Born with the caul : a fictocritical revisiting of race-d and queer(ed) his/stories
| dc.contributor.advisor | Sanger, Nadia | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Murray, Sally-Ann | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Croeser, Chantelle Claire | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.other | Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-02-22T11:26:08Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-04-17T08:08:54Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-02-22T03:00:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-03 | |
| dc.description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2019. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Using fictocriticism, a mode that b(l)ends creative and critical writing, in this thesis I am led on a winding journey in which I explore elusive, intersectional accounts of various kinds of queer and Queer belonging. These are stories from the margins, and they coax me to engage the unsettled relations of my own white, Queer, Afrikaner identities. In so doing I come face-to-face with personal and cultural ghosts, who emerge from disparate clusters of history, story, interview, verse, folk tale, song lyrics, and scholarship. Divided (and yet assembled) into various entries, the thesis begins by contending with the haunting loss of much of my original interview archive with Queer womxn, conducted for a previous project, material I had intended to consider again, more critically, in respect of my own conflicted autoethnographic role in the interview process. For the present study, my point of departure in addressing this now missing archive takes a specific focus on an Afrikaans folk tale known as “The Curse of Boontjieskraal” and “The Curse of the De Wets”. I inventively (re)write and (re)read this material and the speculated aftermath of the curse as a queer story, and thinking around about (B)orderlands, queerness, hospitality, Afrikaner identity, and my growing awareness of the necessarily incomplete archive, I consider what this story can tell us about the politics of inclusion and exclusion, presence and absence. Here, I also write toward expanding the term ‘queer’ beyond the umbrella term for the LGBTQIAP+ community and therefore use ‘Queer’ to signify the LGBTQIAP+ community and ‘queer’ to signify the expanded term. The second path I follow traces the spiritual powers of being gebore met die helm, meaning 'born with a caul'. Using Achmat Dangor’s short story ‘Waiting for Leila’ (2001) and Chris Barnard’s film Paljas (1998), I delve into the queer abilities of caul bearers as receptive to haunting and boundary-blurring. Seeking the experience of haunting as a means of meeting my ghosts, I use folklore as a means to consider what it might look like to retrieve the insight of my helm via the narrative power of queer Afrikaner stories. The final path is one I take with Antjie Somers, a Queer, stigmatised, witch-like figure well-known among Afrikaans people. By bringing permutations of their story into conversation with writing about outcasts like witches and Queer people, I consider the parallels that might be drawn between the experiences and knowledge of such ostracised, unconventional figures. I also consider how Antjie’s story and the story of other queer figures might be able to guide us in the present toward a powerfully recuperative language of storytelling. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Deur middel van fiktokritiek, ’n skryfwyse wat kreatiwe en kritiese skryfwerk buig en vermeng, word ek in dié tesis op ’n kronkelpad pad gelei waarop ek ontwykende interseksionele verhale oor verskeie gevoelens van queer- en Queer-behoort verken. Hierdie is verhale vanuit die kantlyne wat my aanmoedig om die (soms) ontwrigte(nde) verhoudings van my eie wit Queer Afrikaneridentiteite te ondersoek. Sodoende kom ek van aangesig tot aangesig met persoonlike en kulturele spoke wat vanuit uiteenlopendede klusters van geskiedenis, verhaal, onderhoud, vers, volksverhaal, lirieke, en akademiese werke verskyn. Die tesis, verdeel in (en tog ook saamgestel uit) verskeie inskrywings en toegangspunte, begin deur te besin oor die spookagtige verlies van groot gedeeltes van my oorspronlike onderhouds argief met Queer vroue. Dié onderhoude is gevoer vir ’n vorige projek en die materiaal wat ek van plan was om krities te herondersoek, veral ten opsigte van my my eie teenstrydige outoetnografiese rol in onderhoudsvoering proses. Die uitgangspunt van waar ek vertrek om dié nou vermiste argief aan te spreek, in verband met die huidige studie, neem ’n spesifieke fokus op ’n Afrikaans volksverhaal geken as “Die Vloek van Boontjieskraal” of “Die Vloek van die de Wets”. Op `n vindigryke wyse (her)lees en (her)skryf ek die verhaal en die bespiegelde nadraaie van die vloek as ’n queer verhaal. Deur (na) te dink oor grense, queerheid, gasvryheid, Afrikaneridentititeit, en my groeiende bewustheid oor die noodwendige onvolledigheid van die argief, oorweeg ek wat die verhaal oor die politiek van insluiting en uitsluiting, teenwoordigheid en afwesigheid kan onthul. Hier skryf ek ook vir die uitbreiding van die term ‘queer’ as meer as slegs ’n sambreel term vir die LGBTQIAP+ gemeenskap. Ek gebruik dus ‘Queer’ in verwysing na die LGBTQIAP+ gemeenskap en ‘queer’ in verwysing na die uitgebreide term. Die tweede pad wat ek volg ondersoek die geestelike kragte van ‘met die helm gebore’ wees. Deur gebruik te maak van Achmat Dangor se kortverhaal ‘Waiting for Leila’ (2001) en Chris Barnard se film Paljas (1998), delf ek in die vermoëns wat helmdraers het om meer ontvanklik te wees vir spookervaringe en grens-vervaging. Op soek spookervaringe ten einde my eie geeste in die oë te kyk, gebruik ek volksverhaal as ’n middel om te oorweeg hoe dit sal lyk om die insig van die helm op te (ver)haal deur die vertelkrag van queer Afrikanerverhale. Die laaste pad is een wat ek volg saam met Antjie Somers, ’n Queer, gestigmatiseerde, heksagtige figuur wel-bekend deur Afrikaanse mense. Deur permutasies van hulle verhaal in gesprek te bring met skrywe oor ander uitgeworpenes, soos hekse en Queer mense, oorweeg ek die parallelle wat getrek kan word met en tussen die ervaringe en kennis van sulke verstote, onkonvensionele figure. Ek oorweeg ook hoe Antjie se storie en die storie van ander queer figure vir ons in die hede kan lei na ’n kragtig herstellende taal van storievertelling. | af_ZA |
| dc.description.version | Masters | en_ZA |
| dc.embargo.terms | 2021-02-22 | |
| dc.format.extent | 156 pages | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/105697 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_ZA | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | Stellenbosch University | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Sexual minorities -- South Africa | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Creative and critical writing | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Afrikaner identity | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | South African folklore | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Fictocriticism | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Witchcraft | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | UCTD | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Born with the caul : a fictocritical revisiting of race-d and queer(ed) his/stories | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_ZA |