Fokalisasie en vertelinstansie in die representasie van gestremdheid in geselekteerde Afrikaanse romans

Abstract

In this dissertation the boundaries between normality and disability are investigated, as well as how these boundaries can be represented and changed through literary works. The purpose of this study is to examine the representation of disabled characters according to the theoretical insights of cognitive narratology. In order to analyse the boundary between normality and disability, this study focuses on focalisation and the narration as narrative techniques. The representation of disabled characters is a well-known phenomenon in literature in general but this dissertation analyses and discusses four novels which have been identified as texts in which the representation of disabled characters plays a significant role. These novels are: Is Sagie (1987) by Jan van Tonder, Raaiselkind (2001) by Annelie Botes, Siegfried (2007) by Willem Anker en Een vir Azazel (1964) by Etienne Leroux. Disablility, as a deviation from normality, is represented in different ways in literature, and has different functions. The theoretical argument is that the investigation and interpretation of the representation of disablilty in literature will provide insight in disability as a social phenomenon, as a literary act and as an act of understanding. Cognitive narratology uses the theoretical concepts of frames and scripts to describe the way in which human perceptions are structured and may even become fossilised in the human mind. Subsequent expreriences and information are therefore determined by existing codes and rules. The understanding or negotiation of new information is based on preferences that evolve from prior knowledge and programming. Cognitive choices are made on the basis of existing frames and scripts and determine whether a concept is new, standard, stereotypical, unusual, indefinite or ambiguous. This study shows how frames and scripts on disability are undermined within the novels and how disability is used as a functional novel element.