Department of Modern Foreign Languages

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Analyse des strategies d'emancipation ou d'adaptation des personnages de romans beurs a la realite des marches sociaux de l'echange
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-12) Staebler, Marie-Anne; Du Toit, Catherine; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The publication in 1983 of Medhi Charef’s novel Le thé au harem d’Archi Ahmed marked the beginning of Beur literature, a collection of narratives concerning the lives of individuals of North African origin in the French suburbs. The term “beur”, derived from the double inversion of the word “arabe”, would become synonymous with “Maghrebians” and be used to define a cultural movement claiming its uniqueness. Beur writers or those who make use of Beur heroes in their novels reveal, often in autobiographical form, the daily experiences of a marginalized minority living in identical socio-economic conditions, which are sources of conflicts, whether latent or manifest, with the dominant culture. The sensitivity of Beur writers as manifested in their writings enables us to obtain images of the lives of people living in shantytowns or the large conglomerations on the outskirts of French cities. However, this literature provides more than just a simple description of context or situation, since it also contains the verdict of young Beurs on the legitimacy of the established social order and their strategies to transform or to adapt to this order. Work, home, school, politics or affective relations are concrete examples of areas where the individual is faced with an established system of values and norms, inequality of resources and convergent or divergent interests that need to be taken into account during the process of exchange in order to satisfy his/her needs. In this interdisciplinary research we apply the sociological concepts of exchange and conflict theory in order to disclose the strategies used by characters in Beur novels to adapt or free themselves from given conditions of exchange and power configurations on different social markets of exchange.
Analyse musicale de films documentaires politico-sociaux (1950-1980) d’Alain Resnais, d’Agnes Varda et de Chris Marker
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch Uiversity, 2020-12) Wium, Hermien; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
RÉSUMÉ: La préoccupation sociale et politique des cinéastes français Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda et Chris Marker se manifeste dans les films documentaires qu’ils réalisent dès 1948. Cette étude analyse neuf de ces documentaires (sortis entre 1950 et 1980) avec l’objectif d’examiner le rôle de la musique par rapport aux thèmes politico-sociaux traités dans ces films. Ces thèmes comprennent la guerre, la colonisation, le racisme, la révolution, les droits civiques, les questions de femmes, les communautés marginalisées, la protection de l’environnement. Bien que leurs films aient des caractéristiques en commun avec ceux de leurs contemporains de la Nouvelle Vague, Resnais, Varda et Marker qui sont des membres importants du groupe de la Rive Gauche, se distinguent par leur approche plus collective. Les documentaires et les films de fiction de ces trois réalisateurs s’inspirent d’un large éventail de formes artistiques, telles que la photographie, la littérature, les beaux-arts, le théâtre, la musique. Ces cinéastes ont chacun une passion pour la musique et y accordent une grande attention dans leurs films, ainsi qu’au choix des compositeurs de leur musique filmique. Dans cette étude, nous identifions différentes fonctions de la musique dans les neuf documentaires analysés, entre autres, son rôle structurel, culturel, temporel, ponctuel, ironique, renforçant, associatif et imitatif. Même si ces rôles ressemblent pour la plupart à ceux des films de fiction, discutés dans plusieurs sources sur la musique filmique, leur but est plutôt de transmettre la prise de position du réalisateur par rapport aux thèmes politico-sociaux respectifs des documentaires, ce qui n’est pas, en général, le but principal de la musique dans les films de fiction. La musique, soigneusement choisie, est liée, comme les autres éléments filmiques (images, paroles, bruitage, mentions écrites) aux contextes historiques, culturels, temporels, politiques et sociaux des différents documentaires analysés. Pourtant, plus que d’autres éléments filmiques, la musique a la capacité de transcender les limites de ces contextes par sa portée potentielle plus large. Cette pertinence rapproche les différentes idées véhiculées par les documentaires d’un public plus grand et élargit les possibilités d’interprétation. La musique rapproche aussi ces idées du spectateur d’aujourd’hui, d’autant plus que les thèmes de ces documentaires sont restés actuels. L’hybridité déjà présente dans certains styles de musique utilisés dans les documentaires analysés, résulte dans certains cas en un double renforcement d’une idée transmise, multipliant ainsi les possibilités d’interprétation. Dans ces documentaires, il y a une grande prévalence de musique atonale, de musique électronique, de petits ensembles instrumentaux, et une forte présence de compositeurs contemporains. Cette prévalence et cette présence font preuve de la vision contemporaine de Resnais, Varda, Marker, et sont une réflexion de l’influence de la Nouvelle Vague, ainsi que de l’essor et de l’innovation de la musique moderne dans la période d’après-guerre. Cette modernité confirme, en grande partie, la position intellectuelle de ces réalisateurs qui s’aligne avec une certaine position typique des intellectuels français de l’après-guerre.
Désamour et désarroi dans la littérature contemporaine
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015-12) Dewoo, Nerisha Yanee; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Modern Foreign Languages
Die uitbeelding van Afrika-woestyne in Afrikaanse, Engelse, Duitse en Franse fiksie
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Jordaan, Doret; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Die menslike verbeelding reduseer die aarde se verskeidenheid woestynlandskappe dikwels tot enkele, herhalende beelde wat een groot generiese woestyn vorm. Een doel van hierdie studie is om vas te stel hoe literêre uitbeeldings van woestynomgewings verband hou met die fisiese woestyne van Afrika – in die besonder wat fiksie geskryf in Afrikaans, Engels, Duits en Frans betref. Daarom word die uitbeelding van die Namib, Kalahari en Sahara bespreek binne die raamwerk van die ekokritiek, geokritiek en vergelykende letterkunde. Hierdie studie het verder ten doel om die gapings aan te spreek tussen die groot hoeveelheid literêre navorsing oor woestyne soos die Sahara aan die een kant en die Namib en die Kalahari aan die ander kant. Ook word gepoog om ŉ bydrae te maak wat die beperktheid van veeltalige navorsing binne die ekokritiek en geokritiek aanspreek – veral Afrikaans. ŉ Wye verskeidenheid tekste is by die ondersoek betrek. Benewens outobiografiese werke soos reisbeskrywings, behels die nie-fiksie ook werke uit die aardwetenskappe. Die fiksie behels romans, en tot ŉ mindere mate kortverhale, waarin die woestyn optree as woonplek, vestigingsplek en besoekplek. Die woestynuitbeeldings in die romans Anderkant die Stilte (2002) deur André P. Brink, Désert deur J.M.G. Le Clézio (1980), Der einzige Ort (2004) deur Thomas Stangl en The Sheltering Sky (1990 [1949]) deur Paul Bowles, word meer uitvoerig bespreek. Die groot verskeidenheid woestynbeelde, kan aan die hand van ŉ paar aspekte beskryf word, met die oog op die lees van die woestyn. Die woestynbeeld is eintlik ŉ opstapeling van uitbeeldings. Hierdie weergawes van die woestyn is beperk wat sintuiglike waarneming betref en is oorwegend visueel. Wanneer die woestynbeelde as ŉ versameling betrag word, blyk dit ŉ reeks paradokse wees. Hierdie kontrasterende beelde maak egter sin, indien die woestyn vanuit ŉ ekokritiese invalshoek bestudeer word. Wat Afrika se woestyne betref, kan duidelik onderskei word tussen uitbeeldings van die Sahara en uitbeeldings van die woestyne in Suidelike Afrika: die ekosisteme van die Namib en die Kalahari word met groter spesifiekheid uitgebeeld as dié van die Sahara. Die literêre woestynervaring kan dus verryk word deur die besonderse uitbeeldings van die Namib en die Kalahari saam met uitbeeldings van die Sahara te lees.
The implementation of blended learning in an English communication course for first-year university engineering students - a case study
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12) Raban, Mukhtar; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACTS: Engineering qualifications in South Africa are required to include an English communication module or course that equips students with the necessary academic and professional English communication competencies. Owing to the time and content burden of engineering-related modules and associated teaching and learning constraints, English communication courses subsequently receive less notional hours for achieving the module’s learning outcomes, and alternative methods for the delivery and facilitation of teaching and learning English have to be explored. This study investigated the implementation of flipped blended learning as a methodological approach to teaching writing from an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) perspective. The study was conducted in an English communication module, and the approach was explored through the lens of first-year university engineering student experiences. In particular, the investigation explored blended learning and flipped teaching practices, learning theories, pedagogical practices, learning styles, online learning and applied linguistic theories to inform the empirical case study set at a South African university. Following an interpretivist and qualitative research design, the interpretations and perceptions of participant experiences of flipped blended language learning practices were explored. The investigation yielded rich data about engineering student experiences with flipped blended language learning and concluded that individual student learning styles and preferences are directly linked to participant perceptions, experiences of and preferences for blended and flipped learning in the English communication module. The participants supported the approach and found flipped blended learning to be an effective teaching and learning strategy in the module. The participants also highlighted time management as one of the challenges experienced during the online learning phase of the flipped blended learning implementation. The findings of the study were limited to the context and experiences of the study’s participants, but encouraged future researchers to evaluate whether contextual resonance may be established.
L’Age des tenebres 2.0 : L’Humanite au nadir dans Serotonine de Michel Houellebecq et Die troebel tyd d’Ingrid Winterbach
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03) Du Plooy, Jacobus Andrias; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Die troebel tyd by Ingrid Winterbach was published in South Africa in December 2018. Only a month later, Michel Houellebecq's Sérotonine appears, a French novel that has its origins in a context that differs in many respects from the South African context in which Winterbach works. Despite obvious differences in style and plot, there are similarities between the two novels in terms of their themes. This study compares the way in which the novels depict themes reflecting the Anthropocene, society, interpersonal relationships, spirituality and depression. Although each of these themes can be studied separately, they never function completely independently from one another other in the context of each novel. Edgar Morin's complexity theory provides a good theoretical framework within which the thematic coherence can be studied. At the same time, the thesis seeks to contribute in an interdisciplinary manner to the application of complexity theory to literature. By looking at the way in which all the above themes fit together and seemingly contribute to a prevailing esprit du temps that is particularly marked by depression, the thesis casts a holistic view on the depiction of contemporary Western society in Sérotonine and Die troebel tyd. Given the confluence of complexity theory and the two novels, the thesis also offers a representation of the extent to which a novel itself can be regarded as a complex system.
Reflets narcissiques dans l oeuvre de Jack-Alain Leger
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-12) Staebler, Marie-Anne; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Modern Foreign Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Jack-Alain Léger committed suicide on 17 July 2013 at the age of 66, leaving behind him a large amount of work that has not formed the object of any academic study, not even partially. Many articles have been written about the author but none about his novels. Léger was especially known for his multitude of pseudonyms, his manic-depressive tendencies, his conflicts with all his editors, his homosexuality, the controversy linked to the alias Paul Smaïl or for his Islamophobia, his hatred towards his biological father and towards an alleged brother who died before his birth but also for his literary talent, his wide erudition and his brilliant and provocative mind. Underneath these characteristics hides an author whose work, that appears incoherent at first sight, reflects a profound reflection on the aesthetic, the essence and the ultimate purpose of art. Although Léger’s art involves the domain of aestheticism, it is also intended to subvert and oppose a society that limits imagination and individual potential by imposing a uniform identity. In this way, Léger illustrates in all his works the separation and alienation of the self through the dead child motive, emphasizing his refusal to acknowledge having been born as an alienated self. Lost in the ambiguity of an image that had not been received by society, Léger wanders in the infinite game of mirrors like Narcissus searching for an ideal self and an ideal beauty in the lake’s waters where he gazes upon his reflection. In this multidisciplinary research, I will study the entirety of Léger’s work in the light of the notion of narcissism and the multiple reflections that it includes. The narcissistic force that serves as a fermenting agent for the creation of Léger’s work is developed through a literary, sociological, psychoanalytical and philosophical interpretation. The final chapter discusses the elements these different perspectives have in common and they are drawn together in the concept of tertiary narcissism, as a mechanism of self-protection and self-recreation which is, however, not without danger as revealed in the tale of Narcissus.
Se construire en lisant : les petits héros ordinaires de Marie Desplechin
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2008-03) Fouche, Marietjie; Du Toit, Catherine; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
Résumé La littérature de jeunesse est continuellement considérée comme un outil pédagogique indispensable, un moyen efficace pour éduquer les jeunes. Cependant, un roman de jeunesse ne peut pas atteindre son objectif d’enrichir les jeunes lecteurs s’ils ne s’amusent pas en le lisant. Il est donc essentiel que les auteurs de jeunesse créent des textes qui plaisent en premier lieu aux lecteurs, des textes qui captent leur intérêt. Si les lecteurs ne sont pas capables de s’identifier entièrement aux thèmes qu’un auteur aborde, son langage ou les personnages qu’il met en scène dans son histoire, le texte ne retiendra pas leur intérêt et l’auteur ne parviendra pas à les enrichir. Cette étude se concentre sur les romans pour jeunesse de Marie Desplechin afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure les petits héros ordinaires dans ses romans peuvent encourager et aider les lecteurs préadolescents (âgés de sept à quinze ans) à se construire d’une façon progressive. Opsomming Kinder- en jeugliteratuur word gereeld as `n ideale opvoedkundige medium beskou aangesien dit gebruik kan word om die jeug aan die wêreld en al sy fasette bloot te stel. `n Outeur kan egter slegs daarin slaag om `n boodskap aan die jong lesers te kommunikeer indien die leesproses `n genotvolle ervaring is en indien die jong lesers met die karakters, die temas en die taalgebruik in `n roman kan identifiseer. Hierdie studie fokus op Marie Desplechin se kinder- en jeugromans om te bepaal in watter mate die doodgewone kinders in haar stories preadolessente lesers (tussen die ouderdom van sewe tot vyftien jaar) kan aanmoedig om die struikelblokke in hulle bestaan deur middel van selfkennis en selfkritiek te oorkom en hulle lewenskwaliteit sodoende te verbeter.
Une histoire d’esclavage : la representation du devenir creole dans une selection de romans mauriciens contemporains
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Dewoo, Nerisha Yanee; Du Toit, Catherine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The present study falls within the scope of literature and identity. It examines the integration of Creole history and identity as presented in a contemporary Mauritian literary corpus published from the 2000s onwards: Histoire d’Ashok et d’autres personnages de moindre importance (Amal Sewtohul, 2001), Soupir (Ananda Devi, 2002), Terre d’Orages (Serge Ng Tat Chung, 2003), Le silence des Chagos (Shenaz Patel : 2005), Ève de ses décombres (Ananda Devi, 2006), Journey into the past (Ranjita Bunwaree, 2014), and Rivage de la colère (Catherine Laurent, 2020). The novelists selected for this project have created works of fiction that provide a wider access to the closed world of Creoles hitherto marginalised in Mauritian society, a fact that is repeated in Mauritian literary narratives. The tendency of Mauritians to insist on their cultural diversity derives from a sense of belonging elsewhere, and thus from a residual belonging to Mauritius. However, this 'founding myth' does not contain the possibility of constructing or homogenising a national identity. Mauritians always relate to the geographical spaces from which their ancestors came (India/China/Africa). They are never purely Mauritians, but Indo-Mauritians, Sino-Mauritians, Afro-Mauritians, etc., making Mauritius an in-between place, and belonging a notion that remains attached to an imagined or dreamed past. The writers in our corpus are interested in the difficulty of belonging that characterizes Creole communities. They speak of the difficulty of constructing and agreeing on a definition of an identity that cannot be formalized because its criteria are in constant flux. Creoles are at the same time rooted in a colonial/slavery past that makes being Creole synonymous with being Afro-Mauritian, as Julia Waters argues in The Mauritian Novel. Fictions of Belonging (Waters 2018: 3). The discussion around Creoles is further complicated when some are described as partially Afro-Mauritian milat (mulatto). For some Creoles, identity is further influenced by a floating memory due to an unfamiliar past, a modern political/social system governed by ancient traditions, and by how other Mauritian communities or even Creole communities themselves view what can and cannot be Creole in present-day Mauritius. The writers in our corpus show that Creole identity remains elusive and fluid, although it is surrounded by certain rigid preconceived notions. We can imagine that the works in our corpus represent the voice of these Creole characters who do not necessarily have an easy time speaking. However, the re-appropriation of Creole history and experience in our contemporary Mauritian narratives is always done through the third-party gaze of the writer who may find it difficult to reconcile the fictional and the factual. What do we really know about the Creoles apart from what is said about them in our corpus or in Mauritian society? Their history, which has long been ignored, remains unclear until now, despite the efforts of some contemporary academics to fill the historical gaps. Fiction and history are inseparable in this study. In order to develop the different notions of memory, history and fiction that underlie this thesis, numerous works devoted to historical and fictional studies accompany our literary journey. Moreover, the work of the French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, in La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli (2000a), has greatly contributed to the analysis of our novels. As the question of representation is closely linked to interpretation, we rely on a hermeneutical approach to study the staging of Creole communities in our corpus. This theory of interpretation allows us to see how the sense of belonging of these groups is articulated around historical, mnemonic, political and social axes. Is Creole identity therefore decided by others, even in texts that claim unconditional tolerance of hybridity?

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