Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Chinua Rationalism in literature'

No exercício de comparativismo literário entre as obras Things fall apart, do escritor nigeriano Chinua Achebe (1958), e Terra morta, do angolano Castro Soromenho (1949), é possível estabelecer aproximações e distanciamentos que dialogam entre si e podem trazer reflexões relevantes para o estudo das literaturas africanas. Enquanto a primeira oferece uma visão inédita a respeito do funcionamento interno da sociedade Ibo na Nigéria diante da situação colonial, a segunda transparece as frágeis relações dos colonos portugueses nas instituições políticas, econômicas e sociais do império na região da Lunda em Angola. Já por esse aspecto, os romances convergem para um panorama em comum ao apresentarem tanto o colonizado em Things fall apart quanto o colonizador em Terra morta de maneira distante dos estereótipos retratados pelas figuras coloniais, justamente por problematizarem questões internas e clivagens sociais e históricas. Assim, ao evidenciaram as fraturas internas, contribuem com a crítica sobre o sistema colonial ao mesmo tempo em que ajudam a construir outras visões históricas sobre o tema. Desse modo, as duas obras distanciam-se abertamente quanto aos contextos coloniais, que exigem, diante de uma leitura comparativa, um arcabouço teórico-crítico múltiplo que abarque as diferenças existentes nas dinâmicas coloniais e em seus contextos africanos específicos. O fato de os dois romances trazerem à cena regiões específicas na Nigéria habitada pelo povo Ibo e em Angola determinada como o espaço Lunda - e apresentarem uma multiplicidade de questões étnicas, raciais, sociais e identitárias, acaba distanciando os dois livros em perspectiva comparatista. Em termos aproximativos, no entanto, a problematização dos espaços e personagens retratados nas narrativas e a figura do narrador que assume posições políticas que se aproximam da categoria do autor implícito (BOOTH, 1983), permitem também uma leitura analítico-comparativa entre os romances. Se, por um lado, os contextos sociais e históricos distanciam os escritores e seus produtos literários; os romances se aproximam não apenas pelas categorias narrativas de personagens e espaço, mas também pela posição político-ideológica assumida por seus narradores. A consciência histórica e o compromisso político diante dos fatos narrados estão presentes na representação literária como uma tentativa de entender o funcionamento e apresentar uma crítica aos diferentes processos coloniais.
In the exercise of literary comparison between the novels Things fall apart, of the nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (1958), and Terra Morta, of the Angolan writer Castro Soromenho (1949), its possible to establish similarities and differences that interact with each other and can evoke important reflections for the african literatures study. While the first novel offers an unprecedented vision concerning the inner functioning of the Ibo nigerian society on the colonial situation, the second exposes the fragility of Portuguese settlers in the political, economic and social institutions of the potuguese empire in the region of Luanda, Angola. About this last aspect, the novels converge into a common panorama when presenting an image of the settler that does not fall into a stereotypical perspective of that category, precisely by problematizing inner questions and social and historical cleavages. By exposing the inner fractures of the Angolan society, both novels contribute by criticizing the colonial system and, at the same time, helping to construct other historical visions about the issue. Therefore, both novels deviate from each other when presenting different colonial contexts that require, in terms of a comparative reading, a multiple theoretical and critical framework able to contemplate the differences observed in the colonial dynamics and in its african specific contexts. The fact that both novels bring into discussion two specific regions the Nigeria inhabited by the Igbo people and the Angola established as the Lunda space and present a multiplicity of social, racial and ethnic issues result in a detachment of the novels by comparative means. However, in approximate means, the problematization of spaces and characters portrayed in the narratives and the role of the narrator, who assumes political positions similar as the implied author category (Booth, 1983), also permit an analytical-comparative reading between the two novels. If, in one side, the social and historical contexts set apart the writers and its literary products, the novels are get closer not only by means of space and narrative categories, but also in terms of political and ideological positions assumed by its narrator. The historical conscience and the political commitment concerning the themes addressed in the novels are shown in the literal representation as an attempt to understand and present a critique to the different colonial processes.

Since the time of the Greek philosopher Plato, Western intellectuals have relied on logos or \"the word\" to make philosophical propositions about the world humans find themselves in. Logos or \"the word\" has generally been privileged over mythos or pathos, denoting emotion and feeling. This privileging has sometimes been challenged by intellectuals within the Western tradition. D. H. Lawrence was the most vocal and passionate writer to do so in modern times. This text traces the development of rationalism in the Western tradition and Lawrence\'s resistance to it. It also examines modern theoretical developments and notes their convergence with Lawrence\'s ideas. It concludes by claiming that the postmodern intellectual climate in the West tends towards a critique of rationalism, much like Lawrence.

African American Studies
Ph.D.
This study examines the role of African novelists as major sources of historiography of Africa, and the socio-cultural experience of its people. Although many African novelists have over the years reflected issues of social and political significance in their works, only a few scholarly works seem to have addressed this phenomenon adequately. A major objective of this dissertation then is to help fill this gap by explicating these issues in the fiction of Chinua Achebe, a great iconic figure in African Literature. Utilizing the conceptual and analytical framework suggested in C.T. Keto's, Africa-Centered Perspective on History (1989), the contexts, themes, structures and techniques of the following five novels were examined: Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). The novels were shown to be replete with cogent social and political insights which provide an accurate portraiture of African/ Nigerian history of the 19th and 20th Century. The study seeks to make a modest contribution to the steadily mounting body of Africa centered criticism of the African novel/fiction within the context of African social and political history.
Temple University--Theses

Syftet med uppsatsen var att studera hur motivet mat används i samtliga fem romaner av den nigerianska författaren Chinua Achebe för att visa på det koloniala/postkoloniala tillståndet. Samtliga fem romaner av Achebe har studerats för denna uppsats. De olika verken har studerats utifrån hur mat som motiv utvecklar sig med tiden i hans romaner. Hur maten används i romanerna för att skildra landets utveckling och karaktärernas identitet i relation till den egna nationen och koloniallandet. Analysen visar att det går en skönja en utveckling genom romanerna. I de tidigaste romanerna används mat för att bekräfta identiteten inom igbo-kulturen. I senare böcker sker en konflikt i mötet med kolonialmakten och den mat som introduceras. De olika köken smälter med tiden samman och matens koppling till identitet försvagas.

Since its launch in 1962, Heinemann Educational Books' African Writers Series has played a crucial role in the dissemination of African literature worldwide, and contributed to the creation of critical awareness among readers and critics of its distinct qualities and values. While the creative works of celebrated African writers such as Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong'o have enjoyed a wide popularity, and elicited an important amount of critical attention, the role of HEB in promoting the literary careers of a whole generation of African writers has rarely been discussed and analysed.

In many former British colonies independence from colonial rule has produced a myriad of post-colonial tensions. Increasingly, writers from the indigenous race in these former colonies have felt moved to respond to these tensions in their imaginative fiction. This study has undertaken a comparative cross-cultural analysis of the works of two writers from such societies whose indigenous cultures share common assumptions, to explore the underlying impetus of these tensions, and the writers� proposals for resolving them. Chapter One assesses Witi Ihimaera as a writer, and explores his concept of biculturalism, with particular emphasis on the distinctly Maori point of view which informs his analysis of contemporary social problems. Chapter Two assays Ihimaera�s pastoral writings, Pounamu Pounamu, Tangi, and Whanau, tracing in them the development of his concept of biculturalism, and also the changes in Ihimaera�s writing that culminated in The new Net Goes Fishing, with the hardening of attitude that it expresses. Chapter Three looks at the revisionism of Ihimaera�s view of New Zealand history from a Maori viewpoint. It uses Ihimaera�s The Matriarch not only as a means of exploring this revisionist Maori perspective, but also as evidence of the radicalisation of Ihimaera�s views, and the broadening of the concept of biculturalism to embrace not only cultural, but social and political matters. Chapter Four considers Ihimaera�s The Whale Rider as a feminist restatement of earlier views and highlights the growing dilemma he faces concerning the concept of biculturalism. Chapter Five focuses on Achebe, the writer, and his view of the role of the African writer in contemporary society. It argues that Achebe views himself as a seer, a visionary writer who has the answer that could regenerate his society. Chapter Six analyses Achebe�s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, and argues that contrary to accepted views of Okonkwo, this character is not actually representative of his society but a deviant. It further argues that the post-colonial African societies� affictions with irresponsible leaders were already manifest in the colonial period, through characters such as Okonkwo and Ezeulu, whom Achebe sees as guilty of gross abuses of power and privilege. Chapter Seven looks at both No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People, and argues that the failure of the first indigenous administrative class stems both from their having an incomplete apprehension of all the aspects of their heritage and the responsibility which power imposes on those who exercise it, and also from lack of restraint in wielding of power. It further argues that the unbridled scramble for materialism has resulted in the destruction of democratic principles. In the context of contemporary New Zealand society, Ihimaera sees the solution for Maori post-colonial tensions as bicultural integration, but he is having problems with the concept in the face of increasing radical activism from Maoris who see it as little better than assimilation. Achebe, however, has opted for re-formism, having discarded traditionalism because it is inadequate for people in the modern world.

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A presente dissertação propõe o estudo das consequências da dominação colonial britânica sobre a República Federal da Nigéria no que concerne à religião, educação, língua, raça e gênero, tendo como objetos de análise Things Fall Apart (1958) de Chinua Achebe e Purple Hibiscus (2003) de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A maneira de ler e produzir literatura vem se metamorfoseando ao longo dos séculos XX e XXI, abrindo espaço para que despontem as literaturas pós-coloniais, isto é, obras que possuem como atributo comum o fato de emergirem da experiência da colonização. Impulsionada por este contexto, a produção literária africana vem conquistando espaço e notoriedade no cenário mundial. Este trabalho busca relacionar literatura e situação sócio-política, trazendo para o debate vozes historicamente silenciadas e abrindo possibilidades de resistência às perspectivas impostas pelo olhar do colonizador, através da investigação da literatura nigeriana. Embora o período de dominação britânica sobre a Nigéria tenha chegado ao fim, as consequências de tal política ainda se fazem presentes no cotidiano daquele povo, seja na religião tradicional brutalmente substituída pelo cristianismo, nos idiomas autóctones que perdem lugar para a língua inglesa, no sistema de aprendizado estrangeiro que toma o lugar do ensino familiar ou na valorização da pele branca e do sistema patriarcal de poder. Tendo destacado papel no estabelecimento da estrutura colonial, busca-se aqui converter a literatura em instrumento de libertação.
The present thesis proposes the study of the consequences of British colonialism over the Federal Republic of Nigeria concerning religion, education, language, race and gender, having as objects of analyses Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe and Purple Hibiscus (2003) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The way in which literature is written and read has been changing throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, opening space to the postcolonial literatures, that is, literatures that have as a common background the fact that they come from the experience of colonialism. Propelled by this context, African literary production has been achieving space and renown in the global scenery. This work aims to relate literature and social-political situation, bringing to the debate historically silenced voices, opening possibilities to resist the colonial gaze while investigating the Nigerian literature. Even though the british colonial rule has come to an end, the consequences of this politics are still present in the daily lives of that people, in the fact that traditional religion was brutally substituted by Christianism, in the ancient languages replaced by English, in the educational system that took over home schooling, in the valorization of white skin and the patriarchal power system. Literature has a central role in establishing colonial structures and this work tries to convert literature into a liberation tool.

La fragmentation et l’aliénation, thèmes récurrents dans la littérature postcoloniale, sont représentées par le contenu et la forme des œuvres étudiées dans cette recherche. Dans un cadre historique et fictionnel, les romans postcoloniaux de Chinua Achebe et de V.S. Naipaul inscrivent le postcolonisé fragmenté et aliéné dans des lieux et des milieux différents. La quête identitaire de ce dernier, entre tradition et modernisation, a déclenché son déracinement. En effet, tiraillé entre l’Occident et l’Orient, le postcolonisé, dans les romans de ces deux écrivains, est aliéné géographiquement et culturellement, ce qui explique son instabilité et sa quête identitaire interminable. L’espace dans le roman postcolonial est fragmenté pour aliéner davantage le postcolonisé qui cherche à mettre fin à cette aliénation. La double culture – orientale et occidentale – participe non seulement à la perte d’identité culturelle, mais aussi à celle des personnages. À la rencontre de l’Autre ou de l’Occidental, les personnages achibiens et naipauliens essayent de cacher leur « peau noire » avec un « masque blanc » par le biais du mimétisme de cet Autre. Cette littérature est distinguée par son métissage, son intertextualité ainsi que son aspect linguistique qui font d’elle une littérature dialogique avec la littérature occidentale et notamment la littérature coloniale. Une telle littérature indigène, exprimée dans une langue étrangère, reflète un attachement et un détachement. La non-linéarité joue un rôle important dans cette fiction, vu que les récits sont décomposés et fragmentés tout comme les personnages. C’est ainsi qu’on peut dire que selon des thématiques et des stylistiques divers que ces deux écrivains postcoloniaux ont réussi à présenter au lecteur la fragmentation et l’aliénation du postcolonisé dans son milieu et son ère
Fragmentation and alienation: recurring themes in the postcolonial literature, are represented by the content and the form of the studied literary works in this research. Within a historical and fictional setting, the novels of Chinua Achebe and V.S. Naipaul set the fragmented and alienated postcolonial figures in different places and surroundings. The quest for identity of these postcolonial figures, between tradition and modernization, has caused their uprooting. In fact, in the novels of these two writers, the postcolonial figures, who are torn between the Occident and the Orient, are geographically and culturally alienated. Hence, they are unstable and are in a never-ending quest. The setting in the postcolonial novel is itself fragmented so that it alienates more the postcolonial figures who try to make an end to this alienation. The double culture – oriental and occidental – does not only participate in losing the cultural identity, but also in losing the figures’ ones. While meeting the Other or the Occidental, the characters of Achebe and Naipaul try to hide their « black skin » under a « white mask » through the mimicry of this Other. This literature stands out by its hybridization, its intertextuality, as well as its linguistic aspect, which has turned into a dialogic literature, in a discourse with the occidental literature and notably the colonial one. Such an indigenous literature, revealed in a foreign language, shows an attachment and a detachment. The non-linearity plays an important role in this fiction, given that the tales are distorted and fragmented like the major characters of these stories. In this way, one can say that through varied thematic and stylistic features these two postcolonial writers have succeeded in presenting to readers the alienation and fragmentation of postcolonial figures within their surroundings and in their era

Orientador: Vilma Sant'Anna Areas
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: Este trabalho se propõe a analisar o primeiro livro do romancista nigeriano Chinua Achebe, Thingslall apart, comoromance de fundação da literatura nigeriana de língua inglesa. A partir de considerações teóricas das características do texto fundacional, buscamos identificar no decorrer da narrativa os elementos textuais que indicam uma possível leitura deste romance como fundacional, atentandopara os aspectos discursivos da História da África e da Literatura Africana em geral, da construção da nação, bem como da análise do conteúdo ficcional
Abstract: This academic work intends to analyze Chinua Achebe's first novel Thing sfall apart read as a founding novel, it is considered a cornerstone within the Anglophone Nigerian literature. From the point of view of some theorists of the foundational discourse, we sought to analyze the elements in the narrative which would function as icons for the thesis of a foundational novel. We focused on discursive elements of the African History and the Africa Literature in general, on the idea of Nation, as well as the analysis of content
Mestrado
Literatura Geral e Comparada
Mestre em Teoria e História Literária

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following mini-thesis, Things Fall Apart, Power and Krishnamurti, is concerned with the nature by which power is possibly viewed, maintained and transferred by the characters of Chinua Achebe' s novel, Things Fall Apart. The intent of this analysis is to incorporate traditional literary approaches to issues of power in the novel via polarised conceptions, such as east versus west, black versus white or indigenous culture and traditions versus Christianity. Yet simultaneously, by incorporating the unique world-view of Krishnamurti, power, as possibly represented in Things Fall Apart, will be scrutinised as a selfperpetuating entity which chooses its own agents for its manifestation, outside and not necessarily as results of constructions of race, religion or economical design. Specifically, I am interested in Achebe's fictional construction of the indigenous- African maintenance of power and authority within the novel; before and after the arrival of the European colonialists. Did all African villagers, as represented in the fictitious Umuofia, accept the powers-that-be with non-critical minds, or, was power and authority embedded in the processes whereby the Umuofians became accustomed and socially conditioned by the cultural constructs of their particular society? Personally, I do not perceive either of these approaches to be sufficient in the process of holistically comprehending African adaptation to and adoption of 'western' modes of culture. Instead, I believe that though the encroachment of European mercantilism and Christianity upon the African mental and physical landscape was undeniably brutal, this very brutality was in and of itself not variant, compared to psychological and physical maintenance of power in the indigenous realm. This is a primary area of concern of this thesis. I perceive that the African elite, like the European missionaries, used religion and perceptions of tradition and identity to hold on to their elitist and prestigious positions in the indigenous social network. Secondly, this thesis is critical ofthe perception that the dominant emergence of western spiritual and political constructs, over indigenous structures, is a direct result of the acquiescence or absolute physical and mental defeat of African people. Rather, I perceive that African people - in the processes of becoming aware of a new way of life and in making conscious decisions to incorporate this new world-view into their own life-scheme - altered the manipulation and maintenance of power and authority in indigenous society, within the context of Things Fall Apart. In effect, the transfer of political power in Things Fall Apart is not simply a matter of the destruction of African culture by the Europeans. Instead, it is a result of Africans becoming aware of a new way of life, and adopting aspects of this lifestyle in the place of their traditional norms. Krishnamurti's ideas will be incorporated into the above analysis to present a particular world-view that deliberately strives to counteract the human tendency to cling to philosophies, political persuasions, theories or religious fervor. I have included Krishnamurti in the examination of the tension and psychological conversion of African people (as represented in Things Fall Apart) due to moments when they themselves, in the process of introspection, sought to let go of ancient customs and explore the new and foreign, as represented by Christianity. It is my position that in the moments when indigenous authority was questioned by the masses, so began a multifold process: this included the reconstruction of the African self and the readjustment of power relations within the African collective. Krishnamurti posed the following question: When you are told what to do, what to think, to obey, to follow, do you know what it does to you? Your mind becomes dull, it loses its initiative, its quickness. This external, outward imposition of discipline makes the mind stupid, it makes you conform, it makes you imitate (1974:29). I am aware that by juxtaposing the above idea next to African culture might appear blasphemous in the 'new' South Africa, given the great effort to revive 'African' culture. I do not object to this revival and consciousness of tradition and heritage. Yet, I strongly agree with Krishnamurti that the maintenance of power by a select group of elite Africans in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial dispensations is a result of the conformity and acceptance of the masses of African people of the social, spiritual and economic constructions of the elite. The very patterns whereby Africans think was, through centuries, developed by a select group of individuals, as reflected in Things Fall Apart. Culture and tradition have acted as standards whereby individuals measure the worth of their individuality. Hence, Krishnamurti views the struggle of freedom; the struggle of individuals to shake of cultural or traditional constraints, as crucial to the full development of the human self. "Freedom," he says, "liberty, the independence to express what one thinks, to do what one wants to do, is one of the most important things in life. To be really free ... within oneself, is one of the most difficult and dangerous things" (1974:30. As this thesis progresses, we will probe Krishnamurti's claim that the individual attempt to be free, as possibly represented in Achebe's Things Fall Apart, may be both difficult and dangerous.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die volgende mini thesis, "Things Fall Apart, Power and Krishnamurti" is besorg op die manier hoe mag anskou, behou en oorgedra work binne karakters van Chinua Achebe se novel, "Things Fall Apart". Die doel van hierdie analise is om bewus te raak van die tradisionele liturere benadering tot konsepte soos mag gesien vanuit ft polografiese oogpunt, soos bv. oos teenoor wes, swart teenoor wit of inheemse kuluur en tradisie teenoor Christenskap. Inteendeel, deur die unieke sienswyse van Krishnmurti in te sluit, sal mag soos vervat in "Things Fall Apart", in totaliteit gekritiseer word deur sy eie manifesteringe en nie noodwendig vanuit ft oogpunt van ras, geloof of ekonomie nie. Ek is spesifiek geinteriseerd in Achebe se fiktioneie konstruksie van die Inheemse Afrikaanse behouing van magsbeheer in hierdie novel. Beide voor en nadat Europese kolonisme hier gearriveer het, het Afrikaner inwoners, soos voorgehou in die fiktiese "Umofia" magsbeheer in hulle gedagtes aanvaar? Of was magsbeheer onvoorwaardelik in hulle ingeplant deur die sosiale en kulturele aspekte van hul spesifieke gemeenskap. My persoonlike sienswyse is dat hierdie banadering ft oordeelkundige benadering is om gevolglik die Afrikaner aanvaring en uitoefening van westerse kulturele modes te verstaan. Inteendeel argumenteer ek dat die indringing van Europese merkantalisme en Christendom bo-op die Afrikaner geestelike en natuurkundige landskappe onerkenbaar geweldadig was en dat hierdie geweldadigheid in en vanself nie veranderlik was nie, invergelyking met die sielkundige en fisiese behouing van mag soos voorbehou in die Inheemse koningkryk. Die elite wie die opperpriester van prekoloniale Afrikaner gemeenskap saamgestel het, wie aangedring het op ft vorm van getrouheid tot kulturele en politieke konstruksies soos deur hulle bepaal, het ook die psige krag van die plaaslike dorpsbewoners misbruik. Dit is my primere punt van fokus in hierdie thesis. My argument is dat die Afrikaanse elite, soos Europese sendelinge, geloof en persepsies van tradisie en identitiet gebruik het om vas te kleef aan hul eie elite en invloedryke posisies binne die Inheemse en sosiale netwerk. Tweedens, hierdie thesis is krities van die persepsie dat die verskyning van Westerse spiruturele en politieke konstruksies oor inheemse strukture, ft direkte gevolg was van die instemming tot absolute psise en geestelike omverwerping van Afrikaner mense. Ek sal beweer dat Afrikaner mense, in die proses van gewoont raak aan ft nuwe lewenstyl, doelbewuste keuses gemaak het om hierdie nuwe wereld sienswyse in hul eie lewenstyl te inkorpireer. In hierdie proses is die magsbeheer soos voorbehou in die Inheemse gemeenskap gemanupileer binne die konteks van "Things Fall Apart". Gevolglik, die direkte oordrag van politieke mag in "Things Fall Apart" was nie net eenvoudig ft vernietiging van Afrikaner kultuur deur Europese nie. Inteendeel, dit was ft direkte gevolg van Afrikaners wat bewus geraak het van ft nuwe lewenstyl, en in die proses het Afrikaners hierdie lewesstyl as hul eie aanvaar. Krishnamurti se sienswyse sal geinkorpireer word in die boostaande analise wie se wereldwye sienswyse doelbewus stry teen die mens se geneighheid om aan te kleef aan filosofiese en politieke oortuigende gedagtes van theorie en geestelike opgewondenheid. Ek het spesifiek Krishnamurti se sienswyse ingekorpireer om die konflik en filosofiese veranderinge in Afrikaner mense te ondersoek (soos voorbehou in "Things Fall Apart") as gevolg van oomblikke waarin die Afrikaners hulself introspeksie doen en in dié proses, van hul eie eeue oue tradisies en gewoontes afstand gedoen het om die nuwe forum soos voorbehou deur Christenskap aan te kleef. Dit is my sienswyse dat gedurende hierdie tydperk magsbeheer bevraagteken was deur die magdom van mense. Dis hoe die rekonstruksie van die Afrikaner "Ek" en die herskedulering van magsbeheer verhoudinge binne die Afrikaner kollektief plaasgevind het. Krishnamurti stel die volgende vraag: Wanneer ft mens gesê word wat om te doen, wat om te dink, wat om te gehoorsaam, wat om te volg, weet jy wat dit aan n mens doen? Nmens se brein raak traag en die brein verloor sy inisiatief en sy fluksheid. Die uitwendige, die buitewerking van discipline maak jou brein dom, dit laat jou naaboots. (1974:29). Ek is bewus dat deur bogenoemde idea en Afrikaner kultuur naas mekaar te stel mag as godslasterend voorkom binne die konteks van die "nuwe" Suid Afrika, gegewe die groot inspanning om "Afrikaner" kultuur te hernu. Ek maak nie beswaar teen die heruwing en bewussyn van tradisie en erfenis nie. Ek stem saam met Krishnamurti dat deur die beheer van mag van fi selektiewe groep van elite Afrikaners in die prekoloniale, koloniale en post-koloniale dipensasies te gee, is as gevolg van die aanmeerning en aanvaarding deur die magdom van die Afrikaner gemeenskappe van sosiale, spirituele en ekonomiese konstruksies soos dié van dié elite. Die denks wyse waarlangs Afrikaners dink, was vir eeue lank, uitgebrei deur fi selektiewe groep mense, soos voorgehou in "Things Fall Apart". Kultuur en tradisie het fi standard geword waarby fi mens hom kan mee verlyk om sy waarde as individu te kan bepaal. Om hierdie rede, sien Krishnamurti die geveg vir vryheid as die geveg vir individue om kulturele en tradisionele beperkige af te skud en dis inderdaad belangrik vir die uitbreiding van die mens se eie identiteit. "Vryheid", sê hy, "liberalisme, die onafhanklikheid om uit te spreek wat fi mens dink, te doen wat fi mens wil doen, is een van dié mees belangrikste dinge in die lewe. Om innerlik vry te wees ... is een van die moeilikste en gevaarlikste dinge in die lewe" (1974:30). Soos hierdie thesis voortgaan, sal ek Krishnamurti se beweering dat die individu se poging om vry te wees, soos moontlik voorgestel in Achebe se " Things Fall Apart" dalk beide moeilik en gevaarlik mag wees.

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) is usually remembered for his experiments in natural philosophy and celebrated for his isolation of the gas we now call oxygen. However, Priestley had a wide range of interests and published extensively on education, history, politics, political philosophy, language, theology and religion. He dedicated his life to elucidating a coherent set of epistemological, metaphysical and theological principles which he believed explained the human mind, the natural world and the nature of God and revelation. Recent studies of Priestley have emphasised the difficulties that arise from isolating the various aspects of his thought and the fruitful outcome of uncovering the many connections between his diverse areas of study. With this in mind, the present dissertation aims to elucidate the relationship between two aspects of Priestley's thought that have not previously been studied together. It examines his theory of language and argument alongside his work on theology and the evidences of revelation. Chapter One provides an overview of Priestley's epistemology, focusing on his work on induction, judgment and assent. Chapter Two looks at Priestley's analysis of the role of the passions in our assent to propositions and the progressive generation of the personality, while paying particular attention to the origins of figurative language. Chapter Three examines Priestley's theory of language development including the relationship between figurative language and the extension of vocabulary and the close connection between language and culture. Chapter Four demonstrates that Priestley's discussion of the evidences of revealed religion is structured around his theory of assent and judgment. It also explains how assent to revelation is essential for the generation and transcendence of the ‘self'. Chapter Five brings all the themes of the dissertation together in a discussion of Priestley's rational theology and examines his analysis of figurative language in scripture.

Il s'agit de présenter une étude critique et comparative des romans No Longer at Ease (1960) et A Man of the People (1966), de l'écrivain Nigérian Chinua Achebe, et de A geração da utopia (1992) et Predadores (2005), de l'Angolais Pepetela. Par l'analyse des contextes historique, géographique, politique et littéraire qui tournent autour et quitraversent la tessiture des romans étudiés, l'on propose de montrer comment les deux écrivains africains s'approprient du roman, genre cosmopolite par excellence, pour l'adapter aux conditions locales de production du roman dans l'Afrique postcoloniale, de façon à exprimer littérairement la (dis)jonction entre métropole et postcolonie et le processus de (re)construction de la nouvelle nation. Notre intérêt dans l'analyse de ces romans est de réfléchir sur les types de négociations et concessions que les narrateurs ont besoin de faire pour raconter leurs récits. Pour ce faire, nous étudions le statut du narrateur, la configuration des personnages, la transformation du processus social en forme littéraire, la représentation de la nation et le langage mis en pratique par les auteurs pour représenter cette réalité. Les personnages évoqués sont ceux qui représentent la nouvelle " bourgeoisie " du moment postcolonial du Nigéria et de l'Angola, lesquels font partie de cette nouvelle classe sociale, responsable par la sphère bureaucratique qui surgit dans les pays africains après les processus d'indépendance, à partir des années 1960. La mise en dialogue des écrivains Pepetela et Achebe se fonde dans la proximité de style littéraire présentée par eux et par le rapprochement démontré par l'élection des sujets traités dans leurs ouvrages. Il faut encore préciser qu'ils sont tous les deux des observateurs perspicaces de la réalité de leurs pays et qu'ils se servent d'un langage acéré, rempli d'une ironie subtile. L'on propose, donc, dans cette étude, devérifier la thèse de l'existence d'une articulation entre le thème de l'ascension des personnages corrompus, membres des nouvelles élites bourgeoises, et les modifications progressives des récits analysés, dans la mesure où l'on passe de la lecture des romans dont les trames narratives représentent des moments antérieurs aux mouvements d'indépendances vers la lecture de romans qui mettent en scène des contextes postérieurs aux indépendances. Partant de l'analyse des composantes identitaires et linguistiques, nous examinons les points de confluence et diffluence entre les oeuvres deAchebe et Pepetela dans la représentation des élites postcoloniales

Orientador: Luciana Maria Lunardi Campos
Banca: Maria Elisa Caputo Ferreira
Banca: Lizete Maria Orquiza Carvalho
Banca: Cecilia Maria Aldigueri Goulart
Banca: Renato Eugenio da Silva Diniz
Resumo: Esta pesquisa objetivou investigar como a ação comunicativa é estabelecida em um processo de formação continuada, que procura reconhecer as possibilidades de uso da literatura infantil nas aulas de Ciências da Natureza, nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Esse processo de formação, realizado com professoras do Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII/UFJF, foi desenvolvido a partir da perspectiva da racionalidade comunicativa e identificou os atos interativos e atos de fala estabelecidos, retratando, como síntese, o percurso dialógico realizado. A Teoria da Ação Comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas serviu como fundamentação teórica, através da concepção de linguagem enquanto processo emancipatório, que se traduz nas diversas marcas discursivas estabelecidas em processos interativos e dialógicos. Os dados foram coletados e analisados por meio de entrevistas (inicial e final), realizadas individualmente, e a constituição de um Grupo de Formação, espaço em que as professoras procuraram, inicialmente, articular a base teórica oferecida com a prática de sala de aula, sob um olhar crítico e reflexivo. Posteriormente, elaboraram, desenvolveram e analisaram aulas de Ciências, a partir do uso da Literatura infantil, tendo a grade curricular do Colégio como norteadora do tema a ser desenvolvido. Como resultado deste trabalho, pudemos reconhecer como o professor, para se posicionar diante do assunto, estabelece interações e falas, num percurso dialógico. Percebemos, também, através do discurso das professoras, a riqueza de propostas de uso da Literatura Infantil em aulas de Ciências, desenvolvias em processos coletivos. Concluímos, ao final desta pesquisa, que ações de formação continuada dessa natureza podem contribuir para a autonomia e a emancipação do professor, a partir de análise e reconstrução crítica da prática docente
Abstract: This research has aimed to investigate how the communicative action is established in a process of continuing formation that looks foward to recognize the possibilities of using Children Literature in Natural Sciences classes in the early years of Elementary School. This formation process, realized with teachers from Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII/UFJF, was developed from the perspective of communicative rationality and identified the interactive acts and established speech acts, showing, as a synthesis of this process, the dialogical course realized. The theory of communicative action by Jürgen Habermas served as theoretical basis, through the conception of language as an emancipatory process, which is translated in different discursive marks established in interactive and dialogical processes. The data was collected and analyzed through interviews (initial and final) performed individually and the establishment of a Formation Groupl, a space where teachers sought, initiality, to articulate the theoretical basis offered to the practice in the classroom, under a critical and reflexive eye, and subsequently they developed, implemented and analyzed science lessons from the use of Children Literature, having the curriculum of the school as a guide to the theme to be developed. As a result of this work, we could recognize how the teacher, to stand on the subject matter, establishes interactions and speeches in a dialogical course. We have also found out, through the speech of teachers, the richness of the proposals to use Children literature in science classes, developed in collective process. We have concluded, by the end of this research, that continued formation actions from this nature can contribute to the teacher autonomy and emancipation from the analysis and critical reconstruction of the teaching practice
Doutor

This thesis studies Chinua Achebe’s novel No Longer at Ease from a postcolonial perspective, specifically concentrating on its protagonist, the colonized Obi Okonkwo, and his antagonist, the colonizer Mr Green, using the theories of the literary critic Homi Bhabha. It argues that these two characters are hybrids in their ambivalent contact zone by demonstrating firstly, the coinciding presence of reciprocal feelings of sympathy/admiration and contempt, and secondly, that they are culturally cross-bred individuals. Additionally, this thesis examines the mimicry of Obi and reveals that it can be either strategic or subconscious in nature. It concludes that both mimicry and mockery have the potential to destabilize the structural power-imbalance between colonizer and colonized, thereby challenging colonial authority.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2008.
Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 20, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-110). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

The purpose of this essay is to conduct a character analysis on Eugene Achike from Chimamana Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, to see whether or not the character is used by Adichie as a portrayal of colonial Nigeria and its values. I have done this by looking at the themes of violence and hypocrisy in relation to Eugene’s language usage, religious attitude, and behaviour towards others, and comparing these aspects of his personality with the attitudes shown by colonialists in colonial Nigeria. The more important issues that prove Eugene’s character is a portrayal of colonial Nigeria are: his utter disregard for his heritage and background, including the physical disregard of his father; his absolute control over his family members, both physically and mentally, which leads to violent outbursts if he is disobeyed; the fact that he is shown in the novel to be a direct product of the missionaries and colonial structure that was present in Nigeria when he grew up. These things, together with the subtle connections in Adichie’s writing that connect her novel to Things Fall Apart, firmly place Purple Hibiscus in the postcolonial category. Thus, I concluded that Eugene’s character is a portrayal of Colonial Nigeria.
Syftet med denna upsats är att genomföra en karaktärsanalys på karaktären Eugene Achike i Chimamanda Ngozi Adichis roman Purple Hibiscus, för att se ifall karaktären används av Adichie som en skildring av koloniala Nigeria och dess värderingar. Jag har gjort detta genom att undersöka två teman – våld och hyckleri – i samband med Eugenes användning av språk, religös attityd, och beteende mot andra, för att då jämföra dessa aspekter av hans personlighet med attityderna kolonisatörer hade i koloniala Nigeria. De viktigaste sakerna som bevisar att Eugenes karaktär är en skildring av koloniala Nigeria är: hans fullständiga ignoreing av sin bakgrund, inklusive den fysiska ignorering av hans pappa; hans absoluta kontroll över sin familj, både fysiskt och mentalt, vilket leder till våldsamma utbrott om han inte blir åtlydd; det faktum att han beskrivs som en produkt av missionärerna och koloniala samhället vid flera tillfällen i boken. Detta tillsammans med romanens subtila kopplingar till Achebes Things Fall Apart, placerar tveklöst Purple Hibiscus i den postkoloniala kategorin. Därmed drar jag slutsatsen att Eugene’s karaktär är en skildring av koloniala Nigeria.

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Proquali
Esta pesquisa objetivou investigar como a ação comunicativa é estabelecida em um processo de formação continuada, que procura reconhecer as possibilidades de uso da literatura infantil nas aulas de Ciências da Natureza, nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Esse processo de formação, realizado com professoras do Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII/UFJF, foi desenvolvido a partir da perspectiva da racionalidade comunicativa e identificou os atos interativos e atos de fala estabelecidos, retratando, como síntese, o percurso dialógico realizado. A Teoria da Ação Comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas serviu como fundamentação teórica, através da concepção de linguagem enquanto processo emancipatório, que se traduz nas diversas marcas discursivas estabelecidas em processos interativos e dialógicos. Os dados foram coletados e analisados por meio de entrevistas (inicial e final), realizadas individualmente, e a constituição de um Grupo de Formação, espaço em que as professoras procuraram, inicialmente, articular a base teórica oferecida com a prática de sala de aula, sob um olhar crítico e reflexivo. Posteriormente, elaboraram, desenvolveram e analisaram aulas de Ciências, a partir do uso da Literatura infantil, tendo a grade curricular do Colégio como norteadora do tema a ser desenvolvido. Como resultado deste trabalho, pudemos reconhecer como o professor, para se posicionar diante do assunto, estabelece interações e falas, num percurso dialógico. Percebemos, também, através do discurso das professoras, a riqueza de propostas de uso da Literatura Infantil em aulas de Ciências, desenvolvias em processos coletivos. Concluímos, ao final desta pesquisa, que ações de formação continuada dessa natureza podem contribuir para a autonomia e a emancipação do professor, a partir de análise e reconstrução crítica da prática docente
This research has aimed to investigate how the communicative action is established in a process of continuing formation that looks foward to recognize the possibilities of using Children Literature in Natural Sciences classes in the early years of Elementary School. This formation process, realized with teachers from Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII/UFJF, was developed from the perspective of communicative rationality and identified the interactive acts and established speech acts, showing, as a synthesis of this process, the dialogical course realized. The theory of communicative action by Jürgen Habermas served as theoretical basis, through the conception of language as an emancipatory process, which is translated in different discursive marks established in interactive and dialogical processes. The data was collected and analyzed through interviews (initial and final) performed individually and the establishment of a Formation Groupl, a space where teachers sought, initiality, to articulate the theoretical basis offered to the practice in the classroom, under a critical and reflexive eye, and subsequently they developed, implemented and analyzed science lessons from the use of Children Literature, having the curriculum of the school as a guide to the theme to be developed. As a result of this work, we could recognize how the teacher, to stand on the subject matter, establishes interactions and speeches in a dialogical course. We have also found out, through the speech of teachers, the richness of the proposals to use Children literature in science classes, developed in collective process. We have concluded, by the end of this research, that continued formation actions from this nature can contribute to the teacher autonomy and emancipation from the analysis and critical reconstruction of the teaching practice

Terror in the African Anglophone novels of Chinua Achebe, Doris Lessing, J.M. Coetzee and Laila Lalami originated as a consequence of a breakdown in the family structure. Traditionally, conventional patriarchy, in addition to securing the psychological and material needs of the family, has served as one of the building blocks of tribes and nations. Since the father figure within narrative is allegorized as a metonym of the state, the absence of patriarchal authority represents the disintegration of the link between individuals and national institutions. Consequently, characters may also turn to committing acts of terror as a rejection of the dominant national ideology. This dissertation aims to demonstrate how the breakdown of the family and the conventional gendering of roles may give rise to terrorist violence in the African setting. To recontextualize the persistence of the Conradian definition of terror as an Anglo-European phenomenon brought to Africa, I contrast the ways in which the breakdown of the family affects both indigenous and Anglo-European households in Africa across generations. I suggest that, under the reinvention of older gender norms, the unfulfilling Anglo-European patriarchy exposes Anglo-European women to indigenous violence. Moreover, I theorize that the absence of patriarchal authority leads indigenous families to seek substitutions in the form of alternative family institutions, such as religious and political organizations, that conflict with the national ideology. Furthermore, against the backdrop of globalized capitalism, commodity fetishism emerges as a substitute to compensate for the absent father figure. Therefore, this project demonstrates the indisputable relationship between the breakdown of the family structure and individual acts of terror that aim at the fulfillment of capitalist fetish or individual desire, and at the expense of national security. Finally, the rhetorical dimension of terror against family and women in Africa will be proven to be the allegorized norm of globalized terror in the twenty-first century.

The enjoyment of any form of literature presupposes, in the reader, an understanding of the subject matter and a fundamental inclination to identify with the characters, to empathize with them and to appreciate varying perspectives. It follows that the choice of text is an important consideration especially, when the reader is not reading in the mother tongue. The choice of novel prescribed by the DET for Second Language, non-White, non-English-speaking, Ciskeian pupils poses many problems which lead to poor examination results. The increasing unpopularity of English Literature among Ciskeian pupils and teachers appears to stem largely from the predominance of works selected from the Great Tradition. To determine how far the choice of texts is responsible for the lack of success of literature teaching in Ciskei is the aim of this investigation. The DET syllabus for Black schools and the set books prescribed for Stds. 9 and 10 between 1980 and 1990 are examined to expose their Euro-centric focus. The effects of the DET examinations on literature study in Ciskei are also considered to show how examinations complicate the situation further. The aims of teaching literature to Second Language pupils are reviewed. Literary merit, relevance, aesthetic value and scope for moral seriousness, skill development are suggested as criteria suitable for an appropriate choice of literary texts for Second Language pupils. A comparative study of the prescribed novel, Silas Marner and an alternative African novel in English, Things Fall Apart has been attempted to find out whether Things Fall Apart is of equal literary value to Silas Marner and, perhaps, more relevant than Silas Marner to the experience of Black pupils. Six teachers have been interviewed for their opinions of the books prescribed. A miniature survey also has been conducted among pupils of Stds. 9 and 10 from selected schools to verify general attitudes to the study of literature. The findings indicate a dire need to make the syllabus more flexible and more open to include good African writing in English, such as Things Fall Apart.

Kein anderes Thema hat die nigerianische Literatur so dominiert wie der nigerianische Bürgerkrieg, in dessen Verarbeitung sich verstärkt auch Autorinnen einmischen. Die Dissertation evaluiert 34 Texte von 16 nigerianischen Autorinnen - 12 Romane und 22 Kurzgeschichten - und analysiert sie als Gesamtkorpus, in dem die Texte miteinander und mit der Männerliteratur einen Dialog um den Bürgerkrieg führen. Die Autorinnen wenden bei ihrem "war talk" literarische Strategien wie "re-reading" und "re-writing" an, das Neu-Lesen, Fort- und Umschreiben der Texte und Diskurse des "Zentrums", durch die nicht nur die Blindstellen eines von Männern dominierten literarischen Diskurses sichtbar werden, sondern durch die auch der Prozess des Aushandelns der Geschlechterverhältnisse sowie des Krieges selbst erfolgt, seiner Ursachen, Auslöser und Folgen. Die Autorinnen stellen den Krieg als "sexuelle Unordnung" dar, als Geschlechterkrieg. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass bei der Verortung der Perspektive der Autorinnen neben Geschlecht, ethnischer Zugehörigkeit auch andere Faktoren, wie Alter, Race, Grad der Distanz oder Nähe etc. berücksichtigt werden müssen, um vorschnelle Festschreibungen zu vermeiden. Hierbei spielen die Paratexte eine wichtige Rolle, in denen die Autorinnen sich persönlich zum Krieg äußern. Die Arbeit bewegt sich an den Schnittstellen mehrerer Disziplinen: Literatur, Historiographie und Geschlechterstudien. In der Einleitung werden die theoretischen Prämissen im Kontext von Krieg, Geschlecht und literarischer Repäsentation behandelt. Das 1. Kapitel ist dem historischen Kontext des Bürgerkrieges, einschließlich der Rolle der Frauen darin gewidmet. Im 2. Kapitel geht es um die Darstellung des Krieges, des Selbst- und Feindbildes sowie der Zukunft. Das dritte Kapitel handelt von der Beziehung zwischen Bürger- und Geschlechterkrieg, vermittelt durch das Medium literarischer Text. Die Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse und der Ausblick auf zukünftige Forschung erfolgt im Schlussteil. Der Anhang enthält ein vorläufiges Verzeichnis der gesamten Frauenliteratur über den nigerianischen Bürgerkrieg.
No other topic has dominated the Nigerian literature as much as the Nigerian Civil War and female authors increasingly interfere in its literary representation. The thesis evaluates 34 literary texts by 16 female Nigerian authors - 12 novels and 22 short stories - and analyses them as distinctive corpus whose individual texts are in a state of dialogue both with each other and with texts from male authors. The female authors use, in their "war talk", literary strategies like "re-reading" and "re-writing" of texts from the "Centre". On the one hand, these strategies enable them to make the blind spots of a male dominated literary discourse apparent/visible on the other hand, they facilitate the negotiation of gender relations and of the war itself, its causes, trigger points and consequences. The female authors represent war as "sexual disorder", as gender war. The study shows that in order to be able to locate an author''s perspective (and to avoid rash conclusions) it is essential to consider the different factors determining it - besides ethnicity and gender, also age, race, the grade of emotional involvement or distance etc. It is in this regard, where the paratexts play an important part, as in these authors express their personal views and comments on the war. The thesis is located at the interfaces of several disciplines: literary, historical and gender studies. The introduction deals with the theoretical backgrounds in the context of war, literary representation and gender. The first chapter is dedicated to the historical context of the Nigerian Civil War including the role of women. The second chapter looks at the paratexts, different representations of the war''s causes, the self-image, the enemy''s image and the future. The third chapter finally deals with the question how the relationship between Civil War and gender war is negotiated/conveyed through the medium of the literary texts. In the conclusion the results are summarized and prospects for future research are discussed. The appendix contains a preliminary bibliography of all literary texts on the Nigerian Civil War written by female authors.

This dissertation explores the nature and context of the dialogue between African and African American writers, buttressed by the extensive use of history and memory by Chinua Achebe, John Edgar Wideman, and Zakes Mda, the three writers at the center of this study. Through the reading of three primary texts – Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Wideman’s The Cattle Killing, and Mda’s The Heart of Redness – the dissertation examines not only the writers’ engagement with memory and history but also their deployment of “African” metaphysics, modes of apprehension and narrative traditions. The study foregrounds how a growing number of contemporary African and African American writers share an interest in probing connections, common fissures and tensions in their historical experiences. It explores the writers’ investment in history, concern with memory acts, the deployment of the logistics of ogbanje and its allied concepts within their communicative economies, and their involvement in a tripartite trans-Atlantic response to hegemonic discourse.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1999.
Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-165).

This study explores the notion of female cultural difference in the context of dominant patriarchal and other oppressive patriarchal structures. Essentially, its focus is on deconstructing stereotypical images of women, who are often perceived as homogenous. Throughout the study I argue that as much as their sensibilities are varied, African and African American women respond differently to the oppressive conditions they find themselves in. The following selected texts provided the opportunities for exploring and evaluating the genealogy of female cultural difference that is central to my research: Anthills of the Savannah (Chinua Achebe); Scarlet Song (Mariama Ba); The Joys of Motherhood and Kehinde (BuchiEmecheta); Their Eyes Were Watching God (Nora Zeale Hurston); Bitches Brew and Seven Steps to Heaven (Fred Khumalo). In the process of analyzing these texts, I demonstrated that the notion of cultural difference is often narrowly and erroneously construed. I discovered that the protagonists in these texts are not only conscious of their oppressed condition but often adopt strategic agency to contest male privileges that silence them. In pursuit of this critical perspective, I have proceeded to apply relevant theoretical frameworks constructed by Cornel West, Hudson-Weems, Bakhtin and a conflation of others whose philosophical tenets support the major theoretical frameworks. The aforementioned literary critics have enabled me to come up with a more comprehensive and richer analysis of the set texts. In my analysis I have advanced the argument that female visibility manifests itself variously and temporally through individual and sometimes sisterly attempts at empowerment, self- definition and esoteric discursive features. I noted that all this is evidence of the nascent creative potential in African women who refuse to be silenced. In my analysis of the Seven texts I have incorporated, modified and developed some of the insights from critical thinkers who engage in the ongoing debate about female cultural difference. This approach has enabled me to come up with new insights that ferret out veneers of African women’s rich cultural diversity, in light of the ever changing nature of women’s operational spaces. It is this transcendental vision that basically informs and resonates with my study.
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

The comparative study of African literatures in Portuguese and in English languages has not been the object of many research projects in Africa. My work is centred in this field of study and it aims at conducting a comparative analysis of the narratives produced by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe and Angolan author Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, observing the convergent and divergent aspects in aesthetics and ideology present in their works. The corpus under analysis includes Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Vou lá Visitar Pastores by Ruy Duarte de Carvalho. The authors converge ideologically in their works as they pay attention to issues such as land ownership and usage, peoples’ heritage and history. Besides the historical and cultural diversity, these texts also allow the discussion of other issues, notably particularities in aesthetic elaboration. Both novelists combine literary and anthropological topics. Thus, this thesis is a correlational, descriptive and analytical type of research, and is seeking cultural meaning and understanding through fiction. The main sources for my thesis were the two texts mentioned above, but also documents available on African literature, history, literary criticism, ethnography, politics and anthropology.

My dissertation, In the Beginning was the Sign, examines the entangled histories of literary modernism and mathematical modernity and revisits their claim to a radical rupture with the past. Informed by Lacanian psychoanalysis, media theory, and deconstruction, I trace how the interplay of literary and mathematical form transformed classical imaginations of the human. Authors like Carl Einstein, Robert Musil or Ernst Cassirer challenge the organic concept of subject formation as Bildung with a new and purely symbolic kind of mathematical abstraction that informs their writing on both thematic and formal levels. In the tradition of Plato’s Meno, they adduce these new forms of mathematical knowledge to find genuinely modern answers to the classical question of the good life. Paradoxically, in striving to portray their own time as a radical novelty that was able to break with its cultural heritage, these authors summon the canon at its most canonical. The mathematician Hilbert, for instance, rewrites the opening of the Gospel of John, translating logos as ‘sign’ rather than ‘word.’ Analyzing literary, philosophical, and mathematical texts in German, English, and French, I show that the questioning of the logical foundations of thought in the so-called foundational crisis in mathematics was re-mediated through a new genealogical exploration of the foundations of European rationality in the texts of classical antiquity.

The study examines cognitive rationality as to()l for problemsolving within the context of a movement from determinism and monolithic universal Reason towards indeterminism and plurality. It is contended that theories of literature do not provide an adequate conceptual framework, and therefore, extensive use is made of pluralist fallibilism (Popper, Helmut Spinner) and chaos theory. The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is viewed as a decisive influence in the shift towards plurality and scepticism. In chapter 2, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, a novel by Agatha Christie and Gaston Leroux's Le mystere de Ia chambre jaune are discussed as examples of optimistic rationalism. Chapter 3 indicates that Eco's II nome della rosa emphasizes the conjectural nature of truth and objective knowledge, underpinned by a 'soft' rationalism which amounts to monopolistic pluralism. Chapter 4 analyses the defeat of cognitive rationality by the complex interaction of a multiplicity of independent causal series. The detectives' relationship with the feminine exemplifies the interpenetration of rationality and the instinctual, while the mystery of the feminine is a metaphor for impenetrable complexity. Chapter 5 shows that hypotheses concerning random complex systems remain inconclusive. However, as the trajectory of a complex system can be regulated, so reason can be viewed as the underlying regulative pattern (strange attractorl for an infinite proliferation of hypotheses. Thus, despite .shifting conceptions of rationality and order, all the detectives in the study accept objective truth as regulative principle and are involved in a search for objective knowledge
Afrikaans & Theory of Literature
D.Litt. et Phil. (Theory of literature)