Stigma and the metaphorics of language : reading disease as dis-ease and reclaiming metaphor in selected contemporary South African literature

Date
2019-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Contemporary South African literature dealing with HIV/AIDS and depression serves to interrogate and expose the racist ideological foundations for the stigmatic language of metaphor which surrounds these diseases. There is an increasing literary urgency and necessity for a reimaging, retracing and rewriting of the language(s) of metaphor which surround these diseases not only in the South African literary context, but also in the greater socio-political context of the country. This thesis ultimately concludes that the South African literary works offered for study work toward reclaiming metaphor by re-appropriating the same linguistic building blocks from which stigma, as language of metaphor, has been itself constructed. In so doing, this study concludes, these authors effectively write toward a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of both HIV/AIDS and depression.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hedendaagse Suid-Afrikaanse literatuur wat handel oor MIV/VIGS en depressie ondersoek en ontbloot die rassistiese ideologiese fondament vir die stigmatise taal van metafoor wat hierdie siektes omring. Daar is ‘n toenemende dringendheid en behoefte aan die hervoorstelling, en herskryf van die taal (tale) van metafoor wat die siektes aanspreek, nie net in die Suid-Afrikaanse literêre konteks nie, maar ook in die groter sosio-politieke konteks van die land. Hierdie tesis bevind dat die Suid-Afrikaanse tekste wat as bron gebruik is, goed daarin slaag om metafoor te herwin en dat die alternatiewe tale van metafoor, soos deur die skrywers gebruik, uit dieselfde taalkundige boublokke van metafoor as stigma bestaan. Hierdie tesis kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat hierdie skrywers hul tekste gebruik om ‘n meer omvattende en inklusiewe begrip van MIV/VIGS en depressie te bevorder.
Description
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2019.
Keywords
Contemporary South African literature, Metaphor in literature, Stigma (Social psychology), UCTD
Citation