of the sympathetic imagination in maintaining social communities, and with interpretative theories about the best kind of reader. Furthermore, the thesis argues that reading literary texts in the specific, material context in which they are 'published' to particular readers, either in print, manuscript, or letters, is vital to understanding writer/reader relationships in the Romantic period. This approach reveals how within each publication space, individual texts could be placed (either by their writers, by editors, or by other readers) in meaningful relationships with other texts, absorbing or appropriating them into new interpretative contexts.

For several reasons, translingual writers, defined here as authors who write in a language that is not their native one, have gained increased visibility in recent years. This is particularly true in the context of French literature where, more frequently than before, and with a more explicit recognition of their particular status, translingual writers have received important literary prizes and have been welcomed into the French Academy. Central to this recognition is their rich and diverse mobilisation of life writing, a corpus curiously neglected in the study of the phenomenon of literary translingualism. This thesis focuses on the writers Andreï Makine, Hector Bianciotti, Vassilis Alexakis, Nancy Huston, Agota Kristof and Katalin Molnár. It demonstrates that the translingual experience, in its capacity to question one's sense of self and provide novel tools for the exploration of one's personal history and subjectivity (conceived as an experience in language), appears eminently suited to the genre of life writing and that, in the current configuration of the French literary space, life writing is demanded from translingual authors. It proposes an original cartography of contemporary translingual literature in French, suggesting that more than any similarities in the conditions of their literary adoption of French, what creates family resemblance between translingual writers is the types of relation with their adopted language that are constructed in their autobiographical texts.

Scholarship on Post-Apartheid South African literature has engaged in various ways with the politics of identity, but its dominant mode has been to understand the literature through an anxious rupture-continuation paradigm in which the Apartheid past manifests itself in the present. However, in the contemporary moment, there are writers whose texts attempt to forge new paths in their depictions of identities both individual and collective. These texts are useful in contemplating how South Africans experience belonging and dislocation in various contexts. In this thesis, I consider a range of contemporary South African texts via the figure of lifewriting. My analysis demonstrates that, while many texts in the contemporary moment have displayed new and more complex registers of perception concerning the issue of ‘race’, there is a need for more expansive and fluid conceptions of crafting identity, as regards the politics of space and how this intersects with issues of belonging and identity. That is, much South African literature still continues along familiar trajectories of meaning, ones which are not well-equipped to understand issues that bedevil the country at this particular historical moment, which are grounded in the political compromises that came to pass during the ‘time of transition’. These issues include the recent spate of xenophobia attacks, which have yet to be comprehensively and critically analysed in the critical domain, despite the work of theorists such as David Coplan. Such events indicate the need for more layered and intricate understandings of how our national identity is structured: Who may belong? Who is excluded? In what situations? This thesis engages with these questions in order to determine how systems of power are constructed, reified, mediated, reproduced and/or resisted in the country’s literature. To do this, I perform an attentive reading of the mosaic image of South African culture that emerges through a selection of contemporary works of literature. The texts I have selected are notable for the ways in which they engage with the epistemic protocol of coming to know the Other and the self through the lens of the Apartheid past. That engagement may take the form of a reassertion, reclamation, displacement, or complication of selfhood. Given that South African identities are overinscribed in paradigms in which the Apartheid past is primary, what potentials and limits are presently encountered when writing of the self/selves is attempted? My study goes beyond simply asserting that not all groups have equal access to representation. Rather, I demonstrate that the linear shaping of the South African culture of letters imposes certain restrictions on who may work within it. Here, the politics of publishing and the increasing focus on urban spaces, such that other spaces become marginalized in ways that reflect the proclivities of the reading public, are subjected to close scrutiny. Overall, my thesis aims to promote a rethinking of South African culture, and how that culture is represented in, and defined through, our literature.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis takes as its subject matter a small field of activity in South African fiction in English, a field which I provisionally title the post-transitional moment. It brings together several works of literature that were published between 2004 and 2011. In so doing, it recognises that there can be no delineation of the field except in the most tenuous of senses: as Michael Chapman asserts, such “phases of chronology are ordering conveniences rather than neatly separable entities” (South African Literature 2). In attempting to take a reading of this field, I draw on discussions of the innumerable post-transitional flows and trajectories of meaning advanced by critical scholars such as Ashraf Jamal, Sarah Nuttall, Louise Bethlehem and others. In this thesis, I trace the “enigmatic and acategorical” (Jamal, “Bullet Through the Church” 11) dimension of this field through several works by South African authors. These works are at once singular and communal in their expression: they are singular in the sense that they are unique literary events1; they are communal because they share a particular force in their writing, a force that resists thematic bestowing. The schism between these conflicting/contiguous poles forms the basis of this thesis. I examine the works of a diverse selection of South African authors, finding in them a common, if discontinuous, seam in their treatment of excess, by which I mean the irreducible surplus that always demarcates the limits of representation. I find that these works each engage a movement towards the aporetic moment opened up by their characters’ experience of the traumatic. To be sure, these particular works of literature are notable for their exploration of ideas of alterity, loss and the capacity for survival in the routines of ‘South African’ lives. I use literature as the primary site of navigation for this enquiry because, as the scholars cited above have observed, literature is often a generator of meanings and a space where complex ideas about identity are explored and played out through the medium of the everyday. I recognise here that in the post-transitional moment, literature’s affective capacity in the world of action is limited – in Simon Critchley’s terms, it is ‘almost nothing.’ My thesis seizes this almost as the site of exploration. Taking as its starting point the existential question ‘have we learnt to imagine ourselves in other ways?’ I propose a number of positions from which these post-transitional works of literature might be read. The first chapter attempts to give account of the theoretical problem that attends to the reading of that which exceeds language’s capacity to invest with meaning. I use works by Diane Awerbuck, Annelie Botes, Shaun Johnson and Kgebetli Moele to inform my argument. In the next chapter, I explicate the problem of excess via a reading of Mark Behr’s Kings of the Water (2009). I then trace the aporetic nature of Otherness as it occurs in J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime (2009), paying particular attention to the ways in which that novel performs a refusal of meaning. Finally, I read Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret (2005) as a work that posits the failure of alterity as a launching point for future ethical action. The burden of this thesis, as I see it, lies in the apophastic nature of its subject matter. In embarking upon an exploration of the incommensurable, my argument is for an ethics of reading that seeks to explicate the ways in which literature works by thinking through its affective capacity the better to affirm its performative dimensions.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die onderwerp van hierdie proefskrif behels ‘n klein veld in Engelse Suid-Afrikaanse fiksie wat ek voorlopig met die term “post-oorgangsmoment” sal aandui. Dit bring verskeie letterkundige werke byeen wat tussen 2004 en 2011 gepubliseer is. Hierdie kunsmatige afbakening hou rekening met Michael Chapman se stelling dat “phrases of chronology are ordering conveniences rather than neatly separable entities” (South African Writing 2). In ‘n poging om hierdie aangeduide veld te lees, put ek heelwat uit besprekings wat tans gevoer word oor die ontelbare betekenistrajekte van die post-oorgangsmoment deur kritici soos Meg Samuelson, Leon de Kock, Ashraf Jamal, Sarah Nuttall, Louise Bethlehem en andere. In hierdie proefskrif skets ek die “enigmatic and acategorical” (Jamall, “Bullet” 11) aspekte van die aangeduide veld soos dit uiting vind in verskeie werke van Suid-Afrkaanse outeurs. Hierdie werke is terselfdertyd alleenstaande en gemeenskaplik in hul uitdrukking: hulle is alleenstaande omdat hulle unieke literêre gebeurtenisse verteenwoordig en gemeenskaplik omdat hulle ‘n spesifieke impuls deel, ‘n impuls wat tematiese kategorisering teenstaan. Die kloof tussen hierdie opponderende/naburige pole vorm die grondslag van hierdie proefskrif. Ek ondersoek die werk van ‘n diverse seleksie Suid-Afrikaanse outeurs en vind ‘n gemene, dog diskontinue, soom in die manier waarop hulle oorskot hanteer, dit wil sê, die onreduseerbare surplus wat alle representasie begrens. Ek vind dat hierdie werke elkeen ‘n weg na die aporetiese moment oopskryf deur die karakters se ervarings van trauma. Hierdie letterkundige werke word ook gekenmerk deur hulle verkenning van idees soos alteriteit, verlies en die oorlewingskapasiteit in die roetines van ‘Suid-Afrikaanse’ lewens. Ek gebruik literêre werke as die primêre navorsingsveld vir hierdie ondersoek aangesien die letterkunde dikwels as ‘n genereerder van betekenis dien en as ‘n ruimte funksioneer waar komplekse idees rondom identiteit deur die medium van die alledaagse verken kan word. Ek is bewus dat die letterkunde ‘n beperkte affektiewe kapasiteit in die wêreld van handeling in die post-oorgangsmoment besit – dit is bykans niks, soos Simon Critchley dit stel. My proefskrif betrek hierdie bykans as brandpunt vir die ondersoek. Ek stel verskeie posisies voor vanwaar hierdie post-oorgang literêre werke gelees kan word deur die beantwoording van die eksistensiële vraag of ons geleer het om onsself op ander maniere te verbeel as uitgangspunt te gebruik. Die eerste hoofstuk poog om die teoretiese probleem te omskryf wat ontstaan as ‘n mens probeer om die oorskot van taal se betekenisgewende vermoë te lees. In die daaropvolgende hoofstuk belig ek die probleem van oorskot deur Mark Behr se Kings of the Water (2009) te lees. Daarna skets ek die aporetiese aard van Andersheid soos dit in JM Coetzee se Summertime (2009) voorkom, deur spesifiek ook aandag te skenk aan die maniere waarop die roman ‘n weiering van betekenis aanbied. Laastens lees ek Ishtiyaq Shukri se The Silent Minaret (2005) as ‘n werk wat die mislukking van alteriteit as ‘n beginpunt gebruik om toekomstige etiese handelings te rig. Die hooftema van hierdie proefskrif lê myns insiens in die apofastiese aard van die onderwerpsmateriaal. Deur ‘n ondersoek na die onmeetbare te onderneem, staan ek ook ‘n bevrydings-etiek van lees voor wat poog om die manier waarop literêre tekste werk te verhelder deur die affektiewe vermoë van literêre tekste te bedink.

This thesis examines selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy. It argues that a specifiable ecological ethic can be traced in their work – an ethic which is explored by them through the tensions between utopian and dystopian discourses. The first part of the thesis begins by theorising the concept of an ecological ethic of respect for the Other through current ecological philosophies, such as those developed by Val Plumwood. Thereafter, it contextualises the novels within the broader field of science fiction, and speculative fiction in particular, arguing that the shift from a critical utopian to a critical dystopian style evinces their changing treatment of this ecological ethic within their work. The remainder of the thesis is divided into two parts, each providing close readings of chosen novels in the light of this argument. Part Two provides a reading of Le Guin’s early Hainish novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest and The Dispossessed, followed by an examination of Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The third, and final, part of the thesis consists of individual chapters analysing the later speculative novels of each author. Piercy’s He, She and It, Le Guin’s The Telling, and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake are all scrutinised, as are Lessing’s two recent ‘Ifrik’ novels. This thesis shows, then, that speculative fiction is able to realise through fiction many of the ideals of ecological thinkers. Furthermore, the increasing dystopianism of these novels reflects the greater urgency with which the problem of Othering needs to be addressed in the light of the present global ecological crisis.

The second edition of Shakespeare's sonnets, titled Poems: Written by Wil. Shake-Speare, Gent, and published by stationer John Benson in 1640, was a text typical of its time. In an effort to update the old-fashioned sonnet sequence in which its contents had first reached print, the compiler or editor of the Bensonian version rearranged the poems from the earlier quarto text, adding titles and other texts thought to have been written by or about the sonnets' author. The immediate reception of the 1640 Poems was a quiet one, but the volume's contents and structure served as the foundation for more than half of the editions of Shakespeare's sonnets produced in the eighteenth century. In part due to the textual instability created by the presence of two disparate arrangements of the collection, Shakespeare's sonnets served only as supplements to the preferred Shakespearean canon from 1709 to 1790. When, at the end of the century, the sonnets finally entered the canon in Edmond Malone's groundbreaking edition of the plays and poems together, Benson's version was quickly overshadowed by the earlier text, which was preferred as both more authorial and, due to Malone's careful critical readings, autobiographical. In contrast to the many scholars since Malone who have overlooked or denigrated the Poems of 1640, this thesis studies the second edition of Shakespeare's sonnets within the framework of the early modern culture that produced it, arguing that Benson's edition provides valuable evidence about the editorial habits and literary preferences of the individuals and culture for which it was originally intended.

Drawing on relevant theory from memory studies, literary criticism, sociology, reception studies and book history, this thesis examines the prevalence of nostalgia in white South African writing of the post-apartheid period. It identifies the numerous and remarkably conventional texts by white authors that proliferated in this time which might be described as nostalgic, arguing that these constitute a key genre of post-apartheid South African literature. In seeking to offer an explanation for why these nostalgic forms predominated in this period, this study takes into consideration the full "communications circuit" of a book i.e. the life-cycle of a book from production to consumption. Consequently, it employs an interdisciplinary framework to examine nostalgic literature from the perspectives of both the producers and consumers of texts. It is argued, ultimately, that post-apartheid nostalgic writing was particularly involved in the protection of certain formulations and structures of whiteness at individual, collective and institutional levels. The argument unfolds in three phases, each of which explores the value of nostalgia and nostalgic white writing in a different but related sphere: namely, literature, memory, and the market. The first phase of the argument provides a literary critical reading of the generic hallmarks of these novels, considering a range of representative texts, including works by Mark Behr, André Brink, Justin Cartwright, J. M. Coetzee, Lisa Fugard, Christopher Hope, Jo-Anne Richards, and Rachel Zadok. The second examines the allure of nostalgia and nostalgic books for the writers and readers of this literature, drawing on sociological studies of post-apartheid white South African identity and reader-response theory to analyse a selection of online and print reviews by readers. In the third phase, the thesis utilises a book historical approach to investigate the influence of various literary markets and the publishing industry, both local and global, in shaping the nostalgia trend.

x, 195 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
This dissertation explores two subgenres of popular romance fiction that emerge in the 1990s: "corporate" and "paranormal" romance. While the formulaic conventions of popular romance have typically centralized the gendered tension between hero and heroine, this project reveals that "corporate" and "paranormal" romances negotiate a new primary conflict, the tension between work and home in the era of global capitalism. Transformations in political economy also occur at the level of personal and emotional life, which constitute the central problem that contemporary romances attempt to resolve. Drawing from sociological studies of globalization and intimacy, feminist criticism, and queer theory, I argue that these subgenres mark the transition from what David Harvey calls Fordist capitalism to flexible or global capitalism as the primary social condition negotiated in the popular romance. My analysis demonstrates that corporate and paranormal romance novels reflect changing ideals about intimacy in a globalized world that is increasingly influenced, socially and culturally, by the values and philosophies that dominate the marketplace. Each of these subgenres offers a distinct formal resolution to the cultural and social effects of a flexible capitalist economy. The "corporate" romances of Jayne Ann Krentz, Nora Roberts, Elizabeth Lowell, and Katherine Stone feature heroines who constantly navigate the dual and intersecting arenas of work and home in an effort to locate a balance that leads to success and happiness in both realms. In contrast, the "paranormal" romances of Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, and Carrie Vaughn dissolve the tension between home and work, or the private and the public, by affirming the heroine's open and endless pursuit of pleasure, adventure, and self-fulfillment. Such new forms of romantic fantasy at once reveal the tension in globalization and the domination of corporate and masculinist values that the novels hope to overcome.
Committee in charge: David Leiwei Li, Chair; Mary Elene Wood; Cynthia H. Tolentino; Jiannbin L. Shiao

Notre recherche a examiné un phénomène communicationnel susceptible d’éclairer le processus de la modernisation de la société roumaine au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles :il s’agit de la transformation de l’édition d’une société manufacturière dans « une proto-industrie culturelle » et de la création d’une sphère publique dans ce monde en constante redéfinition. Le rapport entre la croissance des biens culturels produits par les éditeurs et celle de l’intérêt des individus pour la lecture est le centre de notre recherche. Autrement dit, nous avons évalué la fonction sociale de la littérature roumaine et le rôle des livres sur le marché des produits culturels et informationnels. L’intervalle relativement long, de 1880 à 1914, nous a permis de confronter les données spécifiques à la production de littérature d’une manière diachronique, en analysant les stratégies économiques et politiques des acteurs et aussi les conflits résultant des rapports de pouvoir entre ceux-ci. L’analyse des conditions de ces mutations a déterminé les rôles sociaux des instances, les dialogues, les confrontations entre les acteurs et les publics. Nous avons identifié une crise de la littérature roumaine originelle qui a mobilisé une sorte d’internationalisation de la production littéraire. La concurrence des biens, des marchandises culturelles « importées » de l’Occident sous la forme des traductions ou des reformulations est l’un des « potentiateurs » de la création littéraire autochtone.

Les lectures croisées de documents (plans éditoriaux, correspondance, presse, journaux intimes et professionnels, etc.) et de sources secondaires (histoires littéraires, travaux de critique, manuels, etc.) nous ont permis de suivre l’évolution des intentions, des objectifs, des réalités et des conséquences sur ce qu’on considère l’histoire officielle de la littérature. Les différences entre les étapes démontrent, d’une manière assez exacte, les degrés de pouvoir des forces impliquées dans la production du canon littéraire ;elles illustrent aussi l’emprise croissante de l’idéologie sur le champ culturel à partir de la fin du XIXe siècle. L’analyse diachronique des parutions éditoriales à travers les 34 années étudiées reflète les changements des politiques culturelles de l’Etat. L’analyse appliquée à la politique éducationnelle de la discipline littérature roumaine nous a permis d’envisager une modification de la stratégie de l’Etat dans ce domaine et de questionner ses effets sur la création du patrimoine national.

Le littéraire, acteur central de notre recherche, nous a donné la possibilité d’instrumentaliser plusieurs notions appartenant à l’histoire du livre et de l’édition. De cette manière, les tensions présentes à l’intérieur de l’analyse historique de la littérature ont été transformées en sujet de réflexion, voire de rétablissement de certaines positions de domination. Le concept d’identité bibliographique est convoqué pour réaliser une lecture diachronique d’une époque. Nous avons identifié et analysé toute une série de problématiques passionnantes, telles les relations entre les instances impliquées dans la production, la circulation et la réception des livres littéraires durant la période 1880-1914.

The PhD thesis entitled The Romanian Literary Identity. Writers, Publishers and Readers in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries examines a communication phenomenon, constituting a scientific enterprise that aims to clarify some aspects relating to the modernization of Romanian society during the Belle Époque: we have in mind the transformation of the “publishing house” from a business dealing with handmade items into a “proto-industrial culture” and the creation of a public sphere in a world constantly seeking to define itself. The relationship between the increasing number of cultural goods produced by publishers and the growing interest in reading among the people represents a main focus of this research. In other words, we tried to assess the social function of Romanian literature and the role of books on the market for cultural and informational products. By choosing a fairly long period of time (1880-1914), we were able to confront the data pertaining to literary production in a diachronic manner, analyzing the economic and political strategies of the “actors”, as well as the conflicts arising from the power relations between those actors. The analysis of the circumstances surrounding the transformations undergone by the Romanian cultural area enabled us to determine more clearly the social roles of the participants, the interactions and confrontations between actors and audiences. We could identify a crisis of the original Romanian literature, a crisis that fostered the “internationalization” of the literary production. The competition between cultural goods “imported” from the West in the form of translations or adaptations was one of the factors enhancing local literary production.

The cross-reading of documents (editorial plans, correspondence, press, personal and professional diaries etc.) allowed us to evaluate the evolution of the intentions, goals, realities and consequences of the official history of Romanian literature (which has its origins in this period). The differences between these stages revealed the power statuses of the forces involved in producing the literary canon; they also showed the growing influence of ideology on the cultural field since the end of the nineteenth century. The diachronic analysis of the titles published in the 34 years under scrutiny reflects the changes ocurring in the cultural policies of the state. The educational strategies concerning Romanian literature as a field of study revealed the state’s attitude change towards this area, which enabled us to assess the effects on the development of the “national literary heritage”.

The literary field, the central actor of our research, opened the possibility to operationalize several concepts pertaining to the history of book publishing. Thus, the tensions existing within the historical analysis of literature were transformed into a subject of reflection, even re-establishing some positions of dominance. The notion of bibliographical identity was employed in order to do a diachronic reading of the era.

The research conducted for this dissertation gave us the opportunity to identify and analyze a range of exciting issues, such as the relationship between the participants involved in the production, dissemination and reception of literary works between 1880 and 1914.

Doctorat en Langues et lettres
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Dans ce travail on essaye de donner une définition et une historicisation de ce qu’on appelle « littérature italienne de la migration ». Il y a tout de suite une distinction à faire entre les écrivains étrangers qui écrivaient en italien avant le grand flux migratoire des années ’80 et ceux qui sont issus de cette vague, dont la thèse s’occupe dans une manière plus spécifique (années 1989-2007). Les changements sociaux et culturels que les nouveaux immigrés ont apporté, ont transformé l’Italie de pays d’émigration en pays d’immigration. Au niveau littéraire ces écrivains ont d’abord utilisé un langage standard, pour se faire comprendre du public et pour témoigner les difficultés du voyage migratoire et de l’intégration ;les dernières œuvres, pourtant, analysées dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, ont été écrites par des écrivains qui manipulent plus facilement la langue italienne, utilisant un plurilinguisme témoin d’un lien très stricte entre oralité et écriture, et entre langue d’origine et langue d’accueil. Enfin, les oeuvres des écrivains italophones postcoloniaux et de ceux issus de la deuxième génération peuvent rapporter la littérature italienne contemporaine avec des autres situation (France, Allemagne, Angleterre, Etats Unis) qui semblent très similaires.

ENGLISH: On this work we want to give a definition about “Italian Migrant Literature”. There is a difference between writers came in Italy before or after the migration’s fluxes on the 80’s. With this social and cultural changes, Italy became immigration country. First, migrant writers used a standard language, to have a big public and to talk about migration. Last works are more interesting because they use a plurilingualism that can show the relationship between oral and write. Finally, Postcolonial Italian writers and Second Generation writers make a connection with the literary situation in the other countries (France, Germany, Britain, United States).

Doctorat en Langues et lettres
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This study asks whether the use of non-English words in the novels of Canadian Mennonites perpetuates a cultural binary, and concludes that it does not. The use of the non-English word, rather than enforcing a binary between "us and them", ultimately reveals that cultural boundaries are permeable and unstable. Recent reader-response theory, which sees the reader as always influenced by a context, is central to this inquiry. Analysis of readers' responses in the form of questionnaires constitutes part of the support for my assertions, while an examination of typography, orthography, interlingua, and theme in three novels by Canadian Mennonites provides the balance. Chapter one lays the theoretical framework for the investigation. It discusses: reader-response theory and the impossibility of accessing a stable textual meaning coincidental with the author's intention, the challenge of the non-English word to the concept of universality, and the distinction between proper “English" and non-institutional "english". Chapter two examines some readers' responses to non-English words and finds that “inside" readers have interpretations in common with "outside” readers, and that variations exist between the interpretations of “inside" readers. A binary model is too simplistic to encompass the range of contexts from which readers read. Chapter three discusses typography, orthography, and interlanguage in relation to (Low) German, and suggests the importance of these features to a discussion of the texts. Chapters four through six examine Rudy Wiebe's The Blue Mountains of China (1970), Anne Konrad's The Blue Jar (1985), and Armin Wiebe's The Salvation of Yasch Siemens (1984) respectively. Each novel's thematic concern with cultural boundaries serves as a framework for interpreting its physical and linguistic features. Chapter seven concludes by examining the influence of my own fragmented identity on the development of my argument, and revisits the issue of authorial intent in our politically less-than-perfect world. A lengthy appendix serves as a pluralistic glossary to the texts, and contains the responses to my questionnaires. A brief section outlines some of the appendix's interesting patterns and trends. An index to the appendix is provided since the appendix is not arranged alphabetically.

The aim of this research entitled Narrative Strategies in Selected Amharic Novels from 2000 until 2010 was to shed light on the relationship among form, meaning (content) and social milieuin establishing the textual and contextual features of fictional narratives. It mainly contends that it is possible to unravel the textual and contextual qualities of fictional narratives by studying form as a narrative strategy. In this research, form, when understood as a narrative strategy, is not only considered as a textual construct which motivates textual meaning but also regarded as a product of the social milieu from which the text emerges. Having this conception, form as a narrative strategy is investigated in selected Amharic novels published from 2000 until 2010 in view of expounding the artistic and thematic features of contemporary Amharic novels, endeavouring to fill the knowledge gap in Amharic literary scholarship about their literary features. The present research applies narratological approaches that range from classical to post-classical narratology. However, it dominantly uses post-classical conceptions of narratology as guidelines for its discussion. The dissertation comprises six chapters. The first one is an introductory chapter in which the research problems, goals and assumptions are explicated. Chapter two deals with the theoretical framework where the theoretical insight the research utilizes as a guideline is outlined and methodological issues are specified. The following three chapters focus on the analysis. In the third chapter, story is investigated as a narrative strategy in Yeburqa Zemeta (Burka’s Silence) (2000); in the fourth one, focalization is treated as a narrative strategy in Gerač.a Qač.eloč (Grey Bells) (2005), and in the fifth chapter, characterization is studied as a narrative strategy in Dèrtogada (Dertogada) (2010). The dissertation concludes with a chapter in which independent findings in the three analysis chapters are summed up and generalizations on the textual and contextual features of the present day Amharic novels are made.
Afrikaans & Theory of Literature
D. Litt. et Phil. (Theory of Literature)