Dear Thandi and Gustav,
Thanks for the excellent start to the blog postings. Please remember to comment on one another's posts today.
For Monday, the reading is the Schreiner short story and the chapter on "Women and War" in Woman and Labour - all on the Google Drive.
Let's start the class by setting up blog readings and contributions for the next two week period. We may need to let the Schreiner discussion spill over into the following class, as there is much more material on her.
See you on Monday from 10.30 - 11.45. Thereafter, every fortnight.
Take care,
Lannie
Friday, 26 February 2016
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Article summary of Idleness in South Africa by J.M. Coetzee
Idleness in South
Africa by J.M. Coetzee
Coetzee’s chapter, Idleness in South Africa in the
book White Writing (1988), looks at the European settlers in
South Africa and how they observed and experienced the Hottentot’s in South
Africa. Idleness in South Africa looks at the “idle, indolence, sloth,
laziness, torpor” lifestyle of the Hottentots and the western ideal of “what it
means to be man”.
This chapter can be divided into three sections (1)
observations of the Hottentots, (2) condemning the Hottentot for his idleness
and (3) history of idleness in South Africa. Looking at part one: observations
of the Hottentots, here Coetzee mentions how European settlers described the
Hottentots, taking note of their beast-like manner but they are in fact men.
Hottentots were seen as having handicapped speech, eating animals as well as
animal intestines, they sleep together not differentiating between men and
women and they appear unwashed and “smell fiercely” (Coetzee 12). These
observations are all identified by a checklist from the European settlers.
European settlers saw the Hottentots as idle because they did not make up for
Adam's fall or atone for his sins. The Hottentots were seen as living a life
without religion or God.
Part two: condemning the Hottentot for his idleness, looks
at punishing the Hottentot for being idle. Hottentots were seen as being lazy
and anyone who associates themselves with them will also become lazy and idle.
Hottentots had no future unless they worked for the Boers. Idleness of the
Boers weren’t seen the same as the Hottentot idleness.
Part three: history of idleness in South Africa focuses on
the idleness of the Hottentots that still presents itself in the
over-employment and underpayment of people. Coetzee also mentions the
Immorality Act and Mixed Marriages Act of Apartheid South Africa and how
Europeans interacting with Hottentots brought laziness among the Europeans and
this in some way led to these two acts.
The life of the Hottentots presented by European settlers is
one of laziness, idleness, indolence and torpor, a life, that in a busy world
today, people seek - one of solitude and peace. Coetzee states “certainly no
one dreams of asking whether what looks like Hottentot dolce far niente
(pleasant idleness) may not be the mere outward aspect of a profound Hottentot contemplative
life” (Coetzee 18). He makes the argument whether the life of a Hottentot isn’t
in fact the paradise we seek, having leisure time and faith that everything
will be provided for. This can be a bitter pill to swallow if association with
the Hottentots is not ideal and for European settlers they viewed the
Hottentots using their own framework that differences are perceived in a
framework of sameness (Coetzee 13).
Coetzee poses interesting and challenging arguments in this
chapter Idleness in South Africa from White Writing. Some
arguments are very complex and difficult to understand but it challenges the
reader’s thinking and knowledge about South African history, the idea of
paradise and whether the Hottentot life is something that could have been close
to the ideal life, a “dolce far niente” - a pleasant idleness.
Gustav Fritsch: Travel writing and portrait photography in South Africa
Gustav Theodor Fritsch (5 March 1838 - 12 June 1927) was a German anatomist, anthropologist, traveler and physiologist from Cottbus. Fritsch studied natural science and medicine in Berlin, Breslou and Heidelberg and later became an associate professor of physiology at the University of Berlin, He was later appointed the head of the histological department at the physiological institute of the University of Berlin.
While being well known for his work with neuropsychiatrist Eduard Hitzig (1839 -1907), involving the localisation of the motor areas of the brain, he also did extensive ethnographical research in Southern Africa (1863-1866). His travel writing and portrait photography, and how they are presented, is interesting as his methodology shifts from ethnographic-cultural to anthropological-physical. This change in methodology causes his portraits to shift in meaning as well. This shift in portraiture meaning can also be seen as moving from the "honorific" to the "repressive" representation of the focus of his photographs, with the focus of photographs being the indigenous inhabitants of Southern Africa.
Fritsch's portrait photographs of, "Natives of South Africa", were taken between 1863 and 1866 and was published in reconstituted form in 1872. His initial portraits and travel narrative were "honorific" in nature and their open-ended ethnographic emphasis related to an early racial liberalism. His portrait photography and narrative writing, shifted to the "repressive", emphasising the physical features which would constitute the 'racial types' in Southern Africa. The shift in the meaning and representation in his work is quite sudden, moving from cultural to physical within the span of a decade.
The reason for the sudden change in his approach to documenting the indigenous inhabitants of Southern Africa lies within the context of his academic pursuits and the newly established
Berlin anthropological community within which he finds himself. More specifically, it is the integration within a newly institutionalised Germany, and particularly within the Berlin anthropological community, that his movement towards a new methodology within this intellectual context, causes him to move from an ethnographic-cultural to an anthropological-physical methodology.
While being well known for his work with neuropsychiatrist Eduard Hitzig (1839 -1907), involving the localisation of the motor areas of the brain, he also did extensive ethnographical research in Southern Africa (1863-1866). His travel writing and portrait photography, and how they are presented, is interesting as his methodology shifts from ethnographic-cultural to anthropological-physical. This change in methodology causes his portraits to shift in meaning as well. This shift in portraiture meaning can also be seen as moving from the "honorific" to the "repressive" representation of the focus of his photographs, with the focus of photographs being the indigenous inhabitants of Southern Africa.
Fritsch's portrait photographs of, "Natives of South Africa", were taken between 1863 and 1866 and was published in reconstituted form in 1872. His initial portraits and travel narrative were "honorific" in nature and their open-ended ethnographic emphasis related to an early racial liberalism. His portrait photography and narrative writing, shifted to the "repressive", emphasising the physical features which would constitute the 'racial types' in Southern Africa. The shift in the meaning and representation in his work is quite sudden, moving from cultural to physical within the span of a decade.
The reason for the sudden change in his approach to documenting the indigenous inhabitants of Southern Africa lies within the context of his academic pursuits and the newly established
Berlin anthropological community within which he finds himself. More specifically, it is the integration within a newly institutionalised Germany, and particularly within the Berlin anthropological community, that his movement towards a new methodology within this intellectual context, causes him to move from an ethnographic-cultural to an anthropological-physical methodology.
For further reading on Gustav Fritsch, his travel writing and portrait photographs of the individuals in his, "Natives of South Africa", the following link is quite helpful: http://reference.sabinet.co.za/webx/access/journal_archive/02590190/670.pdf
Monday, 8 February 2016
Welcome to SA Modernism
Welcome to S.A. Modernism 2016
This course runs over a period of twelve weeks, and consists of three broad sections. In the first section, we use the figure of Olive Schreiner to develop a sense of the interaction between the metropolitan concerns of the late nineteenth century, and the ideas and developments taking place at the Cape. We will look at some of Schreiner's own writings, as well as Ann Harries' novel, Manly Pursuits, to explore the discourses shaping both writing and society at the time. In particular, we will consider the influences of Darwin's science on social scientific thinking of the day, and the bearing this has on notions of Empire and social "progress".
The second section of the course takes Wulf Sach's "psychoanalytic biography", Black Hamlet, as its central text. Here we will look at Sach's efforts to use the new "radical" science of psychoanalysis to work against dominant "scientific" views of race in South Africa in the 1930s. A number of critics have pointed to the weaknesses of Sach's project, which are in themselves useful and interesting. Gavin Hood's film, A Reasonable Man, adapts a series of related themes and issues to the context of late apartheid South Africa.
The final section of the course considers the interaction between social and biological sciences in texts by two other significant South African writers of the early twentieth century, Laurens van der Post, and Eugene Marais; both of which are non-fictional. Finally, we will consider J.M. Coetzee's novel, Dusklands, for the parallels it draws between the language in which the Khoi-San people are represented in a 17th century "explorer" narrative, and depictions of the "mind" of the Vietnamese in America during the Vietnam war. Again we will consider the ways in which representations of human societies lay claim to "scientific" language.
The focus throughout the course is on the pre-existing discourses at work in representing an argument, a society, or a social situation, and how these discourses limit or shape what the writer is able to say. Your final essays will investigate this in detail in the texts of your choice.
Please be aware of this very limited selection of South African writers of the early twentieth century. There are many other important literary figures, about whom you may wish to blog - for example, Sol Plaatjie, Herman Charles Bosman, Louis Leipoldt, H.E. Dhlomo, Roy Campbell, William Plomer, Uys Krige, Louis Leipoldt, Pauline Smith, to name only a few.
Blogging will make up 30% of your final mark.
Class presentations will comprise 20% of the mark.
A long, academic essay to be submitted in the final week of term counts for 50% of the mark.
How the blog works:
Your contributions to the blog should fall into one of the following 3 categories:
1) Article summary ( 3 posts / 15)
2) Book "review", (3 posts/ 15)
3) Gossip column. (3 posts/15)
4) Comments on your partner's posts (/5)
(Total: /50)
Please use a "Label" to flag to which one of these categories your post belongs.
Blog Posts:
Each week, by Wednesday 11 am, at least 2 people will make a post - 1 will be an "article summary" and one will be a "book review". If anyone wishes to make a "gossip column" post for the same deadline, this will be credited to them. However, we will have a roster, established in class, for the main two posts.
Comments on Blog Posts:
By Friday, 11 am, everyone in the group will have made at least two comments on the Wednesday posts. These can also be comments on other people's comments. You can choose to comment multiple times on one topic, or to make two separate comments on each of the two posts. HOWEVER: both of these comments must be up by 11 am on Friday. Further commentary will be credited, as long as the initial two comments are made on time.
A detailed description of what goes into each posting will be handed out in class.
Apart from the formal requirements, please make the blog your own as far as possible. Feel free to upload links, images, book reviews or relevant movie clips that you think may be of interest to the group. I will make room for extra credit for anyone who puts a lot of effort into the Gossip column; this is the most free-format of all the categories, and could be very interesting.
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