Die ontmaskering van diepliggende stemme in sprokies : 'n polifoniese dialoog in Rosemarie Marriott se relaas…

Abstract

In this thesis, I investigate the manner in which the installation works of Rosemarie Marriott’s exhibition relaas... (2010-2011), as exhibited in the main gallery on the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University, can be read and interpreted as a narrative. In my reading and interpretation of Marriott’s works, I concur with Bal’s argument that works of art can be read as texts when the works of art are regarded as narratives. The theoretical grounding for such an investigation lies in Bakhtin’s arguments with regard to the interaction between the author, the protagonist and the reader to determine how Marriott’s exhibition [relaas...] endeavours to involve all readers in a polyphonic dialogue in a Bakhtinian way. Within the scope of the study, Bakhtin’s theorising of the carnivalesque forms the tempero-spatial context in which the equalisation of perspectives can occur. In addition, the Bakhtinian concept of dialogism explains [amongst others] that narratives must be developed from dialogues between jointly entitled conversationalists. Moreover, dialogism is utilised as the descriptive construct and the ideal design according to which the author must organise the narrative. I argue that Marriott, in her design of relaas..., similar to the Bakhtinian carnival, depicts an upside-down world through the grotesque rigmarole of concepts and material like fairy tales, children’s playthings and taxidermy. Like a fairy tale chronotope, relaas... has anthropomorphic animal characters that participate actively in the narrative, put on clothes and can even “talk”. In conclusion, I argue that Marriott uses a complex masque in which she, like in the Bakhtinian masquerade, applies grotesque masks so that readers as participating characters, and as a consequence of Marriott’s design, can unmask deep-seated meaning in fairy tales.