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Languages, Linguistics and Academic Literacy

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Browsing Languages, Linguistics and Academic Literacy by Author "Attwell, David."

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    Return to the farm : landscape as a site for the interrogation of identity in three works of J.M. Coetzee.
    (2002) Nel, David.; Attwell, David.
    The dissertation focuses on 1. M. Coetzee's novels The Life and Times of Michael K., Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life and Disgrace, analysing the central protagonists' engagement with the landscape in general and specifically focussing on the farm as a site on which identities are interrogated. By way of introduction the two central themes, landscape and identity are highlighted with respect to Coetzee's theoretical work, specifically White Writing and Doubling the Point. Introductory discussion on the 'farm novel' and 'autobiography' is also given in the first chapter. In the second chapter, Boyhood is examined as an influential text in the rereading of Coetzee's allegorical work Michael K. The intention is to elucidate the power relations which underlie the earlier novel by means of a comparative analysis of the mother-child, father-child culture-child and author-text relationships found in Boyhood. Consideration of Coetzee's critical analysis of Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm is given towards establishing links between Coetzee's fiction and the farm novel genre. The third chapter focuses on Disgrace as 'another take' on the farm novel. The position of the white male 'self' in post-apartheid South Africa is interrogated through an analysis of the protagonist David Lurie's fictional' return to the farm.' 'Subject'/ 'other' relations are also discussed with a view to understanding identity formation. In the final chapter, conclusions are drawn regarding the relationship between Coetzee's fiction and the farm novel genre. Finally, the failure of lineal consciousness and the' self becoming redundant are considered.
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    A study of J.M. Coetzee's novel, The master of Petersburg, with particular reference to its confessional aspects.
    (2000) Brammage, Carol.; Attwell, David.
    The dissertation focuses on lM. Coetzee's novel The Master of Petersburg, read as a confessional text and discussed in the light of theories of the western tradition of confession. By way of introduction some of the themes and features of Coetzee's novels that have been the subject of criticism and debate and are pertinent to this discussion are highlighted. Alluding to the politics, aesthetics and ethics of writing in South Africa, the introduction is not intended to provide a comprehensive overview ofthe criticism Coetzee's work has generated. In the second chapter, taking into account aspects of Coetzee's essay "Confession and Double Thoughts: Tolstoy, Rousseau and Dostoevsky", an essay he characterises as a dialogue between cynicism and grace, problems of truth, particularly "how to tell the truth in autobiography", self-knowledge and self-deception are discussed, drawing also on observations made by Dennis A. Foster in his book Confession and Complicity in Narrative and with reference to Jeremy Tambling's book Confession: Sexuality, Sin, the Subject. An important focus is the idea that the concept of sin serves to marginalise the subject who is inscribed in the discourse of confession. The third chapter focuses on the novel The Master of Petersburg and the main protagonist - a fictionalised Dostoevsky - who displays the hyper-self-consciousness of the confessant, and his actions and disclosures which he characterises, in the vocabulary of confession, as being sinful. Notions oftruth, self-knowledge, the nature of writing, the role ofthe reader, as well as critical responses to the novel itself, are examined in the light of theories of confession. In the final chapter, themes ofbetrayal, self-alienation and falling from grace are considered in the context of confession and the question "how are we to be ethical in a secular context?" emerges. How grace manifests itself in a secular world leads to the key question as to whether or not there is an ethical imperative in the process and practice of writing.