Die ondermynende potensiaal van die huis en die huishoudelike, met spesifieke verwysing na die liggaam en kos in Klaaglied vir Koos en Erf deur Lettie Viljoen, en Louoond deur Jeanne Goosen

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Traditionally the body has been neglected within Western philosophical thought. In this tradition man is seen as a dualist organism whose mind is more highly valued than his or her body. Since the start of the twentieth century, especially, there has also been Western thinkers who deconstruct the traditional, opposisional view of the mind and body. Most of these thinkers are men, and they argue from a male perspective. The deconstruction of the opposition between mind and body is, however, also useful for feminism, as the woman was traditionally seen as more bodily, and less rational, than the man. This view of woman can be used to support arguments that her place is within the home, where she should look after the bodily and emotional needs of her husband and children. First and second wave feminists criticised above-mentioned traditional view of women by arguing that the woman is just as rational as the man. Other feminists make use of the 'male' criticism of the body-mind opposition by arguing that traditionally female attributes and activities are not less valuable than male ones. In this thesis it is argued that the novellas Klaaglied vir Koos, Erf and Louoond should be read against this background as feminist texts in which the traditionally female space of the kitchen is celebrated as a space in which the female subject can create art and develop a perspective on the outside world. Focusing on the body and on traditionally female values (such as the domestic space) have implications for, amongst others, epistemology, ethical thought and literary theory. The way these implications are developed in the three novellas are explored in this thesis. Domestic spaces are not only celebrated in these texts, they are also represented as problematical, limited spaces which isolate the protagonists of the novellas and withhold them from the potential of political solidarity. The novellas are therefore treated in this thesis as complex texts in which the literary focus on domestic space, female embodiment and man's relationship with food is both celebrated and problematised.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University