Origins, endings and the posthuman imperative in Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic fiction

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dc.contributor.advisorDe Villiers, Dawiden_ZA
dc.contributor.authorKershaw, Andre James Danielen_ZA
dc.contributor.otherStellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2022-03-10T18:34:09Z
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-29T09:31:22Z
dc.date.available2022-03-10T18:34:09Z
dc.date.available2022-04-29T09:31:22Z
dc.date.issued2022-03
dc.descriptionThesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, I undertake an analysis of five primary texts in the post-apocalyptic and dystopian genres, namely: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Drawing chiefly upon Frank Kermode’s work in The Sense of an Ending, in which he argues that imaginings of origin and end are crucial for conferring intelligibility upon being “in the middest” (8), I show how the confrontation of a particular kind of end point characterised by the proleptic spectre of the posthuman, invoked by texts within the post-apocalyptic and dystopian genres, generates what I call a posthuman imperative to reinterpretation. This imperative is implicitly invoked by a text insofar as it raises or gestures towards the possibility of the posthuman and demands that the reader reorientate themselves, in the middest, in relation to this horizon. The process of reinterpretation of being-in-themiddest which occurs in response to the posthuman imperative, drawing upon narratives of origin and end, is primarily mediated through language and story. This process has implications for frameworks of meaning, value, ethics, truth, the self, and relation to the transcendent as well as to time and history. My analysis draws out a number of generative paradoxes which arise when attempting to write and read the possibility of the posthuman. To do so depends upon language, and yet language is brought into confrontation with its own limits as the limits of the human are approached. Further, while the posthuman imperative to reinterpretation is only generated in the face of the end, and an end in some sense is an essential precondition for the narrative concord of existence to which this process of reinterpretation is directed, the end is ultimately also that which threatens to undermine the possibility of narrative as such.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis onderneem ek 'n ontleding van vyf primêre tekste wat hoort tot die postapokaliptiese en distopiese genres, naamlik: Aldous Huxley se Brave New World, George Orwell se Nineteen Eighty-Four, Anthony Burgess se A Clockwork Orange, Russell Hoban se Riddley Walker and Cormac McCarthy se The Road. Met verwysing na hoofsaaklik Frank Kermode se The Sense of an Ending, waarin hy aanvoer dat voorstellings van oorsprong en einde deurslaggewend is om die bestaan “in the middest” te verwerk en verstaan (8), toon ek aan hoe die konfrontasie van 'n soort terminus gekenmerk deur die proleptiese skim van die postmenslike, aangeroep deur tekste in die post-apokaliptiese en distopiese genres, genereer wat ek hier na verwys as 'n “posthuman imperative” tot herinterpretasie. Hierdie imperatief word implisiet deur ‘n teks ingeroep in soverre dit die moontlikheid van die postmenslike oproep of aandui, en vereis dat die leser hulself, “in the middest,” met betrekking tot hierdie horison heroriënteer. Die proses van herinterpretasie van bestaan “in the middest,” wat plaasvind in reaksie op die “posthuman imperative,” wat op sy beurt geskoei is op narratiewe van oorsprong en einde, word hoofsaaklik deur taal en storie bemiddel. Hierdie proses het implikasies vir raamwerke van betekenis, waarde, etiek, waarheid, die self en verhouding tot die transendente sowel as tot tyd en geskiedenis. My analise stel 'n aantal generatiewe paradokse wat ontstaan wanneer daar probeer word om die moontlikheid van die postmenslike te skryf en te lees. Sodanige projek maak op die taal se ekpressiewe vermoëns staat, en tog word taal met sy eie grense in konfrontasie gebring, soos die grense van die mens benader word. Verder, terwyl die “posthuman imperative” tot herinterpretasie slegs in die aangesig van die einde gegenereer word, en 'n einde in 'n sekere sin 'n noodsaaklike voorwaarde is vir die narratiewe bestaanskonkord waarop hierdie proses van herinterpretasie gerig is, is die einde uiteindelik ook dit wat dreig om die moontlikheid van narratief as sodanig te ondermyn.af_ZA
dc.description.versionMastersen_ZA
dc.format.extent100 pagesen_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/124764
dc.language.isoen_ZAen_ZA
dc.publisherStellenbosch : Stellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.rights.holderStellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.subjectPost-apocalyptic literatureen_ZA
dc.subjectDystopias in literatureen_ZA
dc.subjectPosthuman imperative to reinterpretationen_ZA
dc.subjectDystopian fiction -- History and criticismen_ZA
dc.subjectPost-apocalyptic fiction -- History and criticismen_ZA
dc.subjectUCTDen_ZA
dc.titleOrigins, endings and the posthuman imperative in Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic fictionen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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