Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 16:02:17 SAST-2 From: "a.c. fick" <ANG-AT-beattie.uct.ac.za> Subject: Re: African literature and culture class Dear Marilyn (and all others) I apologise if there has been a problem with RCPT mail from my end. I have reset the controls on my mail filtering and features, and hope this is at an end now. Else, I am getting professional help from our local server manager regarding this matter. Well, regarding postgraduate (M.A., M.Phil., M.A. Literary Studies and Ph.D.) research on African literature in the department of English language and literature at the University of Cape Town. As the Research Register Supervisor (glamorous title for hunting down graduate students to fill in the information sheets I spend night awake formulating!), I have access to the details of all the research by graduate students in this department. What follows below is a brief sketch of the areas relevant to postcolonial and the information requested by various individuals. (1) Robyn Alexander (Ms.) Completed an Honours level dissertation called "Education, gender, anxiety: Tsitsi Dangaremga's *Nervous Conditions*", looking at the particular novel, colonial and traditional patriarchy and their collusion in oppression of women, and how women feature in education in the colonial/postcolonial context. She is currently working on an MA thesis on Fay Weldon and motherhood. (2) Gabeba Baderoon (Ms.) Completed an Honours level thesis on the satires of Tom Sharpe, looking at satire and parody. She is currently completing an MA thesis on postmodern television, looking at Twin Peaks, Moonlighting, and The Simpsons. However, she also has a keen interest in Southern African media, especially television and film. (3) Alastair Bruce (Mr.) Completed an Honours level thesis on "Aspects of NArrative in the novels of J.M. Coetzee", looking at contemporary theories of narrative, narrative temporality (Riceour), and historiography. Currently working on an MA thesis expanding on the work done in his honours dissertation, but also looking at hermeneutics, philosophy of ethics, the history and reception of writing in South Africa. (4) Pumla Gqola (Ms.) Completed an Honours level dissertation on "A Feminist Criticism of some of Nadine Gordimer's novels", relating Gordimer specifically to protest literature in this country. Currently working on an MA thesis called "Black Woman You Are On Your Own: The gender politics of black consciousness literature with particular reference to the *Staffrider* magazines 1978-1988". Her thesis deals with short fiction and poetry published in Staffrider (for a whole decade South Africa's premier literary magazine publishing especialyl black authors with no access to regular publication facilities), with a focus on black consciousness, feminism, womanism, Marxist-feminism, Steve Biko and Gwala. (5) Brendon Nicholls (Mr.) Currently working on an MA thesis called "Problems of Representation and Representativeness in Ngugi wa Thiong'O's fictional oeuvre", examining issues such as oral literature and myth, traditionalism, and socialism, and the nexus of these, we well as post-futurism, and using the work of Helene Cixous. (6) George Samiselo (Mr.) Currently completing a Ph.D. thesis called "The audience of the African novel from 1958: Towards a critical method (A study of select novels by Chinua Achebe, Shimmer Chinodya, Ayi Kwei Armah and Ngugi wa Thiong'O). George has published a paper on the role of creative writing in Africa in NGOMA: Journal of Creative writing and Research at the university of Zambia, and has presented various unpublished papers on Zambian fiction and Ayi Kwei Armah. (7) Lisa Treffry-Goatley (Ms.) Completed an Honours level dissertation in Linguistics at Rhodes University in Grahamstown called "Developing an approach to teaching English literacy in South Africa: a broad discussion of theories and practices", looking at issues such as language and power, adult education, literacy from an applied linguistics approach. Currently completing an M.Phil. in English and Linguistics called, tentatively, "Language learning experiences of English additional language speakers (EALS) in the tertiary context: with particular reference to an English Department environment. (8) Angelo Fick (Mr.) Currently completing an MA thesis called "Limited Possibilities: the options available to black women as characters in Southern African allegorical and futurist fiction", which examines the representation of black women's bodies and subjectivities in four allegories (Coetzee's WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS, Stockenstrom's THE EXPEDITION TO THE BAOBAB TREE, Bessie Head's A QUESTION OF POWER, and Mike Nicol's HORSEMAN/THE POWERS THAT BE/THIS DAY AND AGE). My approach is from a French feminist perspective, using the work of Toril Moi, Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray, as well as the theories of Bhabha, Said, Derrida and other, to examine how the nexus of feminism, postcolonialism and postmodernism affect representation and self-representation in each of these works. Other students (who have been delinquent and have not handed me their research details; may the road come up to meet their faces and may they live in interesting times!) also working in African/South African literature include Sandy Young, who is working on prison writings by African women, and Louise Green and Roshila Nair, who are working on popular culture and African literary politics/media. Tenured researchers working on African literature in the department include the following: Prof. J.M. Coetzee (author/academic) Prof. Andre Brink (author/academic) Assoc.Prof. Dorothy Driver Assoc.Prof. Nic Visser Assoc.Prof. Geoffrey Haresnape (HoD) Assoc.Prof. Ian Glenn Dr. Kelwyn Sole (poet/academic) Dr. Stephen Watson (poet/academic) Dr. David Schalkwyk (academic/translated Schoeman's ANOTHER COUNTRY from afrikaans into English for Picador in 1991) AssocProf. Eve Bertelsen (South African media) Assoc.PRof. Brenda Cooper (academic/chair of African Studies Centre at University of Cape Town) Thank you all. And glad to have been of help. Anyone interested in more information regarding any specific course/s, researchers, teachers, etc. may contact me and I will pass your details along to the relevant person/s concerned. Angelo (2) --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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