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Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature
Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2018.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2018
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| _version_ | 1867613810052825088 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Nabulya, Eve |
| author2 | Slabbert, Mathilda |
| author_browse | Nabulya, Eve Slabbert, Mathilda |
| author_facet | Slabbert, Mathilda Nabulya, Eve |
| author_sort | Nabulya, Eve |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2018. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/103866 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:42:03.173Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publishDateRange | 2018 |
| publishDateSort | 2018 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/103866 Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature Nabulya, Eve Slabbert, Mathilda Green, Louise, 1968- Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. Eco-communitarianism -- East Africa Environmental literary productions Communitarianism in literature East African literature UCTD Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2018. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study seeks to explore the ways in which stylistic techniques and modes of narration perform environmental activism in a selection of literary texts from East Africa. I reflect on the persuasive value of literary devices, notably personification, ekphrasis, metaphor and irony in effecting change in people’s attitudes towards the environment. My study considers how each of these devices enables conceptualization and animates conversations around contemporary issues in environmental discourse. I enlist environmentally committed texts: two dramas, three novels and five poems by East African writers to discuss the innovations and strategies through which the literary works access emotions and thus potentially influence the attitudes of readers. Drawing on Kenneth Burke’s notion of "persuasion to attitude" as derived from Aristotle's theory of rhetoric, I demonstrate that an ecocritical approach can transcend the intra-textual focus of literature and investigate a text’s persuasive power or what I prefer to call textual eco-activism. I note that such a method, for the works in focus, unveils an underlying ecological consciousness amenable to African communitarianism, what I term as eco-communitarianism. I maintain that these works, in different ways, offer alternative visions and reflect on pertinent issues related to human and nonhuman agency, art and the representation of the physical landscape, the viability of apocalyptic rhetoric in the environmental campaign, and the relationship between governance and environmental conservation. Nestled in postcolonial eco-criticism, this study is predicated on the understanding that environmental literary productions and related criticisms constitute acts of activism and efforts at changing the status quo. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel en werkswyse van hierdie studie is om die maniere waarop stilistiese tegnieke en narratiewe vorme uiting gee aan omgewings-aktivisme in ‘n seleksie van Oos-Afrikaanse literêre tekste te ondersoek. Ek bedink die oorredende waarde in omgewingsbewusmaking van letterkundige tegnieke, hoofsaaklik personifikasie, ekphrasis, metafoor en ironie. Ek bestudeer en evalueer hoe elk van hierdie tegnieke konseptualisering bemiddel en gesprekke aangaande kontemporêre onderwerpe in omgewingsdiskoerse animeer. My studie betrek tekste wat omgewings-toegeweid is: twee toneelstukke, drie romans en vyf gedigte deur Oos-Afrikaanse skrywers, ten einde die innoverings en strategieë te kan bespreek met behulp waarvan literêre tegnieke gevoelens bereik en gevolglik lesers-houdings potensieel beïnvloed. Met behulp van Kenneth Burke se konsep van “oorreding tot houding” [“persuasion to attitude”] wat hy uit Aristoteles se retoriek-teorie ontwikkel het, demonstreer ek dat ‘n eko-kritiese benadering die intra-tekstuele focus van letterkunde kan transendeer om sodoende ‘n teks se oorredingskrag, of wat ek verkies om tekstuele eko-aktivisme te noem, te ondersoek. Ek wys daarop dat, vir die werke in my studie se fokus val, hierdie metode ‘n onderliggende ekologiese bewustheid wat gepas is vir gemeenskaps-georiënteerde Afrikane – wat ek eko-kommunitarisme noem – onthul. Ek argumenteer dat hierdie tekste, op verskillende maniere, alternatiewe visies bied en dat hulle pertinente kwessies verbonde aan beide menslike en nie-menslike agering, kuns en die verbeelding van die fisiese landskap, die werkbaarheid van apokaliptiese retoriek in die omgewings-kampanje, asook die verhouding tussen regering en omgewingsbehoud, bepeins. Ingebed in post-koloniale eko-kritiek, berus hierdie studie op die begrip dat omgewings-georiënteerde literêre werke en verbandhoudende letterkundige kritiek aktivistiese optrede asook pogings om die status quo te verander, beliggaam. Doctoral 2018-02-22T22:00:38Z 2018-04-09T11:46:12Z 2018-08-23T03:00:05Z 2018-03 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/103866 en Stellenbosch University 145 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Eco-communitarianism -- East Africa Environmental literary productions Communitarianism in literature East African literature UCTD Nabulya, Eve Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature |
| title | Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature |
| title_full | Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature |
| title_fullStr | Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature |
| title_short | Eco-communitarianism : a poetics of the environment in East African literature |
| title_sort | eco communitarianism a poetics of the environment in east african literature |
| topic | Eco-communitarianism -- East Africa Environmental literary productions Communitarianism in literature East African literature UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/103866 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nabulyaeve ecocommunitarianismapoeticsoftheenvironmentineastafricanliterature |