Die uitdaging van biografie-skrywing : 'n lewe van Betty Pack

[摘要] This study consists of two parts. The first part focuses primarily on literature thatdiscusses the biography in general, and then turns its focus more sharply on the musicbiography. A critical reading of three South African music biographies is conducted inorder to identify tendencies or patterns in the biographical writing of musicians,especially performers.The second part of this thesis consists of a biographical case study of Pack. Thisparticular biography makes no claim that it will not be faced with the same problemsillustrated in the general discussion on biography as a discipline, but rather through theestablished critical frame claims to qualify and critically elucidate the biographicalwriting pertaining to Pack. This case study will underline one of the defining elements inthe writing of lives of those figures who are considered less important, namely the limitedresource material that tend to replicate the themes and stereotypes inherent inbiographical writing. This practical problem causes an inevitable repetition of theintellectual difficulties of biographical writing. The purpose of this biography, which isthe combination of different source materials and, is not necessarily to avoid these'myths, but to identify it by critical reflection. With this approach, it is not thebiography itself that becomes 'critical, but rather the reading and comprehension of thebiography.Finally, the conclusion is reached that Betty Pack's life as committed to paper andmemory displays various themes and topoi characteristic of the music biography ingeneral, rather than just the biographies of performers. The conventions of musicbiography, as consolidated in the biographical descriptions of composers, thus stillprovide the norms and forms for the biography of the performing artist.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University