Browsing by Author "Lambert, Michael."

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Against evil : a comparative study of ancient Greek and contemporary Zulu protective magic.
(2009) Mackenzie, Cullen Guy Mansfield.; Lambert, Michael.
In the study of ‘magic’, whether in the Late Antique world of the Mediterranean or contemporary South Africa, there exists a lacuna in the understanding of conceptions of ‘evil’. This dissertation attempts to fill this lacuna through the use of comparison, comparing ancient Greek conceptions of evil as contained in a selection of six amulets from the third and fourth centuries of the Common Era, written in Greek, with conceptions obtained through interviews with contemporary isiZulu-speakers in KwaZulu-Natal. It begins with the Greek material, teasing out the complex intersecting discourses used in a search for protection from evil through in-depth textual analysis, and then moves on to a similar analysis of the oral ‘texts’ of the Zulu respondents. The way in which these two sets of material interacts is reliant on the fact that the interrogation of attitudes and conceptions in the Zulu material enables a fuller elucidation of the ‘voiceless’ popular discourses underlying the Greek texts. Moving on from analysis of each set of material in relative isolation, the dissertation embarks on a comparison of the various discourses, examining the varying thought-patterns which reflect a broader social context and which are in turn creative of that context. These ‘popular’ voices are then situated in the broader ‘grand narratives’ of their historical context, enabling a further elucidation of the way in which intellectual or codified discourses around the nature of evil intersect with the voices of individuals grappling with them. In a reflection on the nature of the comparative endeavour, the utility of comparison is further highlighted as the means to achieve a greater understanding of both the distant past and the immediate present.
Ambivalent goddesses in patriarchies : a comparative study of Hekate in ancient Greek and Roman religion, and Kali in contemporary Hinduism.
(2011) Behari, Jerusha.; Lambert, Michael.
The objective of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the ancient Greek and Roman goddess Hekate, and the goddess Kali in contemporary Hinduism, as revealed in literature from the respective cultures, removed from each other by time and geography, are constructs of the male imagination, resulting in the reinforcing of stereotypes about the dangers of women in power, and demonstrating that women are irrational, lustful, deceitful, close to nature, and inherently lawless. This dissertation aims to show that Hekate and Kali can be re-envisioned as challenging these stereotypes, and can be re-interpreted as positive role-models for women in their respective cultures. To situate this research within a scholarly tradition, the dissertation begins with an overview of research into the supposed existence of prehistoric matriarchal cultures, where the supreme mother goddess who gave birth to the universe was apparently venerated. This is based largely on prehistoric art and interpretations of symbols with the help of secondary source material. Then this dissertation aims to trace the evolution of Hekate from her origins in Greek literature as a generous and benign, yet potent goddess to a dangerous, chthonic deity of the Roman world associated with black magic, the crossroads, demons and the restless dead. This will be done by a thorough examination of selected ancient Greek and Latin sources in chronological order. Kali’s character and function in Hinduism will be determined through an in-depth analysis of Hindu scriptures written in Sanskrit, as well as by investigating devotional hymns written to her by poets during the 18th and 19th centuries CE. These Sanskrit and Hindi sources highlight Kali as a terrible and unruly manifestation of Durga or Parvati’s wrath while also emphasising her maternal qualities. Artistic representations of Hekate and Kali will also be examined. A comparison between the two goddesses and their roles within their respective cultural and religious systems will be undertaken in order to deduce why such goddesses were deemed necessary within patriarchal cultures. Special reference will be made to the reclamation of Hekate and Kali by feminists today as religious role-models for women over traditional role-models such as Sita, and the Virgin Mary. This dissertation seeks to show that whereas goddesses have been alive and well in Hinduism for thousands of years, Classical deities are far from dead, and are at present experiencing a revival and reinterpretation so as to cater for new forms of spirituality. It seeks to examine whether goddesses who have been rebellious in their patriarchal cultural systems are stereotypic representations or whether they can actually empower and make a difference to women.
A commentary on selected elegies of Propertius.
(1984) Lambert, Michael.
Standard commentaries on the elegies of Propertius tend either to ignore or to pay curt lip service to literary criticism. Linguistic and textual problems are often discussed, translations of difficult passages and explanations of logical transitions are sometimes offered, parallel passages are frequently cited, allusions and exempla are usually explained and occasional reference is made to metrical and stylistic devices. The possible background situations to the elegies are often ignored or inadequately explored; exempla are rarely interpreted within the context of the poem as a whole, the rich resonance of Propertius' style, language and imagery is hardly ever appreciated and the technique of line-by-line commentary adopted by all standard commentaries tends to dismantle the poem into a number of component parts, a process which often obscures the overall 'message' or point of the poem and blunts its impact. Consequently, I have chosen the running commentary format for this thesis, in the belief that this format (with extensive use of footnotes) more adequately enables the literary critic to interpret the multi-faceted complexity of Propertius' elegies without destroying the poem's coherence or losing sight of its overall point. Introductory essays are provided before each commentary: these deal with major problems raised by the poem, discuss other critical opinions without paying too much attention to the more lunatic theories, provide a general estimate of the poem and prepare the way for the running commentaries, which offer a detailed appreciation of the elegy. Five elegies (1.2; 1.20; 2.2; 2.26A; 2.29A) have been selected for literary analysis. Each of these poems is characterised by a complex and varied use of mythology, and I have attempted to demonstrate that the exempla are not merely decorative baubles designed to show off the poet's doctrina but are an integral part of the poem, reflecting the poem's central themes and issues. Furthermore, all the elegies reveal Propertius' imaginative, sophisticated, elegant, versatile and often witty approach to love. For the purpose of this thesis, I have used the text of W.A. Camps (Cambridge, Book I 1961, Book II 1967). Textual problems have not been ignored but such are their number and complexity in Propertius that I decided that detailed textual criticism was beyond the scope of this commentary. In addition to this, because of the highly subjective and often controversial nature of some aspects of literary criticism, I have frequently used tentative expressions such as 'might', 'perhaps' and 'seems'. Such expressions also avoid the pitfalls of the historical/documentary fallacy.
Honour and revenge : a study of the role of honour in Euripides' Medea and Hippolytus with reference to a selection of contemporary societies.
(1998) Barrett, Deborah.; Lambert, Michael.
My purpose in this study is twofold. Firstly, I intend to examine the existence of honour in Greek society by an analysis of its presentation in works of Greek literature. In order to achieve this, I shall first examine the values of the Homeric, heroic society so that a picture of the code of honour that was used in those times, might be established. This code of honour provided the foundation upon which later honourable behaviour was based and from which it grew; it is, therefore, a necessary addition in a study such as this. Then, I shall proceed to a study of Euripides' Medea and Hippolytus, two plays that firmly incorporate the motif of honour and revenge. Secondly, I intend to examine a few examples of modern societies. The purpose of this is to ascertain whether any relationship between archaic, classical and contemporary cultures can be established. Shared values and beliefs will be examined in order to determine any possible similarities between cultures and societies that are chronologically separated by hundreds of years.
The impact of living with Zulu pensioner grandmothers as household heads on the gender construction and sexuality of their teenage granddaughters.
(2007) Mangalparsad, Roshilla Sharitha.; Lambert, Michael.
African pensioner grandmothers and their teenage granddaughters constitute a vulnerable sector in our communities. Despite financial constraints these grandmothers struggle against great odds to provide a better life for their granddaughters. In such households, granddaughters are exposed to socialization strategies that are devised to cope with limitations. These strategies impact on the way they construct notions of gender and sexuality. Using qualitative research methodology to investigate the responses to interviews and questionnaires of a selected group of five female teenage learners and their grandmothers at a secondary school in Northdale, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, I discuss how these learners and their principal carers construct gender and sexuality. I make use of postmodern principles to analyse the impact of changing household patterns and coping strategies on these young women. I discuss the gendered division of labour, their 'perceived' notions about femininity and masculinity and bodies. I focus especially on how grandmothers use their own construction of gender and sexuality in influencing their granddaughters by what they say and also by what they do not say. In this investigation, I include Western theorizing and traditional African teachings about gender construction and sexuality. This study demonstrates that gender is not innate but fluid and that constructions of sexuality can create docile 'feminine' bodies. However, there are indications that these young women are resisting the constructs of their grandmothers to create new discourses of their own. Female agency is a mechanism that can be utilized to generate new subjectivities.
Representations of the "other" in selected artworks : re-membering the black male body.
(2006) Nyoni, Vulindlela Philani Elliot.; Lambert, Michael.
The depiction of blackness in the visual arts is located in the complex discourse of representation. Blackness within western visual art has been, and continues to be viewed as oppositional to representations of whiteness, and is constantly perceived as other. This dissertation analyses the process of othering and the impact of such a process on the production of artwork in southern Africa, where the representation of the black male, in particular has been subjected to racist ideology, supported by its props, stereotype, generalization and the homogenization of black experience. Using poststructuralist theories of identity construction and power, I analyse stereotype, racism and masculinity in the colonial and postcolonial periods, focussing especially on the internalization of white constructions of blackness within black visual culture. I discuss the work of Baines as representative of colonial constructions of black masculinity, the work of Bhengu, Mapplethorpe and Makhoba as illustrative of the internalization of stereotypic identities, and the work of Voyiya, Harris and Nyoni as representative of resistant discourses of representation of the black male body. I situate the latter within the contemporary debate on questions of subjectivity and agency within the Foucauldian concept of power. I have deliberately chosen works by two American artists (Mapplethorpe and Harris) in order to situate discourses of blackness within a wider context.
The rock and the hard place: an investigation into the social support services provided by non-governmental support groups for women in Pietermaritzburg post-1994.
(2013) Stephens, Cynthia Bernadette.; Lambert, Michael.; Muthuki, Janet Muthoni.
In the post -1994 era, the new government of South Africa and its legislation intended the eradication of gender inequality and gender abuse and the empowerment of women at all levels of South African society. This principle is enshrined in the country’s constitution and is further legislatively supported by other laws and state organizations. Whilst it may be argued that the new democratic South Africa has made great strides in many spheres, many women, including those who are economically empowered, continue to experience gross oppression and abuse in various spheres of their lives, especially within the domestic context. The aim of this research is to investigate and identify whether support groups, fundamental to eradicating gender inequality and to the empowerment of women, have been established in Pietermaritzburg and to assess the extent of their efficacy and success. Whilst the latter is relative and difficult to measure, the effect that the support provided by support groups has had on women, will be used to determine the extent of their success. The research also aims to investigate the role and intervention of the state and its related machinery in the functioning of and provision of services to these support groups. The research is conducted using mainly qualitative analyses and methodology. Inquiry is made from a wide spectrum of sources relevant to support groups in order to establish credible conclusions. This approach is undertaken mainly within a feminist poststructuralist theoretical framework as it supports the complex, multi-faceted experiences and contexts of South African women whilst transcending the confines and limitations of mainstream feminism. Post-structuralism critically analyses the ways in which power relations are structured and maintained through legitimate functioning which also enables the control of people over others. Whilst a feminist poststructuralist framework enables understanding of the constructs of support groups, discourse around them, as well as possibilities for change in women and their lives, it also provides for discourse around how social power is exercised, in the context of this research, within the groups themselves and more significantly, by the state. The concept of intersectionality will also be applied in the analysis of how different groups seem to construct their identities and services rendered. Intersectionality is a feminist theoretical framework which examines how race, gender, class, ethnicity and other social divisions intersect in the discrimination of women. Furthermore, intersectionality will be used to explain how differences amongst women and groups may be transcended to construct solidarity mobilisation for transformation.
The many faces of Cleopatra : from propaganda to myth.
(2003) Hardman, Naomi Susan.; Lambert, Michael.
Few women of antiquity have gripped the public imagination as Cleopatra has. For centuries, she has inspired playwrights, poets, artists and film-makers, with the result that she and Antony are arguably history's most famous lovers. However, I have not yet encountered a study which discusses, in one work, the multiple constructions of Cleopatra across the range of genres in which she has been represented. Certainly, many books and articles are devoted to revealing how Cleopatra has been constructed in one or other specific genre, but it seems as though no attempts have been made to portray, in juxtaposition to one another, the many faces of Cleopatra. This dissertation seeks to do just that. Although I could not possibly include a discussion ofevery genre in which Cleopatra has been constructed, I have chosen six areas for study: ancient Greek biography (using Plutarch's Life ofAntony); the poetry of the Augustan poets: Vergil (the Aeneid), Horace (Ode 1.37) and Propertius (Elegies 3.11); Shakespearean tragedy (Antony and Cleopatra); art (numismatics and ancient sculpture); film (Joseph Mankiewicz's Cleopatra), and, briefly, Africanist historiography. I have chosen these areas because each offers such diverse constructions of Cleopatra that one begins to appreciate how historiography, propaganda and representation have contributed to the shaping ofthe Cleopatra myth, coloured by the ideology ofthe age in which she has been interpreted afresh. Current Africanist appropriations ofCleopatra suggest that historiography is never neutral: race and gender often intersect to create 'historical' identities.
Voices form the margins : an analysis of the cultural politics of E.M. Forster's fiction.
(2002) Linscott, James Alfred.; Lambert, Michael.; Arnott, Jill Margaret.
This thesis seeks to offer an explicitly political reading of E.M. Forster's fiction, focusing on three of his novels (A Room with a View, Howards End and Maurice) and two of his short stories ("The Life to Come" and "The Other Boat"). Throughout I have used a combination of close reading techniques and elements of critical theory to show how Forster's fiction is characterised by a prolonged and ongoing analysis of the political notion of the intersection of mainstream and marginal cultures. In this regard, I argue that the majority of Forster's novels and short stories are concerned with issues surrounding characters who are somehow marginalised from mainstream power structures and who then have to rebel against the cultural centre in their personal quests for political autonomy. It is this cultural issue, I argue, that gives Forster's novels and short stories their thematic unity and continuity. In probing this theme, I hope to move beyond restrictive (and often reductive) liberal humanist styles of criticism, which tend to downplay the political implications of Forster's fiction by fore grounding only the metaphysical questions posed by his writing. However, this thesis is also informed by certain deconstructive theoretical concepts, which I have loosely drawn upon in tracing the development of this theme. In particular, I argue throughout that the oppositional quality of the novels and short stories identified by the liberal humanist critics is only truly evident in the early novels, such as A Room with a View. In the later novels, I argue, it is evident that Forster had significantly re-evaluated his understanding of the relationship between the dominant culture and its dissident, subordinate subcultural strands, and that he had begun to conceive of the interaction between the two in a vastly more fluid and pluralistic manner than has been acknowledged by earlier critics. In particular, Forster seems to apprehend in the later works the manner in which a subject can be simultaneously both at the centre and the margins of hislher respective cultural system. It is for this reason that I stress that Forster sees the relationship between mainstream and marginal cultures as an intersection rather than an opposition. I also stress throughout this thesis the fact that the mainstream/marginal theme extends beyond issues raised in the novels and short stories and includes the author himself. As a male homosexual living in a sexually repressive society, Forster was himself a marginalised member of society, and this cultural positioning must therefore be seen to infonn the themes raised in his writings. However, as a middle-class male, Forster was himself also an empowered subject, and his writing thus also reflects his own complicity in the power structures he was seeking to subvert. This is particularly evident when one considers the recurrent misogyny his novels and short stories display. In addition, Forster's particular historical positioning as an early twentieth century writer means that his novels resonate with several of the non-literary discourses so prominent in the period, such as feminism and sexology. It is when one considers the manner in which the novels actively engage with these non-literary discourses that the considerable political invective of Forster's writing becomes apparent. In the light of the issues outlined above, I interpret Forster's novels as an attempt on the author's part to vocalise the feelings, hopes and aspirations of those groups somehow marginalised from the dominant culture.
Women's experience, spirituality and theology for liberation and life in contemporary South Africa as expressed through visual arts with a focus on the lives and work of two women artists - Dina Cormick and Bonnie Ntshalintshali.
(2001) Buckenham, Karen Elizabeth.; West, Gerald Oakley.; Lambert, Michael.
Art as an expression of spirituality and theology has the artist as a potential visionary and mediator of the spiritual. All over the world and in South Africa, the visual has been used to illustrate thought patterns, religious themes, religiousity, and to draw people closer to God. However, questions arise about how the visual images depicted by visionaries/artists express social movements, and more deeply, spiritual longings of God for liberation and life. This dissertation explores the question of representation of women's spirituality and theology for liberation and life in contemporary South Africa through visual arts. With a particular look at the lives and work of two women artists of KwaZulu Natal- Dina Cormick and Bonnie Ntshalintshali, I map the interface between religion, art, spirituality and theology, and expressions of reality of those who are dominated people. I look at women's spirituality in South Africa, art as theology, creative expressions as ways to hide and reveal, and at the specific artists in whose lives and work these questions intersect. I argue that visual art is a powerful means of both shaping and expressing spirituality and theology, and if 'read' with attention and discipline, reveals incipient movements of the Spirit.