https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/issue/feedLiterator2024-03-12T09:59:23+01:00AOSIS Publishingsubmissions@literator.org.zaOpen Journal Systems<a id="readmorebanner" href="/index.php/literator/pages/view/journal-information" target="_self">Read more</a> <img style="padding-top: 2px;" src="/public/web_banner.svg" alt="" />https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2022Reading water in The Little Karoo2024-03-12T09:59:23+01:00Myrtle J. Hoopermyrtle.hooper@gmail.comIsabel B. Rawlinsrawlinsi@unizulu.ac.za<p>Bordered by the Swartberg mountain range to the north and the Cape Fold Mountains to the south, the semi-desert region and its people inspired Pauline Smith’s eponymous collection of stories, <em>The Little Karoo</em> (<a href="file:///C:/Users/nqobile/AppData/Local/Temp/MicrosoftEdgeDownloads/d54379fb-b9b3-49d0-830e-710d9b130bd7/2022-15142-1-PB.html#CIT0028_2022">1925</a>). Earlier critics have argued that, in Smith’s stories, the region’s geographical boundaries (as well as her use of Afrikaans-inflected language) ‘confine’ and ‘restrict’ the world of its characters. Informed by the precepts of ecocriticism, this paper provides a fresh take on Smith’s stories of the Karoo, close to a century after their first publication. Our intention is to ‘read for water’ after Isabel Hoffman, Sarah Nuttall and Charne Lavery, as the motility of the streams and rivers that flow in and through this arid landscape challenges the fixity and enclosure the earlier critics read into her work. Drawing on Hubert Zapf’s conception of literature as ‘cultural ecology’, we are interested in the ‘energetic processes’ of water in the stories, and the ‘ecological space’ in which it makes its impact. Rather than reading water as being at the behest of humans, we seek to recognise the valency it is given in the stories, and in this light to explore the impacts of its presence, its actions, and its absence.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> This article adds to the emerging field of ecocriticism in South Africa by exploring the literary valency given to water in Pauline Smith’s stories of the Karoo.</p>2024-03-11T16:16:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Myrtle J. Hooper, Isabel B. Rawlinshttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2016First-year English Additional Language students’ insight and attitudes on blended learning methods in academic writing2024-03-12T09:59:23+01:00Fabian A.W. Meyersangelo22.meyers@gmail.comCornelia Smithsmithcga@tut.ac.zaMadoda Cekisocekisomp@tut.ac.za<p>Teachers in the current digital era are required to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in their daily teaching and must replace their traditional methods with modern tools and facilities. This is because ICT provides a dynamic and proactive teaching and learning environment. Consequently, the current study sought to establish how English First Additional Language (EFAL) Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college first-year students understood face-to-face instruction and blended learning (BL) environments for academic writing. The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was followed. Twelve purposively selected first-year students were involved in semi-structured interviews as part of data collection. In this study constructivism was used as theoretical framework with reference to BL and academic writing. The findings of the study revealed that most students were in favour of the face-to-face learning mode because of its advantages in their learning context. Those who were not in favour of BL posited that it had the potential to facilitate inequality among students as it was likely to benefit only those who could afford to buy data. The findings further revealed that participants believed that the combination of both face-to-face and online learning modes may be conducive to the context of learning academic writing. They contend that the two types of learning are inextricably linked.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> The study may contribute to knowledge on the measures that TVET institutions and other tertiary institutions can develop and implement academic writing practices and BL practices to aid the success of EFAL first-year students. The study was an attempt to provide feedback to academia on the current perspectives and experiences of first-year ESL students at TVET colleges to distinguish areas of limitations with reference to valuable teaching and learning, academic writing and BL practices that compromise quality.</p>2024-03-11T15:03:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Fabian A.W. Meyers, Cornelia Smith, Madoda Cekisohttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1970Vilifying apartheid perpetrators through narrative devices2024-03-01T13:53:36+01:00Dzunisani Sibuyisibuyd@unisa.ac.za<p>Mandla Langa’s debut novel, <em>Tenderness of Blood</em>, received no critical review compared with his later works of fiction. To close this gap, I will provide critical analysis focussing on Langa’s use of narrative devices that function to generate meaning focussed on specific issues, themes, and topics vilifying apartheid perpetrators, which has been interpreted as Langa’s chosen means of overthrowing apartheid. These devices will be drawn from Gérard Genette’s <em>Narrative Discourse</em> and <em>Narrative Discourse Revisited</em> along with Mikhail Bakhtin’s narrative theories of the <em>Dialogic Imagination</em>. This entails narrational strategies of the extradiegetic and intradiegetic, respectively, deployed by the anonymous third-person narrator and Mkhonto, the protagonist. These strategies render the text as a multi-voiced polyphonic narrative that aims to accentuate the plight of Mkhonto in his opposition to South Africa’s apartheid injustices from two different and complementary narrative perspectives. In addition to the narrational strategies, there is an employment of devices such as times of narration in simultaneous, subsequent, and interpolated narration, which enable the situating of the story in time of its ‘presentness’ and moments of the action.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> This article highlights the plight of, and challenges experienced by the characters, and is helpful in generating sympathy for the events, especially for Mkhonto and his people in the struggle to overthrow apartheid.</p>2024-02-29T08:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Dzunisani Sibuyihttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1980Exploring intellectualisation of South African indigenous languages for academic purposes2024-03-01T13:53:36+01:00Matefu L. Mabelamabelaml@tut.ac.zaThabo DitseleDitseleT@tut.ac.za<p>Language represents an individual’s identity in many respects. It is a natural ability of any average person that they use to express thoughts and ideas, investigate their traditions and experiences, and better their community and the laws that govern it. The ability to choose the official language was acknowledged in the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution acknowledges that indigenous languages are a commodity which has not been fully used. By studying the difficulties of intellectualising indigenous languages in modern South Africa, this research aims to promote the usage and enhance the prestige of indigenous languages. The challenge in basic education in South Africa is that South African indigenous languages are not prioritised. Moreover, there appears to be a disconnection between language policy and implementation.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> A document analysis was undertaken to review literature on the possibility of intellectualising South African indigenous languages by considering various theories and methods of terminology development, including interborrowing within South African indigenous languages and adaptation of some English and Afrikaans words as already entrenched languages in education.</p>2024-02-29T08:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Matefu L. Mabela, Thabo Ditselehttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2020Nicknames among Swati clans: A socio-cultural analysis2024-03-01T13:53:36+01:00Muzi MatfunjwaMuzi.Matfunjwa@nwu.ac.zaRespect MlamboRespect.Mlambo@nwu.ac.zaNomsa SkosanaNomsa.Skosana@nwu.ac.za<p>Nicknames are common in African societies. In Swati families, the use of nicknames is widespread and almost every member of a family possesses one. The nicknames are given to people in addition to their personal names from a young age until adulthood. This paper aims to explore nicknames bestowed on people within Swati families. This study is qualitative and adopts a socio-onomastic approach. The researchers used participant observation to collect data to gain insight into how nicknames are bestowed on family members and to establish their meanings. A total of 51 nicknames were collected and analysed. It was established that nicknames are given based on the socio-cultural traits of the family and society. It was also ascertained that nicknames are derived from an individual’s character, physical appearance, prominent people’s names, remarkable events, and short forms of personal names. Some nicknames are meaningful while others are meaningless. They are used as informal identities within the family setting and in the community.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> This study contributes to the body of knowledge in Siswati onomastics, specifically Swati nicknames. It reveals how nicknames are formed and bestowed on nickname bearers within clan or family settings. The study also reveals cultural nuances associated with nicknames given in Swati families.</p>2024-02-29T07:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Muzi Matfunjwa, Respect Mlambo, Nomsa Skosanahttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2007The use of technology to preserve indigenous languages of South Africa2024-03-01T13:53:36+01:00Respect MlamboRespect.Mlambo@nwu.ac.zaMuzi MatfunjwaMuzi.Matfunjwa@nwu.ac.za<p>Indigenous languages in South Africa must be preserved to ensure that they do not lose their identity and become extinct. The four indigenous languages with the fewest speakers among South Africa’s 12 official languages are: Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenḓa and isiNdebele. The preservation of these languages in South Africa has been a long-standing challenge because of various social and economic factors. With the advancement of technology, opportunities have arisen to preserve and promote the use of these languages. Therefore, this study explores various technological strategies that can be used to preserve the South African indigenous languages. These languages can be preserved by making them widely accessible to users through various strategies such as localisation of daily used technology, translation through crowdsourcing, digitisation and archiving. Digital learning tools such as machine translation (MT) and creating online dictionaries can also contribute to preserving these languages. Each of these strategies offers benefits on how technology could be employed effectively and facilitate the preservation of indigenous languages. This study demonstrates the significance of technology in preserving indigenous languages and promoting their use around the world.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> This study fills the practical gap in the use of technology to adequately preserve minority indigenous languages of South Africa, namely, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenḓa and isiNdebele. These languages do not receive much attention in terms of preservation using technology in South Africa. Therefore, the study provides practical technological strategies that need to be implemented to preserve the indigenous minority languages. The insight of this study into the use of technology to preserve South African languages fits well within the scope of <em>Literator</em>, which is to publish studies in linguistics and literature with a special focus on South African languages. This publication will bring solutions to how minority languages could be preserved in the context of South Africa.</p>2024-02-22T06:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Respect Mlambo, Muzi Matfunjwahttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2009Queer African literary communities: The anthology as political genre2024-03-01T13:53:36+01:00Christopher W. Koekemoerchristopher.wayne@hotmail.com<p>The inaugural Gerald Kraak anthology titled <em>Pride and Prejudice (The Gerald Kraak Anthology: African Perspectives on Gender, Social Justice and Sexuality)</em> (2017) is a collection of poetry, fiction, journalism, photography, and scholarly writing that focuses on queer and other marginalised identities in Africa. The individual contributions place the queer cultural outsider at the centre of the text. The power of the anthology’s collective voice challenges normative subjectivity and its practices of exclusion by showcasing the subjects’ joy and suffering, and, through the collectivisation of individual experience, new possibilities arise for a recentred queer subjectivity that challenges imposed normative boundaries. The process of writing is a relatively private activity to explore and express identity and sexuality. In contrast to the privacy of writing is the act of sharing this writing with an audience that witnesses these private and often hidden identities and sexualities. This article focuses on how this anthologised collection of marginalised cultural ‘others’ shifts the borders of what is considered deviant by reading the entries through Judith Butler’s concepts of ‘legibility’, where the outsider is placed at the narrative centre.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> This article contributes to studies on marginality, queer African literature, genre and anthologies.</p><p> </p>2024-02-22T06:00:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Christopher W. Koekemoerhttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2043Erratum: A depiction of Maphalla’s message in his poems: The case of Ke ikopela tokoloho and Mahlo a ka tutuboloha2024-03-01T13:53:36+01:00Ntsoaki T. Mokalanrsoaki.mokala@wits.ac.zaSoyiso G. Khetoasoyiso.khetoa@wits.ac.zaNo abstract available.2024-02-19T11:45:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Ntsoaki T. Mokala, Soyiso G. Khetoahttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2000Rebecca Roanhorse: A mythogothic reading of Harvest2024-02-01T13:02:20+01:00Allyson Kreuiterkreuiad@unisa.ac.za<p>Rebecca Roanhorse’s short story <em>Harvest</em> appeared in the 2019 <em>New Suns: A Collection of Stories by People of Color</em> edited by Nisi Shawl. This story has received little to no critical attention. Roanhorse’s story is marked by its recourse to the figure of Deer Woman, a supernatural being common to many stories from Native American oral tradition. In this article, I will explore how myth and the gothic are melded together within the narrative of this short story in what I term the ‘mythogothic’. I will demonstrate how the mythogothic is integral to the founding of the shadow selves of the Native American protagonist Tansi. It is Roanhorse’s depiction of Tansi and Deer Woman’s killing spree that I will maintain challenges the founding myths of North American colonialism.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> This study contributes to scholarship on the work of author Rebecca Roanhorse and her employment of Native American oral tradition and myth as central to her narratives. It further provides a contribution to Gothic studies in the coining of the term the mythogothic as a tool with which to engage in a critical reading of narratives in which myth acts as a structuring device. Roanhorse’s short story <em>Harvest</em> has received little scholarly attention and using a gothic theoretical approach in conjunction with Native American scholar Gerald Vizenor’s trickster discourse allows for a fresh perspective and critical appreciation of the terror central to the story’s subversion of American colonial myth.</p>2024-01-12T14:28:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2024 Allyson Kreuiterhttps://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2025Places called home2023-12-04T08:43:30+01:00Phil van Schalkwykphil.vanschalkwyk@nwu.ac.zaNo abstract available.2023-11-30T11:05:00+01:00Copyright (c) 2023 Phil van Schalkwyk