Rebecca Roanhorse’s short story Harvest appeared in the 2019 New Suns: A Collection of Stories by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl. This story has received little to no critical attention. Roanhorse’s story is marked by its recourse to the figure of Deer Woman, a supernatural being common to many stories from Native American oral tradition. In this article, I will explore how myth and the gothic are melded together within the narrative of this short story in what I term the ‘mythogothic’. I will demonstrate how the mythogothic is integral to the founding of the shadow selves of the Native American protagonist Tansi. It is Roanhorse’s depiction of Tansi and Deer Woman’s killing spree that I will maintain challenges the founding myths of North American colonialism.
Contribution: This study contributes to scholarship on the work of author Rebecca Roanhorse and her employment of Native American oral tradition and myth as central to her narratives. It further provides a contribution to Gothic studies in the coining of the term the mythogothic as a tool with which to engage in a critical reading of narratives in which myth acts as a structuring device. Roanhorse’s short story Harvest has received little scholarly attention and using a gothic theoretical approach in conjunction with Native American scholar Gerald Vizenor’s trickster discourse allows for a fresh perspective and critical appreciation of the terror central to the story’s subversion of American colonial myth.
Bantu languages are considered accusative languages, due to their person-marking alignment system. This typology accounts for a specific view on transitivity, strongly based on a subject/object distinction and its mapping to the semantic roles of the participants in an event. Consequently, some constructions found in Bantu challenge theoretical analyses on transitivity and syntax because they present a mismatch between grammatical relations and semantic roles. In this article, I present an approach to transitivity inspired by Hopper & Thompson’s (1980) parameters for a gradual view, instead of a sharp dichotomy between transitive and intransitive sentences. Linguistic constructions are, therefore, analyzed as being more transitive or less transitive, based on semantic features. I also suggest that, when features other than the subject-object relation are more prominent in licensing participants in a given construction, it means the construction is event-oriented, following the parameters of an “active structure” proposed by Klimov (1974) and Wichmann (2007). I discuss three constructions in Bantu that might be thought of as event-oriented: inversion constructions, valency-changing extensions, and the verbal expression of properties. The advantage of approaching these constructions through an event-orientation analysis is that it addresses the relation between participants and events as morphosemantic features instead of challenging syntactic operations.
Recent developments in isiZulu poetry have been marked by an emergence of performance poets whose poems have gained popularity with younger audiences. A constant feature in contemporary isiZulu poetry is a conscious deviation from adherence to rigid structural and formal linguistic requirements. Contemporary isiZulu poetry is also characterised by a shift from textual to performance-specific conventions that cater for radio, theatre, social-media platforms and so forth, and is more accommodative of linguistic dynamics that shape the current generation of artists and audiences. While contemporary isiZulu performance is a rather more recent innovation, it still owes its roots to oral poetry traditions and has evolved from literary art forms that were committed to memory and performed during family gatherings and communal events. This article explores code switching in contemporary isiZulu performance poetry and argues for appreciation of this phenomenon for its aesthetic appeal rather than as infringement on long-held attitudes about purity of artistic linguistic expressions. Hyme’s Ethno-poetic Theory will inform analysis of selected poems in this article. Ethno-poetic Theory focuses, amongst others, on how a performance displays literary qualities.
Critical commentary on Jak de Wet in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat centres on his being a patriarchal stereotype of Afrikaner nationalism. However, while his negative behaviour in the novel is undeniable, the construction of his masculine identity is mediated by the emasculated space in which he enacts it. This article reads his masculinity in relation to the concept of “hegemonic masculinity”, the spatial construction of public and private masculine identities, and masculinity as performative. This highlights the ways in which Jak’s representation reveals transient moments of insight. These moments find expression in the novel’s recurring images of mobility that culminate in his death.
Since 1994, a growing number of South African writers of young adult and crossover fiction have experimented with science fiction and fantasy as tools for anticipating potential futures. In this article, three of these works are considered: The Slayer of Shadows by Elana Bregin, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes and The Mall Rats series consisting of Deadlands and Death of a Saint by Lily Herne. The texts are initially briefly contrasted with two texts by authors based in the USA: Lauren St John’s The White Giraffe and Sarah Pinsker’s The Trans-dimensional Horsemaster Rabbis of Mpumalanga Province to show that the three local writers’ engagement with the South African present enables them to resist, in varying degrees, prevalent Western tendencies to see positive African futures in terms of either an idealised pre-colonial past or as the result of redemptive agency by external forces. Although almost twenty years separate the Bregin novel from the others, there are clear similarities between them: each is written by a white woman (or women) and each places a young female protagonist within a crumbling, violent and resolutely urban environment. Paradoxically, the future worlds the authors create are at once both profoundly unfamiliar and recognisably South African, perhaps lending credence to Darko Suvin’s view that good fantasy gives rise to “cognitive estrangement” (4) by which the reader is freed to explore troubling issues such as guilt and complicity at a safe emotional remove. By foregrounding and contrasting the presentation of divisive contemporary themes such as gender, race, guilt and violence in these novels, it is hoped to establish whether the repressed fears and desires they articulate are in any way indicative of social attitudes to either present experience or imagined futures and whether such attitudes have changed significantly in the twenty years since the first democratic elections.
The issue of which English should be privileged in South Africa has been hotly debated This article argues against the binary thinking that has fuelled this debate. It contends that standard English should be taught since it is the proper or appropriate choice in particular contexts. Competence in standard English would extend and enhance learners' repertoires. However, unless the richly textured variety of "other" Englishes is accommodated in the classroom, there is a strong danger of what Phillipson (1992) terms linguicism. The article argues that a possible means of exploring the richly textured varieties in use in South Africa would be to focus on the choice of accent in radio advertisements. Some suggestions are outlined as to how a critical awareness of the persuasive effict of particular accents in particular contexts can be developed Finally, a plea is made for stylistic experimentation to be honoured in South African classrooms as a further means of exploring the language resources in South Africa. Die debat random die soort Engels wat in Suid-Afrika bevoordeel behoort te word is nog steeds aan die gang. In hierdie artikel word daar aangevoer dat dit die gevolg is van die binere denke oor hierdie saak Daar word beweer dat Standaard-Engels onderrig behoort te word aangesien dit die maak van 'n korrekte of geskikte keuse in bepaalde kontekste behels. Vaardigheid in Standaard-Engels salleerders se repertoire uitbrei en versterk Dit beteken egter nie dat die ryk tekstuurverskeidenheid van die "ander" soorte Engels in die k/askamer buite rekening gelaat mag word nie. Indien dit sou gebeur, bestaan die gevaar van wat Phil/ipson (1992) "linguisisme" noem. Volgens die artikel is die bestudering van radioadvertensies, met die fokus op die keuse van k/em, 'n moontlike manier om die ryk tekstuurverskeidenheid van Engels wat in Suid-Afrika gebruik word te ondersoek Bepaalde voorstelle word aan die hand gedoen oor hoe 'n kritiese bewustheid ontwikkel kan word ten opsigte van die vasstelling van die oorredende uitwerking wat 'n bepaalde aksentuering binne bepaalde kontekste kan he. Ten s/otte word 'n pleidooi gelewer ten gunste van eksperimentasie met sty/ in Suid-Afrikaanse k/askamers as 'n verdere wyse waarop bronne vir taal in Suid-Afrika ondersoek kan word
Language and Literature, African languages and literature
Then, sooner, I give credence to the tale: on some narrative texts by Martinus Nijhoff
With short lyrical poems being the poetical standard nowadays, long story-telling poems can be seen as a provocative genre. Characteristics of modern epic poems can be explored by examining a brief and a story-telling poem by Martinus Nijhoff.
<p>It has frequently been claimed that Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is apowerful linguistic tool which facilitates analytical and interpretative skills and provides aflexible, yet structured set of analytical tools with which to interpret texts. With this claim asa backdrop, this article asks whether SFG is, in fact an appropriate analytical approach forunder-graduate students and whether it can facilitate their ability to analyse texts. Its contextis a second level course, Analysing Media Texts, offered at Natal University. Broadly framedby critical discourse analysis, it traces the development of a thirteen week module and,using student analyses for illustrative purposes, identifies pedagogical challenges anddifficulties that need to be confronted before any strong claims can be made. It is concludedthat, on the evidence of students' responses to texts analysed during this course, it is not yetpossible to make strong claims about the benefits of SFG. There is enough positiveevidence, however, to pursue the possibility that with innovative curriculum development andthe careful scaffolding and integration of concepts, SFG will be clearly shown to have anextremely important role to play.</p><p>Daar is dikwels beweer dat Halliday se Sistemies-Funksionele Grammatika (SFG) 'n kragtige linguistiese middel is wat analitiese en interpreterende vaardighede bevorder en 'n plooibare, dog gestruktureere stel analitiese gereedskap verskaf waarmee tekste gei"nterpreteer kan word. Met die bewering as agtergrond vra hierdie artikel of SFG inderdaad 'n toepas like analitiese benadering vir voorgraadse studente is en of dit hulle vermoe om tekste te ontleed, bevorder. Die konteks is 'n tweedejaarskursus, Analysing Media Texts, wat aan die Universiteit van Natal aangebied word. Breedweg omraam deur kritiese diskoersanalise, speur die artikel die ontwikkeling van 'n module van dertien weke na, met gebruik van studenteontledings ter illustrasie en identifiseer pedagogiese uitdagings en probleme wat aangespreek moet word voordat enige sterk aansprake gemaak kan word. Daar word tot die slotsom gekom, op grond van die studente se reaksies op tekste wat gedurende hierdie kursus ontleed is, dat dit nog nie moontlik is om sterk aansprake oor die voordele van SFG te maak nie. Daar is egter genoeg positiewe bewyse om die moontlikheid op te volg dat met vernuwende kurrikulumontwikkeling en die versigtige ondersteuning en integrering van konsepte duidelik bewys sal kan word dat SFG 'n uiters belangrike rol te speel het.</p>
Language and Literature, African languages and literature
In this article Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design and Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourse are drawn on in order to analyze some of the ways in which meanings are made and some meanings privileged over others in the designing, both visual and discursive, of the covers of three course books prepared for teacher education programmes in South Africa. The primary aim of this analysis is to understand what meanings are offered to readers as entrants into or as established members of communities of practice in the teaching profession and the academy.
Language and Literature, African languages and literature
The present paper is intended to be a diort presentation of the results of a survey conducted in two secondary schools near Zaria in 1985. The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out the difficulties and problems in Hausa language development which is to some extent controlled by an official language policy. Since only two schools were visited and merely 66 respondents were tested, the results presented here first of all show the situation in those schools. On the other hand, this type of research seems to be prototypical. That is why it might be useful to present results of even random and incomplete research. As it seems that the conclusions drawn from the collected material could reflect more general problems of both learning and teaching of Hausa in Nigerian schools. The first school (Demonstration Secondary School within the campus of ABU, Zaria) was characterized by great ethnic heterogenity: the Hausas were in a minority there. Such a diversity in ethnic origin of the pupils was particularly interesting for our research, as the Hausa language course is being also taught in schools beyond the Hausa speaking area. The second school (Government Day Secondary School, Samaru) also had an ethnically varied composition but the Hausa predominated over the other groups. The ethnic heterogenity is regarded as typical for the situation in the schools of northern Nigeria.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Philology. Linguistics
Review Essay
The Pastoral Continuum: The Marginalization of Tradition in East Africa. Paul Spencer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Pp. 302.
The Poor are Not Us: Poverty & Pastoralism. David M. Anderson & Vigdis Broch-Due (eds.). Oxford: James Currey, 1999. Pp. 276.
History of Africa, African languages and literature