Epochal weaving : metaphors of narrative and metafiction in Marlene van Niekerk's Triomf and Agaat

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the use of specific narrative strategies, metafiction and metaphor in Mar-lene van Niekerk's Triomf (2004) an Agaat (2010). Each of these expansive novels are set in South Africa during the period of national transition to democracy in the 1990s, and explore issues related to ideological aspects of space, race, class and land dispossession. Throughout the thesis I highlight and refer to illustrations of 'epochal weaving, a literary framework that is used to trace historical overlap between the narrative past and present. These depictions of 'epochal weaving in each novel suggest thinking about the capacity for literature to represent the multi-layered nuances informing national and historical contexts in South Africa and be-yond in relation to personal, and lived experiences. My reading of metaphors in relation to the depiction of social space in Triomf focuses on city streets and the significance of repositioning marginalised spatial histories. The alternative landscape of Johannesburg's western suburbs that Van Niekerk recreates, evokes, in turn, the former history of Sophiatown, and seems to advocate imagining new ways for addressing the issues of neglected urban space. My close examination of Agaat traces specific metaphors of narrative and the novel's display of notions of metafiction, and Van Niekerk's reinterpretation of the literary history of the plaasroman from a post-apartheid perspective. In the final chapter I put Triomf and Agaat into conversation to display how Van Niekerk appears to weave national histories, embedded in each text, to-gether through the physical and domestic space of the family homes. Through the metaphorical significance of mirrors, an object which overlaps in these texts, various images reflected in mirrors produce multi-layered reconsiderations of national and sociopolitical issues embodied in the lived experiences and memories of the characters. Framing my reading, this thesis adopts an international gaze to consider not only how the literary features and narrative strategies in Van Niekerk's fiction illuminate local issues related to cultural, historical, political and social contexts, but also create awareness about similar concerns that transcend national borders. In short, what South African literature, such as Van Niekerk's work, stimulates in a reader who encounters it in translation.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University